[nikegurl637]

Thanks so much for your reply.

For cycling the tank I used tap water and fluval biological booster for a week, added plants in right away, saw a huge ammonia spike to 4-8 ppm in 2 weeks. Then I did 25% water changes(using mixed RO and tap) every 2-3 days over the next 2 weeks as my ammonia dropped to 0 and nitrites rose and then dropped. That’s it! No other critters. Put in a nerite snail at the end of cycling.

I have not tested for copper as my snail seems to be fine and I thought it would die too if I had copper in the tank?

I have never added any other “corrector” or anything into the tank except Prime and aqueon shrimp minerals.

The tank I bought new with plastic wrap on all over from the LFS and I rinsed it out before use with tap water and I have a lid on it and I’m not spraying chemicals around it…

So overall the chemical contaminants potential and medication/copper thing is low?

The first batch was juvenile/adult mixed. The second batch was all adults.

I can definitely continue the DI water/salty shrimp route or the 50-50 route. Do you have a recommended seller whom I can trust?

 

[nikegurl637]

Thanks I’ll dose some and double check! I think it did cycle since on the API master kit I saw it go through the ammonia spike, nitrite spike, and go down to 0… but I will double check for my peace of mind.

edit: found how much ammonia to use in the guide provided

 

[nikegurl637]

Yeah! I did contact them and they said they didn’t measure water parameters. Haha. Ahhh how do shrimp live in liquid rock!

 

[nikegurl637]

I think I figured it out. I dosed yesterday to 1ppm ammonia. Today it is still there. So... my tank sat empty with just a tiny snail between attempt 1 and 2 for a bit so it might have crashed without animals or ammonia in it. Will be cycling the tank again using fishless cycle and ammonia. Now I know if it is empty for a bit I have to feed the bacteria.

 

[nikegurl637]

So yesterday I dosed to 4PPM (only took 2 drops due to size of tank). After 24 hrs, the ammonia went down to 1PPM and 0 nitrites. I dosed again 2 more drops and it's still sticking at 1PPM ammonia 1 hr later. WTF? Is it because I dosed bacteria as well?

 

[nikegurl637]

It's called Sunbrite Ammonia clear, just bought it at ACE hardware.

 

[nikegurl637]

So I dosed with the ACE store ammonia until Dr Tim's arrived, then dosed with Dr Tim's at about 4ppm. I saw my nitrites rise and spike at almost 5ppm and I did a partial water change. After that, nitrites started to drop and I saw nitrates increase. Nitrates are now at 30, nitrites down to 0, ammonia at 1ppm holding steady (yesterday was 0.5ppm so I redosed to see if it would go down). Should I let it be and work itself out? Do a water change for the nitrates?

 

[nikegurl637]

New update: All the nitrite to nitrate bacteria are working well. The ammonia to nitrite I am unsure about. However, with all this ammonia addition and cycling, my plants have started dying and rotting. Will this cause extra ammonia levels?

For example: Yesterday my tank was ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate 30, pH was 6. Did a pwc and added in more ammonia to about 2ppm. In 24 hrs it is ammonia 0.5, nitrite 0, nitrate 20. Can any plant rot be attributed to this or I just still don't have enough beneficial bacteria?