?'s for a new setup

gbfan41649

gbfan41649

Member
55 gal tank
60 lbs of base rock
60 lbs of live sand
do I need to put in shrimp or will tank cycle without?
also when I received sand the also shipped 2 small pieces of LR (2in) and 4 snails
will the snails make throught the cycle?
if one or all dies do I remove?
I only see 3 now but they are constantly digging in the sand
just put in sand last night
ph 8.2
amon 0
temp 76
 
lexluethar

lexluethar

Active Member
You need to kick-start the cycle somehow, whether that be with a raw shrimp, live rock, or ghost feeding - something needs to decay to start ammonia. So... yes place a raw shrimp in the tank.
Congrats on the free hitch hikers - depending on the extent of the cycle - if you keep your ammonia low they may survive - my money is on them dying though, sorry...
If they die - i would remove them since you are cycling with a shrimp.
I would raise the temp to 78-80.
Congrats and good luck!
 
F

f_150ryan

Guest
Ghost feeding is, putting food in the tank to feed the ghost fish.. feeding the tank with no fish to get your system acclimated....
 
lexluethar

lexluethar

Active Member
OKay, you need to be testing Ammonia, NItrite and NItrate daily/bi-daily.
Read up on the cycle of a fish tank, in short fish waste and dead stuff create ammonia, bacteria break down that ammonia into nitrite. Both very deadly to fish and inverts, then another bacteria breaks down nitrite into nitrate (the least deadly of the three). At this point when your ammonia and nitrite measure 0, and you have some nitrates, you are done cycling. This usually takes about 3-5 weeks, really just depends on the system.
Place the shrimp in the tank, the next day start testing all three things, your ammonia will rise, then fall as nitrite rises, then falls, then nitrate will rise. Once your ammonia reaches around 1.0 then take the shrimp out.
Once you are done with the cycle do a 20% water change and you are ready to add a few fish at a time.
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
A tank starts with little or no bio-filtration bacteria. Adding food to feed the bacteria and grow them out to there max population with no sensitive animals in the tank. So that when you add animals (waste) they don’t become shocked by spikes in ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. Note that animals = waste so add one at a time and check how the system reacts.
PS: If your bio-filter is the right size nitrates will zero.
 
rcoultas

rcoultas

Member
In the beginning - yes - until your cycle is complete. If the ammonia spikes too high it will kill off the bacteria and you'll have to start over.
 
lexluethar

lexluethar

Active Member
READ UP ON THE CYCLING PROCESS!
Just a little research goes a long way. You can place anything that will decay into the tank to start the cycle, it really has nothing to do with it being a shrimp, just use anything that will break down and create ammonia. Fish food, flake food, anything organic will break down. People just use shrimp b/c it is easy, easy to take out, very cheap, and i'm sure shrimp take less time to breakdown b/c of the soft tissue opposed to other (tougher) organic compounds.
 
R

rcreations

Guest
You need to put in an established live rock to seed your base rock. That's the fastest way.
 
ecooper

ecooper

Member
If you got the larger white (brown or blue striped) nassarius snails, they may live. They're pretty tough. Otherwise, a lot of inverts don't tolerate the fluctuations.
 
lexluethar

lexluethar

Active Member
Placing established LR (from your LFS) near or on your LR will help in the process once you are done cycling. LR is alive because of the bacteria that live on the rock. Your rock will become "alive" once the cycle has completed and bacteria start to conlinize the rock. This is something you won't see, it is just something assumed when you don't ever see ammonia/nitrite and all you see is nitrate
You can use purple up, but that will not aid in the cycling process - or make your LR "alive" - purple up is an additive that helps in the grown of corline algae (the purple pretty stuff you see on rocks). If you have the right amount of light and calcium in an established tank, the coraline will come naturally.
 
gbfan41649

gbfan41649

Member
Small snails about the size of a dime.
they are fun to watch......I can't believe I am having fun watching snails.
I hope they make the cycle.
amon still at .5 this morning
temp at 79 and varies between 79-80
do I really need to test for nitrate and trites while tank is in cycle or just amon until it spikes.
It seems as though the amon, is a leading indicator of cycle in the beginning
 
lecithin

lecithin

Member
test for ammonia and nitrite mainly at first. Nitrite may interfere w/ your nitrate readings anyway and if either ammonia or nitrite are in the tank you're not going to be able to put anything in anyway. You want to see your ammonia spike and one, then your nitrite rise and fall as well. They'll both eventually 0 out but its going to take some time.
 
mcbdz

mcbdz

Active Member
You mainly want to test amm. until it goes down to 0 then you can test trites until they are 0. testing all is a good way to set your habits though and you get use to how they go together. You also new to check salinity daily and temp. Topoff daily. Good habits for your husbandrey.
You could never believe you could spend hours starring at rock either but I'll do that with a new tank with new lr.
 
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