Still no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate?

So it’s been 3-4 weeks now since I restarted this 5 Gallon. When I restarted it the first time the thermometer broke and the little balls scattered. I noticed the sand rusted and the water smelled awful, so I dumped it and rinsed the sand and started over.

Now all that time has passed and despite me dropping a decent amount of shrimp pellets about 8-9 and leaving it alone. I have not gotten any ammonia readings at all. Nothing. I thought my test kit was faulty since it’s a little older so I bought a new ammonia bottle. Still shows 0. I’ve shaken the Nitrate bottle wildly too, nothing.

The plants are doing well, even a small Amazon sword that I moved in there that wasn’t doing well is now growing straight up and vibrant green a long with the the rest of plants like Anubais and Java Fern, and loads of Vibrant green Algae.

I just can not comprehend how there there no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate at all despite the amount of ammonia in the tank which is the food???

 

So it’s been 3-4 weeks now since I restarted this 5 Gallon. When I restarted it the first time the thermometer broke and the little balls scattered. I noticed the sand rusted and the water smelled awful, so I dumped it and rinsed the sand and started over.

Now all that time has passed and despite me dropping a decent amount of shrimp pellets about 8-9 and leaving it alone. I have not gotten any ammonia readings at all. Nothing. I thought my test kit was faulty since it’s a little older so I bought a new ammonia bottle. Still shows 0. I’ve shaken the Nitrate bottle wildly too, nothing.

The plants are doing well, even a small Amazon sword that I moved in there that wasn’t doing well is now growing straight up and vibrant green a long with the the rest of plants like Anubais and Java Fern, and loads of Vibrant green Algae.

I just can not comprehend how there there no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate at all despite the amount of ammonia in the tank which is the food???

Maybe it's because of the plants absorbing the ammonia from shrimp food. I'd try removing them temporarily (if possible) and putting them back in after the tank cycles.

 

Did you only drop food one time? That may be your issue.

 

Did you only drop food one time? That may be your issue.

No, I dropped 5-6 on the first day, then 3 more a week after.

 

Maybe you didn’t rinse the sand and tank out good enough and there’s stuff in the water preventing beneficial bacteria growth

 

Maybe you didn’t rinse the sand and tank out good enough and there’s stuff in the water preventing beneficial bacteria growth

Then the plants wouldn't be thriving. Since they also rely on beneficial bacteria for absorption, I'm thinking it's time to add 1 guppy or snail and do a real cycle since it's been 4 weeks. Just an idea, I'm not sure why it wouldn't be cycled yet if food was put in every week.

 

Then the plants wouldn't be thriving. Since they also rely on beneficial bacteria for absorption, I'm thinking it's time to add 1 guppy or snail and do a real cycle since it's been 4 weeks. Just an idea, I'm not sure why it wouldn't be cycled yet if food was put in every week.

Food was only put in twice, I just don't think it was enough.

 

Food was only put in twice, I just don't think it was enough.

Yah maybe they should try more food in there first and/or squeeze a filter in from another tank if there is one. I got a few pest snails from my lfs to start my first tank years and years ago, they gave them to me for free and they worked perfectly for starting a cycle.

 

Food was only put in twice, I just don't think it was enough.

The thing is, even when I put the food in the first time around, the day after, and third day I checked for ammonia. It showed none, despite there being ammonia added. I waited a few more days to see if maybe it just needed time to break down, still no ammonia.

So no matter how much food I put in there, if I were to put some in right now, I still won't get ammonia readings.

I have cycled multiple tanks before in the past just from dropping a bunch of food in there and waiting a month, but for the first time ever never have I been in a situation where the next day I test, I get zero ammonia readings?

 

Maybe try a food shrimp in a bag or nylon. That will kick up some.

 

Yah maybe they should try more food in there first and/or squeeze a filter in from another tank if there is one. I got a few pest snails from my lfs to start my first tank years and years ago, they gave them to me for free and they worked perfectly for starting a cycle.

My main tank the 10 Gallon has one cull shrimp, and way too many pest snails, I think they're bladder snails. I just dropped on in the 5 yesterday and it was already munching on the algae, but I swear something small came off it, and I don't know if it was a tiny parasite swimming around (unless it was just floating?) or not that I netted out, then I put it back in the 10 Gallon after getting paranoid about the snails having parasites.

I took the cull shrimp I had and put it in the 5 last night. So far he's doing fine when I checked on him and looked to be on the log cleaning/eating whatever he was doing.

I want the tank to be a blue shrimp tank but I'm just worried about it not being cycled or something then adding shrimp then wasting all that money and them dying.

Maybe you didn’t rinse the sand and tank out good enough and there’s stuff in the water preventing beneficial bacteria growth

Maybe but this is the second time I gave it a rinse, I was washing it for 30 minutes and swishing it around constantly. This is something I thought of though.

One of the baby Amazon swords I had that was in my 5 that hadn't had any growth and looked awful I put it in this 5, and so far it's had some growth and growing straight up / vibrant green, so I'm not sure if that has any effect if something is bad or not