Cycle question

[Rebel]

So . . . I haven't actually cycled a tank in a decade or so, starting with good cured LR instead--and that was five years ago anyway. But my independent study student is beginning her tank. I want to get a bead on what to expect, but I am totally allowing (forcing) her to monitor and adjust things per her research.

My issue: I gave her about 20-25lbs of dry rock and she took two 3-5lb pieces of LR from the Columbine tank as well. (This is a 30 gal cube with about 15 gal in sump). She put in a whole raw shrimp today, fairly shredded. Will she see a decent enough ammonia spike to record it, or will the cured/active LR process that too well? Should she use more shrimp?

What effect do you think the roughly 1/3-1/4 of cured LR will have on the overall cycle of the tank? How long do you estimate for it to take?

Cheers in advance,
Jason

 

[freedominco]

I cycled my 180 with a raw shrimp and had a huge spike in amonia, I used all dried out rock to start so not sure what effect the live rock will have.

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[Andrew_bram]

Pee in it. It does work even though its kinda gross

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[JuanGutz]

I used dry rock and dead sand and my ammonia spiked very high the raw shrimp from what I have read doesn't really help to much and the best thing to do is add as much live Rock/sand as possible and dose bacteria.

 

[reefmaster719]

Pee in it. It does work even though its kinda gross

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LOL....

 

[Cake_Boss]

From the info you provided, she should see a fairly large spike. The LR will help seed the other rock and sand, but that's quite a "bio-load" for a small tank.

Can she keep track of the levels and post them? I think it would be interesting.

 

[Rebel]

I asked her to keep a spread sheet. I will see if she is interested in posting the process. I do not mind if she seeks help here, but I do not want to be a crutch. I want her to learn by doing rather than me telling her each step of the way. Although, I am not sure I could look her in the eye and tell her to pee in the tank. Lol.

 

[Andrew_bram]

It does work I promise she could always pee in cup lol

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[Rebel]

That sounds more reasonable. At least it will make for a memorable experience (and some good dinner conversation with her family: "Your teacher wants you to do what?!")

Thanks guys.

 

[reefmaster719]

Have fun sticking your hands in there to move rock around afterwards.. hahaha. Just throw a shrimp in it and save your pride Lol.

 

[Cake_Boss]

No different than plating...

 

[Haulin Oates]

No different than plating...

Thank god you didn't say "pics brah!"

 

[reefmaster719]

Haha. True true!!

 

[jahmic]

I cycled my nano using a combo of dead rock and live rock. Tried a different method with my new 20 long...but ended up just tossing some LR in there to go with that same process.

Taking live rock from an established system and putting it in a new tank with no bioload and some dry rock, in my experience, should be enough to cycle the tank even without shrimp. You probably wouldn't see much of a spike...but the die-off from the live rock that isn't being "fed" any sort of bioload is enough to fuel a small short cycle and allow the remaining bacteria in that rock to start to reestablish. In my cube when I did this ammonia only went up to 0.5 before falling...nitrites rose to barely detectable levels...but never got as high as they do when I cycle a tank "from scratch" and add food to cycle it.

Adding a whole shrimp, in what I'm assuming is a fairly small tank, would likely cause a measurable ammonia spike with the amount of live rock and bacteria she has in there. I don't think that the bacteria will be able to chew through that fast enough where the cycle would be undetectable. If she cut a tiny piece off and added that much daily it'd probably go unseen...but an entire shrimp decaying in even an established (small) tank could add detectable amounts of ammonia.