how many table shrimp does it take to cycle a brand new 220 gal. tank

[john & sherri]

My Daughter & Son-in-Law are starting their first saltwater tank, Is their a calculation to determine how many shrimp that it would take to cycle out their 220 gal. tank, On our first tank we didn't know any better & we used Damsels per LFS instructions, BUT since then we used a couple of table Shrimps from the Grocery Store & it did fine, Any help would be apprieciated...................Thanks, John & Sherri

 

[mproctor4]

I used one medium size shrimp in my 120 gallon. I left it in about 4 days and the tank cycled in 2 1/2 weeks.

 

[john & sherri]

Thanks, In your opinion do you think a few more could be used in hopes to speed up the process or would that be pushing it, Our tanks 75, 47, & 30 gal. tanks took about 1 week to cycle.........???????????

 

[mproctor4]

Personally I don't think it would really make much difference to add much more. I might put 2 in just because it is such a large tank and the shrimp are cheap. My husband used one shrimp in this 29gallon biocube and it cycled in the same amount of time as the 120g. The guy at the grocery store thought I was nuts getting one shrimp. LOL
Wow....a week is really fast...I thought ours went quick. You must have alot of live rock/live sand.

 

[john & sherri]

LoL, I bet he did look at cha funny, I mean how often does someone buy jus one, We get ours from Publix & they usually jus wrap it & give it 2 us, Thanks again for the info, Hope ya'll have a great day.

 

[florida joe]

You bring up a very interesting situation. When starting your initial cycle IMO the size of your tank MUST be factored in. if you have a large volume such as yours you need to introduce organic breakdown in sufficient quantity to be able to read a spike in ammonia and nitrites. To little breakdown can cause the ammonia to be diluted to the point where you have difficulty with the home test kit recognizing the spike and you wait and wait for it. I would add at least three shrimp and monitor when you see a spike remove one and continue to monitor when you see nitrites remove another and wait until you can no longer read ammonia or nitrites. And you are ready for a cuc

 

[saxman]

this is what we used to start the cycle on our 100 gal (+ sump) setup (those are chunks of seafood in the bag). the NH3 Alert tag tells us when the tank spikes:

 

[florida joe]

Originally Posted by saxman
http:///forum/post/3255949
this is what we used to start the cycle on our 100 gal (+ sump) setup (those are chunks of seafood in the bag). the NH3 Alert tag tells us when the tank spikes:

great idea using the bag ( placing it in a good flow area can only help ) btw i an not much of a gadget person but i also have used the NH3 alert tag on many occasions

 

[beaslbob]

None?

(or at least the minimum anyway).
What I do is start the tank with plenty of plant life like macro or even corralin algae, then use a few male mollys to add a small bioload. And don't add food for a week. The only parameter spike I get is an initial bump up in nitrates which drops down once the aerobic bacteria build up.
What happens is the algae prefer to consume the ammonia directly which prevents the ammonia, nitrItes spikes. But while consuming ammonia they also reduce consuming nitrates, hence the initial nitrate spike.
my .02

 

[saxman]

what you're likely doing is starting a tank with cycled material (you mentioned coralline, so i assume it's on the LR)...a "raw" tank needs the NH3 and N02 spikes for the bacterial population to grow. there's no way you can go from nothing to NO3...the nitrogen cycle doesn't work that way.
as for plants, we run them in almost every setup we have, but typically don't add them until the end of the cycle, because as you mentioned, the plants utilize NH3 first, and zero NH3 is counterproductive to the cycling process.

 

[bang guy]

A constant low level of ammonia will work just fine. I don't believe an ammonia spike is neccessary nor beneficial when cycling. As long as some amount of ammonia is present then there's enough to grow bacteria. I haven't purposely spiked ammonia to cycle in over 20 years.

 

[florida joe]

a low level of ammonia is fine my only concern is when a new hobbyist is looking for an ammonia spike and the dilution factor does not allow him to test with the kits available. in that case he or she waits and waits
None?
well i do use ones that take rechargeable battery's

The only parameter spike I get is an initial bump up in nitrates which drops down once the aerobic bacteria build up.
Oh my do we have a Fo Pa

( i don't ever know what that means) do you mean anaerobic bacteria build up

 

[beaslbob]

Originally Posted by florida joe
http:///forum/post/3256018
a low level of ammonia is fine my only concern is when a new hobbyist is looking for an ammonia spike and the dilution factor does not allow him to test with the kits available. in that case he or she waits and waits well i do use ones that take rechargeable battery's
none
Oh my do we have a Fo Pa

( i don't ever know what that means) do you mean anaerobic bacteria build up
nope written correctly.
as the aerobic bacteria build up consuming the ammonia, the plant life is forced to consume more and more nitrates to get their nitrogen.
If I remeber correctly from 8th grade spelling extra credit word of the week

[hr]
faux pas.
my too sents

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by beaslbob
http:///forum/post/3256020
my too sents
You mean scents

 

[beaslbob]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
http:///forum/post/3256033
You mean scents
no
This was an outlyer not a mean scent.

 

[saxman]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
http:///forum/post/3256016
A constant low level of ammonia will work just fine. I don't believe an ammonia spike is neccessary nor beneficial when cycling. As long as some amount of ammonia is present then there's enough to grow bacteria. I haven't purposely spiked ammonia to cycle in over 20 years.
if one begins with ZERO NH3, any rise in NH3 would be considered a spike initially, ne c'est pas?
my too sents
we won't mention "too" vs "two"... *wink*

 

[bang guy]

"Spike - A sharp rise followed by a sharp decline in a graph"
I wouldn't consider what I posted to be describing a spike.

 

[florida joe]

OK BUT what does "menage à trois" mean

 

[saxman]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
http:///forum/post/3256046
"Spike - A sharp rise followed by a sharp decline in a graph"
I wouldn't consider what I posted to be describing a spike.
SHEESH...gimme a break...why did i KNOW you were gonna mince words here? you need NH3, OK? even you agree...
BTW, since you like the dictionary, how bout spelling "consiter" correctly?

 

[beaslbob]

Originally Posted by saxman
http:///forum/post/3256098
SHEESH...gimme a break...why did i KNOW you were gonna mince words here? you need NH3, OK? even you agree...
BTW, since you like the dictionary, how bout spelling "consiter" correctly?
Guy is just using secret code words only people in the hobbby over 20 years understand.