How Long to keep Dead Shrimp in for Cycle?
- Thread starter derwood
- Start date
T
thomas712
Guest
Jugger - Many feel that using a piece of raw shrimp will do just as well to start the cycle, as using live animals. Many feel that it is just more humane that way. It serves to prevent any fish from being stressed out and getting ick or other illnesses while cycling the tank. The shrimp starts the cycle by breaking down into ammonia. I personally started my 90 this way and didn't add anything live for nearly 2 months. I used a very large prawn, which worked great, but I should have placed it in a micron bag or nylon because once it breaks apart it is a pain to clean.
Thomas
Thomas
jlem
Active Member
You can throw in a small bag of carbon to combat the smell and it won't slow down your cycle.
Putting in cured live rock will basically give you an instantly cycled tank. Granted you may have a very small ammonia spike from some minor die off. But that will drop quickly because the rock will be saturated with beneficial bacteria already. You will of course want to test the tank before adding in livestock and add very slowly to let the rock catch up to the increasing bioload. Uncured rock will produce a huge ammonia spike that will cycle the tank just as well as shrimp. By adding shrimp to a tank with live rock you are just extending the cycle since the rock is cycled already from being in the holding tank or ocean. Now if you plan to dump a bunch of fish, corals, and other live stock as soon as your tank is done cycling then you could use the shrimp to supersaturate your rock with beneficial bacteria, but then you run into all kinds of different problems.
Putting in cured live rock will basically give you an instantly cycled tank. Granted you may have a very small ammonia spike from some minor die off. But that will drop quickly because the rock will be saturated with beneficial bacteria already. You will of course want to test the tank before adding in livestock and add very slowly to let the rock catch up to the increasing bioload. Uncured rock will produce a huge ammonia spike that will cycle the tank just as well as shrimp. By adding shrimp to a tank with live rock you are just extending the cycle since the rock is cycled already from being in the holding tank or ocean. Now if you plan to dump a bunch of fish, corals, and other live stock as soon as your tank is done cycling then you could use the shrimp to supersaturate your rock with beneficial bacteria, but then you run into all kinds of different problems.
me-n-my-fish
Member
I left mr shrimpy in there. I though about takin him out, but when i moved him he just kinda busted all over the place. Then he was just gone. It made my tank cycle very good. IMO i would rather use a shrimp instead of a live fish. Ya, the damsel might make it, but he would be REAL unhappy for that month.
just my 2 cents
just my 2 cents
jugger
Member
Wow you guys that was all very good information…thank you…but now I have to many options and don’t know where to start….
I have a small 20 gallon that was running with just equipment and saltwater for a week..on the 30th I had 45 lbs of live rock (cured) 2nd day shipped….during lunch I took it straight home and put it into the tank… it smelt very nice just like clean ocean no bad smell at all…btw it was very nice looking lots of coralline growth and some interesting animals still alive but I don’t know what they are exactly…. And I only paid $99 for 45 lbs…didn’t expect such nice rock…. Anyway I also bought 30 lbs of argonite sand but haven’t added it yet…I was waiting until after the cycle….not sure if this is the right sequence…. Its been 24 hours since I added the rock and I haven’t had a chance to test the water yet….
I guess my question is should I add the sand now??? Or after the cycle???
If all the levels are fine today after I check would it be safe to say that there was little die off and the tank doesn’t need to cycle…or should I put in dead shrimp to make a cycle happen???
I have a small 20 gallon that was running with just equipment and saltwater for a week..on the 30th I had 45 lbs of live rock (cured) 2nd day shipped….during lunch I took it straight home and put it into the tank… it smelt very nice just like clean ocean no bad smell at all…btw it was very nice looking lots of coralline growth and some interesting animals still alive but I don’t know what they are exactly…. And I only paid $99 for 45 lbs…didn’t expect such nice rock…. Anyway I also bought 30 lbs of argonite sand but haven’t added it yet…I was waiting until after the cycle….not sure if this is the right sequence…. Its been 24 hours since I added the rock and I haven’t had a chance to test the water yet….
I guess my question is should I add the sand now??? Or after the cycle???
If all the levels are fine today after I check would it be safe to say that there was little die off and the tank doesn’t need to cycle…or should I put in dead shrimp to make a cycle happen???
justchillin
Member
i left mine and let them decompose in the tank...the reason being that i figured not only would the initial ammonia spike start the cycle but the continued decomposition would continue to feed the expanding bacterial life. that way when i started adding fish it wouldn't be to much for my bio-filtration....anyways i could have been way off, and it may not have mattered either way, but i got no spikes after adding my first fish..
hth,
mike
hth,
mike
david s
Member
hmm just a thought here guys as far as cycled rock no cycle I think a good high amonia count then high nitrite count in the long run will help your sand bed bacteria. so maybe tryng to setup a quick cycle tank may take longer to actually be stable.
any input here would be great lets dicuss this hehe ( no flameing lol)
any input here would be great lets dicuss this hehe ( no flameing lol)
