Cycling a shrimp tank....

[Jill]

Oh, let's see....where to begin.

I have been fishless cycling a 6 gallon tank for a little more than a week now. The tank will house RCS, and the RCS will be here on Wednesday. The tank has filter media from an established tank, and I've been dosing it up to 3-4 ppm ammonia every day. As of this morning, ammonia is 0, trites are 2-5 and nitrates are high. I dosed back up to about 3.

Since my shrimp will be here on Wednesday, should I skip dosing tomorrow and just do a major water change? I can not believe this tank isn't ready yet with all of the media I've added...it's driving me nuts! Should I add more established media? I know the shrimp have a tiny bioload so do you think my tank is ready?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

IMO you only need to add 1ppm of ammonia or less even. Shrimp only have very small bioloads so it will be sufficient.

 

[Jill]

Thanks, Mumma. Do you think with a major water change I'll be ready to add them on Wednesday?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Yes as long as ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is as low as possible.

 

[Jill]

Thanks! I'll test it daily for quite a while after I add them to make sure everything stays stable.

 

[Jill]

Shrimp have been in the tank since Wednesday. I've been testing every other day. Friday ammonia was at 0.25 so I did a 60% or so pwc. Nitrites were 0 and nitrates were about 5. This morning I tested and ammonia was between 0.25 and 0.50, nitrites were 0, and nitrates were about 5. I'm preparing to do another pwc.

My question is this:
When I was dosing up to 4 ppm of ammonia every day, the ammonia would be 0 the next day and nitrites and nitrates would be high. I expected to maybe have a problem with nitrites after adding the shrimp but not ammonia. :? Am I missing something? I know those shrimp aren't generating anywhere NEAR 4 ppm of ammonia so why do I have ammonia in the tank?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Good question. Very odd. Do you have ammonia in your tap water?

 

[jetajockey]

They definitely aren't generating 4ppm, most fully stocked tanks don't produce near 4ppm daily. There's a couple reasons why it could be happening, but the most likely explanation to me is that the tank is still getting settled in and the bacteria haven't really gotten established yet, so expecting some kind of regularity out of them is a bit premature.

 

[Jill]

No ammonia in the tap. I guess the bb are just still adjusting. Thanks, guys. I guess I'll just keep on testing and doing pwcs as needed.

 

[Coursair]

Do you have any live plants ? Any Moss or Ferns ? That may help also, plus Shrimp love Moss.

 

[Jill]

Do you have any live plants ? Any Moss or Ferns ? That may help also, plus Shrimp love Moss.

I have xmas moss on a coconut hut in there. I also have some dwarf sag and wisteria in the tank.

Ammonia is between 0 and 0.25 today.