yeah the shrimp triggered my cycle but wow does it stink!

[laurandavid]

8O Ok shrimp has been in the tank for about 36 hours, ammonia is at 1.0, nitrite at .25 and nitrate at 10.

My ph dropped from 8.2 to 8.0 should I worry about that at this point ?? How do I get it back to 8.2 for two weeks it was at 8.2

I have to add the shrimp stinks to high heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BLAH. I put a candle right above the tank and as long as the candle is buring you cant smell it. I dont think I will every be able to eat shrimp again

 

[mike3epanda]

haha... nice... had same problem with smell.. I put two in my tank so I took the other one out.. and ran my skimmer ( not recommending this because this is bad for your cycle) so I just bought bio-spira to finish off the stinky shrimp..(again I'm not saying this is the best way but it finished my cycle faster and got rid of the smell) as for your ph, you dont have to worry abou that until your cycle is finished and you have done your 33% PWC, then you can worry about that

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Re: yeah the shrimp triggered my cycle but wow does it stink

My ph dropped from 8.2 to 8.0 should I worry about that at this point ?? How do I get it back to 8.2 for two weeks it was at 8.2

Don't worry about the pH as it will shift on you during the cycle. One thing to note for the future though is that pH will shift during the day. It'll be at it's lowest at the beginning of your light cycle (normally in the morning) and be at it's highest at the end of your light cycle in the evening. Don't be surprised if it shifts 0.1 to 0.2 between morning and night. That's a good reason to take your pH readings (or any test readings for that matter) at a consistent time during the day. I do mine right after the lights go out.

But again, don't worry about your pH now. PWCs at the end of the cycle will get it back to where you want it. Glad to hear Mr. Stinky Shrimp is doing its job. If your ammonia hits 3.0ppm before it starts to decrease, you can probably take the shrimp out. At that point you'll have enough ammonia in there to do the job.

 

[laurandavid]

well at least others have endured the stinky shrimp!! Today it smells so bad I gagged when I opened the tank to do my tests.

Todays numbers:
Ammonia went off richter scale........4.0

nitrites are at 1.0

nitrates at 10

Today one peice of my live rock has quite a bit of rust colored "stuff" all over it , nothing on the sand and nothing on the other peices of rock, I had quite a sand storm in my tank but in the past two days it is clearing very well so I can get a really good look at the rock.

I put one and a half big raw shrimp in the tank , I read again and see many people use coctail size , OMG I used godzilla sized 8O no wonder it stinks and no wonder my ammonia flew off the richter scale!!!!!!!!!

 

[melosu58]

You might want to go ahead and remove the shrimp if they are still in there since you put the large ones in there. If the ammonia gets any higher you might want to do a 15-20% PWC. The rust colored stuff is diatoms and will eventually go away. It looks like your tank cycle is on the way. And yes like Kurt said dont worry about the PH at the moment.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Definitely take as much of the shrimp out as you can. There's no harm in leaving it in there, but from my experience, higher ammonia levels will do nothing except make your cycle go longer. You've got enough ammonia in there now to give yourself a very nice cycle.

After the ammonia and nitrites are back to zero, some trochus or astrea snails will take care of those diatoms nicely. Maybe a dozen to start with?