[Exie]

I'm cycling a 40 breeder for shrimp; right now I have celestial pearl danios and otos doing my cycling.

I have a canister filter with sponge intake, and also an air driven sponge filter, and also a coralife HO t5 fixture with 4 bulbs (156 watts of power).

Water parameters:

Ph 6.4
Ammonia <.25 (closer to 0 than .25)
NO2 0
NO3 <20 (Will water change before adding shrimp)
GH 5 degrees (achieved through Kent's R/O Right)
KH 0-2 degrees (API KH test kit sucks)
Phosphates 0


I use RO/DI water and remineralize it with Kent's RO Right for planted tanks. Is this a bad practice? Is there a different buffer I should use?

 

[Betta Maniac]

Looks good to me. I'm using Nutrafin African Cichlid Conditioner, as rec'd by Speedie408.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Why do you have Otos in your tank while cycling? They're super-sensitive. Your best bet is to remove all fish from your tanks and do a fishless cycle. That way no livestock is harmed.

Kent's RO is rather dirty for remineralizing. Nutrafin works but you can also use what most shrimpers use - something that's shrimp specific like Salty Shrimp's line of products, Mosura Mineral Plus Ultra, Shirakura Ca+, et al.

GH of 5 is perfect but you ideally want your KH to be 0 or as close to 0 as possible.

Let your tank 'cycle' for 4-6 weeks before adding shrimp. That way you'll have tons of goodies for them to nom on and they'll be more comfortable in a well-established tank.

 

[aznrice247]

Get that No3 down to 0 - 5 for best results.

I understand what you mean I hate the API test kit for GH and KH

 

[Exie]

There are 3 otos and 4 CPD in a lightly planted 40 breeder they're not going to be hurt from the cycle, the highest my ammonia ever spiked was .5 ppm. I was under the impression you wanted SOME but not much kh, because shrimp need calcium to molt?
And I'll look into those otrher brands for remineralizing - Kent RO Right is just what I had on hand :/ Silly me.

 

[somewhatshocked]

That's absolutely enough ammonia to burn gills. It's 2013, so there's really no excuse for harming livestock. I don't mean to be confrontational but it's pretty much an accepted practice to cycle without harming livestock. If you're just cycling for shrimp, a tiny pinch of fish food is plenty to get a cycle going. Or janitorial strength ammonia from Ace.

Otocinclus are especially sensitive to ammonia.

KH should be as close to zero as possible. As long as there's calcium in their diet and you're using a high quality remineralizing product, there won't be any issues with molts.

Even if you don't plan on removing fish that don't need to be in the tank while it's cycling, you'll still want it to run for 4-6 weeks to build up a good amount of biofilm and other goodies for shrimp.

 

[Bluek24a4]

Isn't that a lot of light for no CO2?

I was under the impression you wanted SOME but not much kh, because shrimp need calcium to molt?

Calcium is measured in GH.

 

[rodcuda]

I agree that the Kents is not good for shrimp. Use either shrimp specific or the Nutrafin as reccomeded.

What substrate are you using?

 

[Exie]

substrate is Fluval stratum. Not the shrimp stratum., just regular.

 

[Ebi]

Have fun catching those danios when the time is right to add the shrimps ^___^

Unless you plan on keeping them with shrimp. I've witnessed them munching on my babies
But a 40b looks like it'll be big enough to protect the newborns

They are the ninjasit in the danio family IMO.


Mike

 

[Exie]

I'm hoping that with baby tears and mosses and 40 gallons with only a few danios, that there will be minimal losses. But if there are... yeah, good luck to me D:

 

[Exie]

Ph 6.5
Ammonia 0
NO2 0
NO3 0
GH 5 degrees
KH 0
Phosphates 0

I have some Masura mineral Plus on order. Added in some snails to munch on my algae bloom. Ordered some cheap super low grade CRS from my work for a buck a head, should have those in by Friday (same day my masura shows up). Will do a large water change (50-60%) and fill it back with RO + Masura. That'll wash out a good chunk of my Kent's RO Rite.

Also added in a bunch of dwarf baby tears and glosso stigma. Can't wait for it to spread

 

[aznrice247]

^ok that checks out for me.