Fishless cycling of tank with raw shrimp

[cj11]

I have started cycling my tank with raw shrimp. I have a 75 gallon tank set up with 50lbs of live rock and sand substrate(tathiti moon). I have a powerhead rated at 1600 gph. I put 2 pieces of raw shrimp in a container in the bottom of my tank and they have started to decay but I have no ammonia in the tank and no nitrite. The live rock I bought from the local pet store and was in his tanks so I am guessing it is fully cured as it was only out of water for 20 mins at the most while I transported home. I am in no rush to hurry this tank along as I want to do this right. Just wondering if there is a chance this tank cycled that quickly? More importantly am I doing this process right?

 

[tonysi]

You are doing good so far. Live rock will have die off even after one minute out of water. Just give it time, the spike will come.

 

[geridoc]

You may see only a very small spike (occasionally, none at all) if the lr was heavily populated with bacteria. It is the same principle we use when we keep a small filter pad in the sump of the dt, then transfer it to a qt when we begin to quarantine a new fish. The bacteria on the pad produce an "instant cycle".

 

[jay0705]

Usually you will get atleast a small spike, but if there is enough bacteria on your lr it can neutralize the ammonia.I get heavily covered lr from a lfs and in my newest tank I never saw it spike.

 

[cj11]

Thanks for the advice guys, I checked my levels today and ammonia and nitrite is still at zero, nitrates about 15-20.

 

[geridoc]

If you have nitrates but no ammonia then the tank is cycled. You can add fish gradually.

 

[Skinr1]

could someone explain this hole cycling with raw shrimp thing . and its concept . sorry for the silly questions its just that I have always done my tanks the old school ways and im trying to learn about all the new ways , thanks

 

[geridoc]

The whole goal of cycling is to provide ammonia to nourish nitrosomonas bacteria, who consume ammonia and convert it into nitrites (which are also toxic to fish). However, nitrates are consumed by another bacterial strain (nitrobacter), and converted into nitrates, which are far less toxic. So the process is to provide a source of ammonia (you can add ammonia directly, ghost feed the tank or just suspend a rotting piece of shrimp in the tank. As the ammonia levels rise the bacterial colonies expand since there is plenty of food. Eventually you will have enough bacteria to consume the ammonia that is directly excreted by the fish in their urine. In the ocean ammonia excretion is no problem since there is infinite dilution, but in a tank the levels can quickly rise to fatal levels, so we cycle the tank to get the necessary bacteria to protect the fish. And don't apologize for "silly questions". The only silly questions are the ones you don't ask!

 

[Skinr1]

see I have never heard of this before . when I started keeping tanks back in the 70's it was always cycle with damsel fish that was it they were cheap and hearty back in those days . and if you had lose oh well they were a $1.50 some of you guys got some killer set ups me I just keep it old school simple .
set the tank up , cycle it . keep it hearty and that's it
don't mess with all the wild chemicals any of that
that's the way I have always done it . just recently I had a bad algae bloom , which just recently is the first time I ever heard of or even owned or used a UV sterilizer . so I really appreciate the answers im learning so much new stuff here .

 

[geridoc]

Don;t worry about old school. I set up my first tank in 1972 using an AquaKing HOB and undergravel filtration. Wet/dry filtration was state of the art to me. I still use wet/dry, but have added algae turf scrubbing because it makes sense to me as a biologist. Fish will tolerate a lot, but it does get trickier when you move to corals and inverts.

 

[Skinr1]

honestly , even with my old school ways I really never had many problems with inverts so to speak , I was very successful with sea horses etc , I have had my share of lose when it comes to fish etc over the years who hasn't ?
however no way I would ever attempt a reef tank , I just don't have the time let alone the $$$ for the upkeep so I just stick to Fish and rock , but yeah I remember those days with the under gravel ,etc ....... when I first got a wet dry as a gift I was blown away by it ....I was like what I don't need an undegravel anymore huh ??
oh yeah that was seriously state of the art when I got 1 myself . I just got my firstt UV sterilizer and now own 2 13 watt submersibles ,
up until a mo ago I never even heard of them let alone owned 1 , I mean I saw them in stores but I would just walk by oblivious to what they were or even did .
so yeah im learning some new cool stuff here