Did it Cycle???

[kube]

Hello Again,
Ok so the question is i have live sand, live rock(shipped from this site) and i put a raw shrimp in there, for about 3 days, the ammonia went up to to .5 stayed there for 3 days and went back down to zero, the nitrites never went up at all that i noticed, was only watching the ammonia really, i also have zero nitrates, so could this thing have cycled that fast?? should i through another shrimp i there and see what happens??? this is all in a 55 gallon tank if that matters

thanks
Kube

 

[myreef05]

It can take up tp 4-6 weeks to get an effective cycle; so the answer to your question is NO. It did not cycle fully. if you were to add anything now it would cause a spike.
I would suggest the shrimp again and leave it in there until it starts to get fuzzy then take it out.

 

[essop3]

If you added enough live rock, that didn't have a lot of die-off, it could have handled the bioload of the shrimp. To be safe add another shrimp and let it decay all the way. If you are cycled you won't see any ammonia. If ammonia is detected then you've at least got the cycle started.
A few days wait is worth not potentially wasting money & fishy lives.