Fishless cycling in 20 days !!! wohoooooooo

[swanandmokashi]

I can't believe it. My tank cycled in 20 days. I think having that jungle of plants helped.

I got 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite and 40 NitrAte reading yesterday. Changed about 80 % of water and after few hours went to the LFS to get some yo-yo s. But didn't find any

Finally got 5 ghost shrimps and now I have a 29 gallon fully cycled tank with just 5 ghost shrimps

 

[JohnPaul]

Great! Now keep in mind that since you have all those bacteria ready to go, they still need ammonia to keep on living! And 5 ghost shrimp arent' gonna generate enough ammonia to keep those bacteria alive. So I would either be sure to get some fish soon, or else continue with small doses of household ammonia (or whatever you were using to cycle) until you get some fish in there.

Congrats on the cycle! 20 days is awesome time.

 

[swanandmokashi]

that was going to be my next question : will adding little ammonia hurt the shrimp ?

 

[FancyGuppyGuy]

well you might consider added 1-2 drops every 4-6 hours this way the amount wont be to high and the bacteria will have time to get rid of it. I would consider getting a few fish in there ASAP.

 

[JohnPaul]

FWIW, in the course of re-cycling my tank, I have had ammonia levels regularly as high as 1 ppm and on occasion somewhere between 1 and 2 ppm, and none of my ghost shrimp have seemed to be bothered.