cycling tank problems

J

jbrownacu

Premium Member
i setup a small 20g tank for about 6 weeks with live rock and live sand and noticed the cycle happen for that tank. last week i finally got the 75g tank up and running. i put 120 pounds of dry sand in it, 15 pounds of live rock, and 10 gallons of water + 40 pounds of live sand from the 20g tank.

i put a coctail shrimp in the tank and let it sit a few days testing all the parameters and it barely had any ammonia and the nitrite never registered. ammonia was gone last monday.

what could be going on? should i throw more shrimp in the tank or should i assume the tank is ready to go? i put a few nassarius snails it and they are doing great. i was just curious if maybe putting so much in it from an established tank could lead to not having much of a cycle.
thanks!
josh
 
Josh, that's entirely possible. But be sure to keep feeding the tank a little food every day, to keep the beneficial bacteria up.

Add fish slooowly, and keep an eye on the parameters. GL!
 
i wasnt planning on adding any fish for a while. im just trying to get something to register on the ammonia/nitrite test. i might put a few of my clean up crew in and see how things go. i just dont want to harm any of the little guys...ive grown to like them :)

thanks!
josh
 
Josh, the one coctail shrimp is probably not making enough ammonia in 75 gallons to really tell you anything. Before adding more live critters I would put several large table shrimps or a nice size chunk of squid in and let it rot. Try to brew up enough ammonia to get a nice green test, at least .50 to 1 Ammonia, then check again in a few days to see if your bio-filter changed the ammonia to trites.
 
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