QT Tank started its cycle

[DolphinLVR]

Ok So, I have 3 dead raw shrimp in my QT to start off the cycle. Man does my office stink to high heaven!!!!

How long will I need to leave the shrimp in there? Can I take them out after amonia hits 1 ppm?

Also i noticed that my water is now cloudy, is that normal?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[bigblue141]

Hey Jeff,

I think you only need to use one

Everywhere I've read if I recall just says to leave it in for a week, pull it out and your cycle is done once everything goes back to zero's.

Although the prefered method seems to use a sponge filter out of the display tank (that is once you get yours up and running)

 

[lvsuckerfish]

do you have a skimmer running?

 

[DolphinLVR]

no skimmer on the QT tank. I would have preferred to cycle the sponge with the DT, but the DT isnt setup or even started its cycle yet

 

[minhmattmai]

I'd recommend turning off the power head(s) when you extract the shrimps. I made the mistake of not doing this and the soft shrimp was pulverized when it was moved across the flow path. What a mess.

 

[Chichas01]

yeah, not sure you need to use shrimp to cycle. It will work but you can do it just fine by feeding the tank a little food each day until the cycle is done. A cheap sponge filter will work great if this is just the QT.

 

[nano24]

I just set up a QT...whats the theory with the shrimp???
I just have my live rock and live sand and figured I'd wait the couple weeks....

 

[minhmattmai]

The shrimp in will decompose and introduce ammonia to start the cycle.

 

[runtowin777]

if u want to jump start your tank go to any local reputable fish store and ask them for their waste water. use like a quarter of the waste water with clean water and it will jump start your tank. make sure its coming from a very established tank though. understand though your water dynamic will become the same as theirs.

 

[TJL]

There are several ways to jump-start your cycle by introducing the right bacteria in #, old water is one as is seed gravel or established live rock but as (runtowin777) stated above you need to certain that your source is clean of pests, parasites or posibly copper if coming from a LFS/ fish only system.
Jeff (DolphinLVR) got seed gravel & macro-algae from me and some aged LR from Kirk to help start his system.

Todd