Help - cycling.....

[elliott_001]

I could not get my hands on any raw shrimp, but asked my lfs what to do, they said that i could use some frozen brine shrimp they sell as fish food. So i came home and put 2cubes into my tank.

3days later i have noticed some fungus on the brine shrimp (at the lfs they did warn me to watch out for this). It's a white coloured fury fungus, i am guessing i should remove it immediately? but now what should i do? how will cycling be able to continue now? what should i do next?

I have also done some tests on the water;
PH - 8.5
Ammonia - between 0 - 0.25 mg/l
Nitrate - between 50 - 75mg/l
(i dont have a nitrite test kit)

I have also added some plants and a rock from my brothers tank (hopefully bring along some bacteria with them). And i have treated the water with stress zyme and aqua safe to remove chlorine and metal ions.

 

[iceywater101]

I used aqua safe and had problems with it giving false readings. You may want to change to prime which seemed to work great for me and many others in this fourm. you could also cycle your tank by buying a few hardy fish such as zebra danios. just be patienet it will happen for you. good luck

 

[patagonia]

i fishless cycled my tank with a raw shrimp and had the same white stuff you are talking about...didnt touch it at all...the tank cycled in about 2 weeks...when finished i took the shrimp out...did a big water change and got some fish...dont worry it takes time but it will happen

 

[Jchillin]

I'm a fan of fishless cycling but I can understand the pain of having decomposing food in the tank.

Getting some seeded material is a great idea as this will give it a jump start. If you can, try get some media from his filter (even some sponge squeezings), it will also help.

If you can get your hands on pure ammonia (True Value or Ace Hardware carries it), you can cycle your tank with it. The benefits of using pure ammonia is you can get the level up to 2-4ppm and not have to worry about constant water changes as is the case when cycling with fish.

Yup...you'll definitely need a nitrite and nitrate test kit whichever way you go.

 

[elliott_001]

Cool, sounds better than i thought, i was all set to take it out. I think my brother will be cleaning his filter when he gets back from work today, so he will squeeze the media over my tank, that should help. this could shorten the cycling process by how long? At first i thought "yeah, im in no rush, i'll take my time, i dont mind waiting". But now im somewhat more eager to get going!!
I will perhaps get a nitrite test kit this weekend and see what the results are.

 

[Zagz]

If possible borrow a sponge or some media from your brothers tank and put it in your filter. The lenght of time it will reduce the cycle is variable. I found that using pure ammonia as JC mentioned cycled my tank faster than shrimp. With seeded media and ammonia I did a cycle in 13 days.