Cycling a 1 Feet Shrimp Tank

[curryfishhead]

Just decommissioned my 1 feet fish tank to start a new non-CO2 shrimp tank.

Hope to get some pointers from the experts in this forum.

Below are the steps which I had done yesterday.

1. Clean the entire tank.
2. Put one bottle of Mosura Old Sea Mud on the bottom of the Tank.
3. Put in 4 kg of Gex (Red Packet) Substrate.
4. Put in a new 2 x 6Watt T5 light.
5. Use the old OverHead Filter with the old media reserved.
6. Laid a few new Plants. (Hairgrass, Moss, etc).
7. Add in some Nutrafin Biological Aquarium Supplement to accelerate the bacterial growth.
8. Add in some Seachem Flourish Excel to provide Co2 for the plant.

I did not use the old tank water because I am worried that the water with the sand are not likely to be suitable for the new shrimp tank.

No fish or shrimp inside the tank yet.

Supposed to start the cycling now.

Below are some questions which I hope you guys can help.

1. From what I read on the net, I need to put some ammonia to kickstart the processes. Where can I get this? From any LFS?

2. Can I use Fish food instead? How much to put in? Is there any better ways?

3. Using the old OHF with the media, will it shorten the cycling process?

Hope you guys can help.

Many thanks in advance.

[hyun007]

You can get a couple of zebra danio or guppy to cycle the tank.

[curryfishhead]

I just gave up my fish aquarium. Don't want to get any fish now and then give it away...

By the way, how many hours of lights should I leave it on at this point of time?

[alvinchan80]

I just gave up my fish aquarium. Don't want to get any fish now and then give it away...

By the way, how many hours of lights should I leave it on at this point of time?

i am also new to this.. but you need to cycle for at least a month because you using new soil.. dont introduce any ammonia as i think shrimps are sensitive to it. I think Excel must control usage because water must have adequate oxygen, too much CO2 liquid must result in not enough O2....

What shrimps are you keeping by the way? Different shrimps require different water perimeters.. I am keeping CRS & Sakura at the moment in my 2ft.. (IQ3 has green shrimps, cherry shrimps & sakura)

As for lights, i think keep it not more then 8 hours... i had an algae outbreak when i switched on my lights from 8am to 11pm daily.. might be because of low CO2 in water which causes the outbreak as well.. So you putting in Flourish Excel should be alright i guess..

[jordanz]

Newbie here. Had my IQ3 setup for 3 weeks. 100% survival rate so far. Something to share here...
1- added gex soil + moss on bogwood + moss on coconut husk
2- cycle tap water + add anti chlorine & chloramine for 4-5 days
3- added CPO, sakura, tiger and nerite snail
4- always on LED lights when I reach home abt 6pm, lights off at abt 11pm
5- can see plants started to grow after 1 week
6- spotted some shrimplets
7- fed with floating pellet fish food ( crushed to make them sink but quite messy )
8- added 2 cardinal on 2nd week
9- nothing else added so far
10- plants and shrimplets have grown!

[benjidog]

Hi Curryfishhead,

I have 3 1 ft tanks. Just added another 1 ft tank and will update my signature soon.
Two tanks are solely sakuras.
One tank with crystal red shrimps and some fire red shrimps.

With your present set up, the tank should be cycled in 2 weeks time.

Some people advise one month cycling while others advise 2 weeks.

Since you already added BB supplement to kickstart the cycling, it would be safe to add shrimps after 2 weeks.
Add more filter media if possible.
One way to increase the beneficial bacteria (BB) in the filter media is to put some ceramic rings or similar filter media in the bag that NTUC sells their garlic/Onion. Empty the garlic or onion.
Wash the bag throughly, add filter media in bag and hang the bag in the tank.

Add more plants, moss and frogbits or any fast growing oxgenator plants (basically
those $1-2 plants sold in the local fish shops).

These plants help to speed up the nitrate cycle.
If the plants do well after 2 weeks, the water quality should be good.

You can buy the test kits if you have the budget, otherwise while the above method
is not failproof, it is cheaper than the cost of the test kits and the plants do serve dual purposes of decoration and nitrate recycling.

After 2 weeks, Please introduce shrimps incrementally.

To start, I suggest that you add only 5 sakura shrimps available at local fish shops like C328 or Y618 for about $8-9 for 5 sakura shrimps.

If at least 3-4 sakuras survive after 2 weeks, you know that you can introduce a few more shrimps.

Remember to stick to sakuras, fire red, or tiger shrimps.

Only go for crystal red shrimps if your tank average temperature is 26 to max 27 in
air con environment or chiller (unlikely for 1 ft tank?).

[curryfishhead]

Hi Alvinchan80, Jordanz and benjidog

Many thanks for your many advices, I am only looking at having FR or Sakuras only. I am monitoring the temperature now and if I can bring it down to 27C or below, I will consider CRS.

At least I have a better idea how to move forward now.

I currently have a small 7 litre shrimp tank which my shrimp (mainly Cherry & FR) survival rates are not very good (3-4 die every week). Once the 1ft tank is cycled, I will transfer them bit by bit over. I will also bring over the fan from the small tank and see if the temperate in the new tank is okay for CRS which I am not too optimistic.

The tank is well planted. I will post a pic soon and...

[curryfishhead]

Below is a picture of my humble setup.

rsz_1rsz_img_0369.jpg

[IMG]file:///F:/DCIM/100CANON/IMG_0369.JPG[/IMG][IMG]file:///F:/DCIM/100CANON/IMG_0369.JPG[/IMG]Have some matured moss on mesh in front and and jap hairgrass behind. Not sure what the plant on the left side. Hope the hairgrass and moss will grow.

Any comments will be welcome.

This is the 3rd day of cycling and the plants seem to be okay without any browning.. have tried all these plants in another smaller tank and they seem to be able to grow in a low tech setup....

On the lights from 4pm to 10pm everyday with a dose of Flourish Excel and some liquid fertilizer. Hope the plants will grow faster....
[IMG]file:///F:/DCIM/100CANON/IMG_0369.JPG[/IMG]
No Shrimps yet... it seems to be a long long wait....

[curryfishhead]

Just a update on the cycling of tank.

1. Put in 5 FRs after 1 week since the beginning of the cycling of the new tank.
2. No casualty. Put in 5 more after 9 days.
3. No Casualty. Put in 20 (some are berried) after 11 days.

I think the tank is very stable now, without casualty.

Hope this will provide some new folks here starting a new tank.

Happy Shrimping....

[koji™]

Well... when you use new water in your tank, your water cycling is back to square one. Despite you mention about using the seasoned media you used to use it's no use. The new water will kill the bacteria in there.

Your shrimps may survive now in there but the water parameter and condition is still unstable.

Just sharing my point of view.

[Argent]

Well... when you use new water in your tank, your water cycling is back to square one. Despite you mention about using the seasoned media you used to use it's no use. The new water will kill the bacteria in there.

Your shrimps may survive now in there but the water parameter and condition is still unstable.

Just sharing my point of view.

Sorry to gatecrash this thread, but does this mean that to have an "instant" or quick "cycled" tank, the water must be from existing tank (already cycled)? The filter or soil media should be new instead? Some articles I read they say to introduce some existing filter media or plants from a cycled tank instead to a new tank (with new water). Could someone clarify?

[hyun007]

Sorry to gatecrash this thread, but does this mean that to have an "instant" or quick "cycled" tank, the water must be from existing tank (already cycled)? The filter or soil media should be new instead? Some articles I read they say to introduce some existing filter media or plants from a cycled tank instead to a new tank (with new water). Could someone clarify?

There are only 2 possible ways for instant tank.
1) getting/buying it from another person but risk messing the soil up during transport.
2) a new tank with "cycled" tank water but not using any soil. You will have a ugly glass bottom and will need to vacuum the bottom regularly.

[nick_tks]

Hi Brothers, I would like to ask if distilled water from those mineral water are better water for shrimps than cycled tap water? Any advises?

[eviltrain]

Mineral water = water with minerals inside, water parameter will be different

Distilled water = 100%pure water, topping up with them for the evaporated water is the best

[nick_tks]

Hi Eviltrain, is it possible to use 100% of distilled water that we buy from normal shops outside that's used for drinking?

[eviltrain]

Possible. I buy 1 cartoon every month to top / change water. Haha.

[nick_tks]

all right... Thanks alot

[goody992828]

wah bro Alan

You use distilled water to top up,,, wow your shrimp is so happy man...

[strategos]

i'd just like to share that i've never cycled my RCS tank and they are doing fine 2 months on.

day 1: Gex soil, some hairgrass, some moss balls and more moss on wire
intended to let it cycle for a while, but my friend said "Eh i bring you go buy shrimp!"

so i did. went home put all 10 in. 2 months later there are about 20 shrimplets (appears to be 2 or 3 batches of eggs). 1 adult RCS died recently (2 days ago). other than that all doing fine.

btw its a 1 ft tank w 2W LED. I turn on fan during the day, its about 25 - 27 deg. at night off fan coz noisy. during the rainy period before cny can even drop to 23deg w fan.