Is my cycle done?

[harvey floyd]

I'm not sure if I asked that right. My tank has been running for about 2 weeks now. It started to grow brown stuff on the arogonite and a little on the live rock tuesday. Tuesday night I dropped a medium shrimp in there. I tested the water today the nitrite is about 0.5 and the ammonia is about 0.5. Where do I go from here. Should I leave the shrimp in? take it out. Take out the shrimp wait 2 days, and try a fish?? There is a turbo snail in there that seems to be doing great. The tests were done using a red sea marine lab kit by the way.

 

[fshhub]

your cycle could be either starting or finishing, either way, do not jump the gun, wait until BOTH are ata and stay at ZERO for a good week or even 2 b4 continuing
oh and get a nitrate test kit too, you need nitrIte and nitrAte both

 

[harvey floyd]

The test kit I bought came with ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH, and alkalinity. And little color coded cards. I am assuming thatall of the levels I want are the lowest, lighest coloring? I have never done this part myself, and appreciate any and all help. And should I test everything weekly?

 

[fshhub]

well, your cycle, you should test for the ammonia after a couple of days, until it rises,then test your nitrites, then your nitrates, and after amm and trites both peak and reach zero again, thenyou should do a small water change, and monitor for a week or so b4 adding fish
as far as routine testing, you will find you own groove, but i would never let it go a week, no more than that, but as i said, you will feel it out, after monitoring a few weks or months, jsut make sure it becomes habit,and that goes for allyou tests, not only those 3
ph alk ammonia nitrites nitrates calcium and phosphates
HTH,and keep on asking, reading is a good thing, but there arre many here that will help too, if for no other reason thatn to be of help

 

[harvey floyd]

Yeah this place is great. I won't even go to the lfs for help anymore. All they want to do is sell you more damsels.

 

[fshhub]

i hear ya, unfortunately, i was not so lucky, mine sold me 6 perculas(x 20$ ea), damsels are only 5, lousy b@$^@~ds, fortunately i got most of my money back(almost 300$ worth of fish before it was oall over), but it was the idea that the poor fish had to die

 

[harvey floyd]

Yeah I hated waking up and finding them all dead. Made my girlfriend cry. Called the store they basically said tough s#!t

 

[drkegel]

I went through the same thing with one LFS, really wish I had found out about htis site earlier. THankfully, I've found a really great one here. They even give discounts on equipment, mark it down from retail, and gave me LR at 50% off! I'd plug them, but that's against the rules for this board.
IMO - there is no substitute for human experience, and their is no shortage of that here. Hats off to all the people helping one another out.

 

[underthesea]

i would give it a few more weeks to be safe your tank might be in the middle or even the geginning steps of the cycle better to wait and make sure all your tests read 0. best of luck to you.

 

[krux]

There is a product simply called "Cycle" that will boost the ammount of the right bacteria to help your cycle go faster. It is pretty failsafe, you can't overdose on it, and its relatively inexpensive (as the hobby goes) at 10 to 15 dollars.
It can be used both to cycle your new tank, and will help cut a few weeks off of the cycle, and it can also be added a couple capfulls per 10 gallons when you add new fish to make sure that you have ample biological filtration to cover your new fish load. You can find it almost anywhere you can buy a fish tank.
I was stuck a while back on my cycle, and within a week of adding a bottle of the stuff everything had worked its way to zero levels.
Like was posted above, wait a week at least after you have zero readings to make sure that things won't move again, but this will help you speed things up a bit and will allow you to take out the rotting shrimp.

 

[harvey floyd]

Ive got cycle <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" /> I added it the first day, havent since though I'll do it tonight.

 

[therock0861]

If I add this cycle stuff to my tank that has been cycling for about a week will it hurt it any and by the way thanks I think this may be the product I was looking for as well.

 

[ravenhawk]

I guess I've been pretty lucky. My lfs has been a wonderful help. I usually deal with the owner and he wont sell me anything that he thinks my tank isnt ready for. He sold me two damsels to start cycling and even gave me some filters he was using that already had bacteria on them to help build things up. I have had three tanks now over that last 6 or 8 years but there are still things I dont know much about such as lighting. I kept my tanks pretty basic, but I am glad I finally found this site because I am getting a lot of help here. Thanks all

 

[krux]

Ack last post didnt go through... I actually coppied the info from the box for you to read but im not gonna do it again heh took too long. anyway yes it is safe for already existing systems with fish.
My favorite lfs uses it in his show tank when he adds something that is completely covered with every kind of coral imaginable, as well as cucumbers, stars, urchins, shrimp, crabs, and a number of fish im afraid to ask the value of. Im sure he wouldn't do it if it wasnt safe.

 

[harvey floyd]

phwew jut walked by the tank. the shrimp is doing its job alright <img src="graemlins//bah.gif" border="0" alt="[bah]" />