Ocean's 20g Nano

[OceanCo]

Just finished college and moved into a new apartment so I have now finally been able to set up the new aquarium. I had a couple questions I was hoping someone could answer.
Got all the live rock in and sand about 2 days ago and last night I added some dried shrimp to start the ammonia cycle. This morning I had these readings:

Ammonia - .25 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 2.5 ppm

About how high of an ammonia level should I go up to before removing the shrimp?

Also I will try to get some pictures posted this afternoon since I know how much you all like them. :D

 

[guarda]

Welcome! I used frozen shrimp to cycle my tank. Never heard of anyone using dried shrimp. +1 on the pics. Everyone loves em! :)

 

[OceanCo]

Yea I was at walmart late at night and needed stuff for the new apartment so I just picked up some Tetra dried shrimp for fresh or saltwater food. I figured any safe food would work because it all decays and releases ammonia.

 

[BL1]

Yep, you were thinking right.

 

[OceanCo]

K so here are some pics for now to tie you all over. Sorry for the quality, they were taken with my phone.

The setup: 20g long with 10 gallon sump

Running CPR overflow
Aqua C EV 180 skimmer
Koralia 450 and Koralia 250 along with return pump for water flow
About 35 lbs of live rock

 

[OceanCo]

So BL1 if you happen to know about how high should I let the ammonia levels get before I take the shrimp out?

 

[BL1]

I've never used this method but, I'd leave it for 2-3 days then take it out.

 

[guarda]

I was thinking more on the lines of preservatives, msg, or whatnot.

 

[little_fish]

Looks like a good start!

 

[Waddi]

Off to a great start mate, seems you know what your doing, glad you didnt cycle with fish, i really dont like that! :evil:
But your aquascaping is awesome too mate!

 

[AmberSunrise]

Yeah I would leave it a few days then take out whats left.....hold your nose it probably will stink!

Congrats on finishing college, getting your own place and setting up a nice reef!!

 

[OceanCo]

Thanks everyone! I'll keep ya all posted as I move along and I'll be sure to keep adding pics too. In the mean time any suggestions on livestock that work well in nano's would be welcomed. The only real requirement I have is a percula clown.

 

[Bifferwine]

Great job so far! Your tank looks wonderful.

A clown is a good choice for a 20 gallon tank. Have you thought about getting a pair? Perculas tend to do better in pairs.

How about a green clown goby? They are full of personality.

 

[OceanCo]

A pair sounds like a great idea. Now do they need to be exactly the same to be a pair or would a black and an orange percula work?

 

[little_fish]

If they are the same species, it usually works out. If you arent going to add them at the same time, you need to add one of a very different size so that they dont fight.

 

[Bifferwine]

A long as they are both percs, they should get along.

 

[OceanCo]

K so these are the results I have gotten from my tests over the past few days.

Food added 5/17

5/17 Amm 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0

5/18 Amm .25 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 2.5

5/19 Amm .2 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5

5/20 Amm 0-.1 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 2.5

Unfortunately I don't really see any type of pattern or cycling going on here.

The main thing I was thinking was that my LFS has a great live rock selection and cycling tank isolated to eliminate pests and what not. In that container they continuously cure the liver rock so it is exposed to plenty of ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and other live rock with beneficial bacteria. I was thinking it could be possible that the rock already has a healthy population of bacteria which is why i'm getting some funky numbers.

To be safe tho I added a fresh batch of shrimp to the tank and will watch the cycle over the next couple days probably testing 2-3 times per day. It could also be that the first shrimp I added i used some left over flex tubing and a filter pad to cap the tube with the shrimp inside since I wanted a container to be able to take them out later. Maybe this prevented them from adequately decaying in the water. As you can see in the next setup I bought a media bag and loaded it up.

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated and welcomed. Thanks

 

[Bifferwine]

You think correctly IMO. It looks like you are having just a small cycle. Sometimes using good live rock can skip a cycle altogether.

 

[OceanCo]

Now have these results this morning

Ammonia 1 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 7.5 ppm

I'm glad to see the ammonia spike since I did put a hefty amount of shrimp in. Took the shrimp out this morning. Plan is to wait next couple days to see ammonia disappear and hopefully Nitrate rise a bit and get some diatom growth.

As far as I can see the cycle is officially starting.

 

[OceanCo]

Also does anybody have any experience or suggestions on these two products:

Kent Marine Phosphate Sponge
Kent Marine Carbon

Was thinking about incorporating these into sump in the future.

Or the other option I was exploring was Chateomorph algea in my very small refugium whcih would also help with pod population.

Anyone have any experience of controlling algae in display tank either via chemicals or chateo? Also anyone know a trusted source to purchase chateo? Only ever bought from Live Aquaria but they are always out of stock