cycling questions...it begins

[crage34]

well today i just put half of a huge shrimp in my 30 gal...3 hours later i tested and ammonia:0(maybe 0.1 but its hard to tell) NitrAte:0(didnt see any color) NitrIte:0(same as Nitrate) the ammonia was hard for me to tell if it was detecting anything or not...(first time testing) i have a few questions
1. how will i know when my cycle has began?
2. how often should i test?
3. do i have to test all 3 at the same time or do i just test ammonia for now? and then test the others farther into the cycle?

Im a complete newbie so be detailed with me thanks alot guys...im so excited that im finally on my way with the cycle...any advice would be great!

 

[Atari]

There's no need to test anything right now as the shrimp probably hasn't even begun rotting yet.

In a few days you can start testing ammonia.

You'll find the ammonia will get quite high and start to drop... this is when the nitrite levels are starting to go up... eventually the nitrite will peak also and drop... so you get nitrates... when both ammonia and nitrite are zero your cycle is finished and you do a big water change to bring the nitrates down to a reasonable level.

You don't need to test more than once a day and even that is too often.

 

[crage34]

ok that really clears up the cycling process for me atari thank u very much ...so for now i only need to test ammonia before i test anything else.... then when it starts to drop i will start testing nitrite.....i will wait a couple of days before i test again or until i see a noticable difference in the shrimp

 

[crage34]

what is a resonable level for nitrates?

 

[darb2]

below 10