Shrimp cycle

Thelonius · #1 01/05/2008, 02:32 AM

I want to help things along in a fishless cycle because I have a lot of base rock. I read about tossing a raw shrimp and wondered if my raw cat/dog food would do the same. It's all natural ground up chicken or elk, no preservatives. Would a small chunk of this accomplish the same?

I also have some frozen bait fish left over from fishing this summer. Would that be better or does it specifically have to be a shrimp? Someone here mentioned that cat food pellets are a good ammonia test, so I kind of thought the raw stuff would do the same if not better.

thanks, just wanted to make sure before I threw something toxic in my tank. I put in a few pieces of live rock rubble and have put in a pinch of flake food every day but haven't seen a trace of ammonia

demonsp · #2 01/05/2008, 03:02 AM

I would use what works ,Also remove after 1 or 2 days. The bacteria that you want to feed will react to a natural food source before any unknown source.

uscharalph · #3 01/05/2008, 04:26 AM

How big is your tank? How long has it been up?

Thelonius · #4 01/05/2008, 03:20 PM

It's a 30 gallon. I'm amazed at the amount of little mistakes I've made for the amount of reading and preparation I did, but I guess that's to be expected.

I bought 30#'s of dead rock a reefer had in a garage, rinsed it in freshwater, then put it in the tank with 30#'s of sand and a cup to seed. I was going on vacation, so I left it like that for three weeks to make sure the base rock was somewhat clean since I couldn't boil it. Probably a mistake.

When I got home, the water was a little green but everything looked ok, so I did about 40% WC and added another cup of live sand and a few pounds of live rock rubble. This was just over a week ago and I have been adding a pinch of flake food everyday.

I have not read any ammonia, and have a few feather dusters and a shroom that came in on the rubble which looks fine. The shroom actually seems to have grown in just this week.

One thing that has been concerning me is that I didn't clean the base rock properly. I have a large piece that is now a little green and has some tufts of red on it. I've looked at pics all over the internet and can't identify it. I'm concerned that it might be some sort moss that was growing on the rocks outside of water that I didn't get off well enough. I'll see if I can get some pics...

Thelonius · #5 01/05/2008, 03:42 PM

Totally off topic, but here's a pic of these red tufts. It's a little hard to see because I had to resize the pic

Pea-brain · #6 01/05/2008, 04:05 PM

Those are foraminiferam (I totally butchered the spelling lol). They are harmless filter feeders and if i remember right a large ameoba.

Dan

Thelonius · #7 01/05/2008, 04:14 PM

That's actually what I thought after searching last night but thought it would be impossible for them to have lived on the rock. They must be tough because this base rock was bone white and dry.

Hehe, now I really wish I boiled the dead rock

Pea-brain · #8 01/05/2008, 04:53 PM

lol why? They don't hurt anything and are probably more beneficial than not....

Dan

uscharalph · #9 01/05/2008, 05:02 PM

Is it possible your ammonia spiked while you were on vacation?

Thelonius · #10 01/05/2008, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by uscharalph
Is it possible your ammonia spiked while you were on vacation?

I guess if I did have live stuff on the 'dead' rock that might be the case.

Wouldn't I see some sort of algae bloom? I've been running a shortened light cycle since I put in the live rock rubble a week ago. All I noticed upon returning from vacation was a slight tinge of green in the water.

Pea-Brain, I didn't mean the filter feeders were bad, I'm just curious what else made it into the tank.

Thelonius · #11 01/08/2008, 08:50 PM

BUMP :-)

So I went and got a raw shrimp tossed it in yesterday afternoon and tested ammonia tonight and it is still unreadable with an API test kit

Ph 8.0
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrate is about 20

Sounds like it did indeed cycle with all the base rock somehow. I have no algae blooms, so I am not sure how to proceed with a CUC. The first fish I planned to introduce is putting in a jawfish, should I perhaps put him in now, or put in a CUC?

Thanks for any responses reefers.

Thelonius · #12 01/09/2008, 06:51 PM

OK, so late last night and after today's light cycle I'm seeing what looks like a diatom bloom. I'll attach a pic to verify.

I'm also noticing some small air bubbles on the live rock I brought in, is this dinoflagettes, or part of the diatom blooms?

So I am a little confused where to go from here, I was expected this stage a lot further down the road, is it correct that I now add a small cleanup crew, or let the bloom run it's course and decrease the light schedule?

Thanks,

Thelonius · #13 01/10/2008, 06:25 PM

bump, anyone, should I let the diatoms run for their course or introduce a small clean up crew?

Sorry if that is a stupid question but I've gotten both suggestions from my reading material.

Thanks,

Swanwillow · #14 01/10/2008, 06:59 PM

let it run its course.

As my sig says, I'm a leave it alone type of girl. Don't add anything quite yet, and stop feeding the tank until they die (they'll disappear) then start adding the flake again (you didn't need to add shrimp-you were feeding the tank, doing the same thing as the raw shrimp did)

Your doing great, IMO. Keep on asking questions, no question is a dumb question. I'd add a cleanup crew if you are prepared to feed the tank every day already. If you don't add the cleanup crew and have the time and patience to wait it out, you will have a really good population of little critters-pods and such.
IME, cleanup crews aren't needed until you have livestock, and are under lights. And even then, I'd start small with just one turbo snail.