Why isn't there ammonia in my 180g? (trying to cycle)

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biomechmonster
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Why isn't there ammonia in my 180g? (trying to cycle)

Post by biomechmonster »

Two weeks ago we put raw shrimp in the aquarium to start the cycle (or try to anyway). The three feeder goldfish in there (we put them in to test the water chemistry to see if it was suitable for fish, the tank had been filled but not running for 3+ months so we weren't sure) ate a lot of the shrimp and what they didn't get, went into the overflow boxes. We found the shrimp later and put it in a baggie with some gravel and punched holes in the baggie to let ammonia escape.

A week passed with no ammonia so we got more raw shrimp and put them in a baggie with gravel and punched holes, same thing. We've been testing the water almost everyday now and the ammonia is still almost NIL and the goldfish in there are thriving. :?

Someone on here recommended putting raw shrimp in the aquarium and said we would only need three large ones to cycle it in 10 days or so...there's about eight large ones in those baggies. What the heck is going on?

The tank's primary filter is a homemade wet-dry with a 30 gallon sump and natural sponge as the biomedia. It has built-in glass overflows. We have not been changing the water at all, just adding water as it evaporates. How can we get this thing to cycle?
"Mr. Vaughan, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, er... an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution."
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laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

When I cycled my 75 mbuna in October, I never had ammonia or nitrites. Put water in there on Sunday, put 4 mbuna in there on Saturday, and everthing has been good since. Well, that is, until we had a huge ice storm and power went of and I lost all my fish.
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jen.nelson
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Post by jen.nelson »

The best way to tell if cycling has occurred is to test for Nitrates. Test the water you use to fill the tank (tapwater, for instance, if you're filling it from the tap). Then, test the water in the tank. You want to test the source water to ensure that the Nitrates present in the tank water are really byproducts of ammonia breakdown, not just junk in the incoming water.

If the tank has cycled, you should have Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0 and (net) Nitrates greater than 0.

Every tank cycles at it's own pace, and mine always seem to do it when I'm not looking, or if I'm not anxious to put in new fish! :roll:

Hope that helps,
Jen
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MatsP
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Post by MatsP »

So how long has the goldfish been in the tank? If they've been in the tank for a bit longer than the shrimp, I wouldn't be surprised if it's cycled. Especially if the tank has been filled with water for much longer than that...

I agree with Jen's suggestions, that's a good way to determine that the tank is cycled, as the higher level of nitrate will only come from one source: breakdown of food/fish-waste.

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