AdamHorton
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Hi, I had posted a follow-up question in another thread about this but didn't get any response. Here's the thread: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f14/cycling-a-tank-with-live-rock-question-121932.html I'll re-post the relevant stuff here:
I'm doing a fishless cycle in my 150G SW tank with 30G sump/refuge. I'm using 250lbs LR for my filtration. 2.5 weeks ago (Sunday, October 18; 19 days ago) I added the water to the tank and turned on the plumbing. I had spent the previous week soaking the LR in RO/DI water and trying to kill off everything that was on it previously. I added 4 raw shrimps to the tank to serve as the ammonia source.
Last weekend, after two weeks I had seen no readings of any kind: ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate were all zero. The shrimps I had put in looked pink but they had not even started to rot or decompose or anything. I put four more shrimp in but even now still zero on all readings and no sign of decomposing shrimp. I don't know why the cycle isn't starting...
I was thinking about stopping by the store and buying some pure ammonia to dose the tank with. I realize this is more difficult than using shrimps but maybe this will actually work? Is this the right course of action to take? How much ammonia should I dose?
I'm doing a fishless cycle in my 150G SW tank with 30G sump/refuge. I'm using 250lbs LR for my filtration. 2.5 weeks ago (Sunday, October 18; 19 days ago) I added the water to the tank and turned on the plumbing. I had spent the previous week soaking the LR in RO/DI water and trying to kill off everything that was on it previously. I added 4 raw shrimps to the tank to serve as the ammonia source.
Last weekend, after two weeks I had seen no readings of any kind: ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate were all zero. The shrimps I had put in looked pink but they had not even started to rot or decompose or anything. I put four more shrimp in but even now still zero on all readings and no sign of decomposing shrimp. I don't know why the cycle isn't starting...
I was thinking about stopping by the store and buying some pure ammonia to dose the tank with. I realize this is more difficult than using shrimps but maybe this will actually work? Is this the right course of action to take? How much ammonia should I dose?