Cycle questions

[colie]

So I've been cycling in the craziest way poss and trying to figure out if I'm good or stalled.
I received 70lbs "live rock" which had been sitting dry for 12-24 hours before I picked it up so I don't know how live it was but I cured it probably for two months without testing weekly. The highest ammonia spike I saw was .50-1.0 and 0 nitrate during this process. About 20 days ago I filled 65 gallon with new sand, a couple cups of established sand from my 100g, the rock and 20 gallons of rock water with 0 readings of anything 40 gallons of new saltwater. I dumped in two raw shrimp early august which have disintegrated and never got any nitrates and the highest my ammonia was is .50-1.0.

Should I add more ammonia? Or am I good?

 

[Deadna]

What's your nitrite/nitrate?

 

[colie]

Nitrate 0, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, ph 8.0

 

[Deadna]

Well, IMO, I would add more ammonia sourcing. You really can't have too much bacteria. Are you doing water changes? And how large?

 

[Dtorre125]

Have you seen any other indications of cycle process like diatoms or any algae?

 

[colie]

I haven't changed any water but I have been topping it off. Should I add more raw shrimp or ghost feed? I also have silversides I could put in, but I don't have any ammonia on hand.

 

[colie]

No diatoms or algae yet

 

[Dtorre125]

If I were you I would wait as patiently as I could and continue to test your water until you are confident parameters are in check and stable.

 

[colie]

I'm fine with patience I just don't want it to be stalled. When people use raw shrimp do they keep adding or just let it de compose? And should I worry that nitrates haven't risen? How long to wait?

 

[Andy Sager]

If your bacteria bed is still alive, you should see practically no change in ammonia or nitrite after adding any ammonia source whether it be food or dead fish or shrimp. Usually, it takes about 3- 5 days ( depending on the size of the tank and amount of ammonia source) for ammonia to start showing up from disintegrating meat. If you go that route, I would check ammonia daily after introduction for the next 5-7 or 8 days and if there is no spike in ammonia, you can safely assume that your bacteria bed is functional and ready for livestock. Just make sure you don't over add stock at one time.
If you see a rise in ammonia, continue to monitor until the ammonia goes back to 0 and start checking nitrites once the ammonia starts to fall. Once both ammonia and nitrites have returned to 0, you can start adding more stock. Keep in mind that the bacteria bed is a living "organism" that increases and decreases in size with the amount of ammonia present. Once the nitrites have returned to 0, don;t wait too long to add more life to the tank to keep the bacteria bed going.

Hope this helps

 

[colie]

Thank you