Cycle check up

Tank was set up on jan 12. Using the raw shrimp method. The last 4 test readings are
Jan 17
Ammonia 4ppm
Nitrite. 25-.5ppm
Nitrate 0-5ppm
Jan 19
Ammonia 3ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
Jan 21
Ammonia 2ppm
Nitrite 2-5ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
Jan 23
Ammonia .5ppm
Nitrite 2-5ppm
Nitrate 80ppm
Just want to make sure these numbers look good. And should I wait until both ammonia and nitrite are at 0 before doing a water change?

 

Tank was set up on jan 12. Using the raw shrimp method. The last 4 test readings are
Jan 17
Ammonia 4ppm
Nitrite. 25-.5ppm
Nitrate 0-5ppm
Jan 19
Ammonia 3ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
Jan 21
Ammonia 2ppm
Nitrite 2-5ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
Jan 23
Ammonia .5ppm
Nitrite 2-5ppm
Nitrate 80ppm
Just want to make sure these numbers look good. And should I wait until both ammonia and nitrite are at 0 before doing a water change?

Good question! I'd highly recommend waiting until Ammonia and Nitrite are at 0. Also, your Nitrates are through the roof! Toxic levels. I suggest Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate at about 10. But that's just what I prefer.

The Nitrates are due to a lot of rotting organic materials in the tank (plants, food, poop, dead fish, etc)

 

I'm doing a fish less cycle. Should I be worrying about the nitrates at this point?

 

Sorry, keeps posting twice lol

 

I'm doing a fish less cycle. Should I be worrying about the nitrates at this point?

HI Jebbs, yes your nitrates are high, if you don't mind me asking are you doing regular water changes.

 

I'm doing a fish less cycle. Should I be worrying about the nitrates at this point?

No, you are fishless and your system is trying to grow the BB. It is doing exactly what is expected. Keep your ammonia up @ 3 or 4ppm until the nitrites starts to come down. This could take another week or more. Once nitrites start coming down, test until both ammonia and nitrites are at zero. This is when you know you have completed the cycle and have grown the BB. Your nitrates may be high but you can correct that once the cycle completes with water changes.

Don't do water changes until the nitrites start coming down and are at zero. Changes will slow down the cycle by removing ammonia and nitrites that are needed to feed the BB.

 

No, you are fishless and your system is trying to grow the BB. It is doing exactly what is expected. Keep your ammonia up @ 3 or 4ppm until the nitrites starts to come down. This could take another week or more. Once nitrites start coming down, test until both ammonia and nitrites are at zero. This is when you know you have completed the cycle and have grown the BB. Your nitrates may be high but you can correct that once the cycle completes with water changes.

Don't do water changes until the nitrites start coming down and are at zero. Changes will slow down the cycle by removing ammonia and nitrites that are needed to feed the BB.

I'm using raw shrimp as my ammonia source. Should I add in more to keep the ammonia up? Or just leave it as is

 

You can add that or fish food if you have any. You need something in the water to create the ammonia if not using pure ammonia.

 

You can add that or fish food if you have any. You need something in the water to create the ammonia if not using pure ammonia.

The raw shrimp is still in the water (2 in a nylon to keep mess together) had to add 2 more on monday as the first 2 had completely disappeared. But should I bump it to 4 to ensure I maintain 4ppm ammonia or just keep the 2 that are already in the tank

 

If your cycle is working, you won’t be able to keep it at 4 PPM. The colony will grow until the ammonia being released is being converted before it registers on your test. As the tests show increasing nitrates with stable nitrites, you can assume some ammonia is still being released by the shrimp. It sounds like things are progressing as expected. I wouldn’t change much or even do a water change just yet. I suppose you could do a water change to drop the nitrites to help them “catch up” and see if you can get the system to steady state at 0/0, but it’s probably not necessary.

 

The raw shrimp is still in the water (2 in a nylon to keep mess together) had to add 2 more on monday as the first 2 had completely disappeared. But should I bump it to 4 to ensure I maintain 4ppm ammonia or just keep the 2 that are already in the tank

Hey Jeebbs. By now you should be seeing positive readings with your cycle. Hopefully your ammonia is coming down, nitrites have peaked and/or are starting to drop as well. Nitrates are probably high or rising which is what you want to see. That means you have good BB growth and the cycle is almost complete. Your growing BB is doing its job of converting both ammonia and nitrites.

Until you add fish to create a bio load, you will need to keep something in the tank to create ammonia to feed your BB or it will crash. If that were to happen, you are back to restarting another cycle.

When you start adding fish, add just enough to keep the bio load stable and then add more over time so your BB can adjust without causing a spike in ammonia levels.