55 gallon planted tank cycling for shrimp - no shrimp or fish in yet

[Newbie 2 Hobby]

Hello, first timer here. Cycling a 55 gallon planted tank and these have been the readings from day 8 to 17. Am I close to completing the cycle? I asked in other places and someone seemed concerned with how fast the nitrites and nitrates dropped towards the end (today). The only ammonia source I used was 2 frozen shrimp added at the very beginning. I removed them on day 6 after they started floating. Since then I have not added anything besides treated water as it evaporated from the open top tank. Everything green is alive. The larger plants seem to be growing very well. I had more foreground plants but one by one they exploded into hair algae overnight which I promptly removed every morning. Is this a cause for concern with how fast things have gone?

I plan on having many shrimp in this tank with schooling fish for the upper layers. Blue velvet shrimp to be exact, from at least 2 different sources to get some initial diversity in the gene pool. Amano shrimp mainly for the lower levels of cleaning, oto catfish for the mid / upper parts. And snails of course, still not quite sure which. Kuhli loaches also but I won't count those as part of the cleanup crew, I'd rather have them be part of the colony than specifically for cleaning. Could use some advice about my planned setup. Not sure which schooling fish would be best that won't bother the shrimp too much.

 

[outofwater]

Nice looking tank! And I'd say you're actually done with cycling it, by the looks of the last test tubes.

I'm vaguely familiar with loaches (I have dojos myself and considered kuhlis at some point) but I do know either of them will go after shrimp. Not necessarily adult ones, but any small enough that they'll see them as prey. My 2 cents on that

 

[Newbie 2 Hobby]

Nice looking tank! And I'd say you're actually done with cycling it, by the looks of the last test tubes.

I'm vaguely familiar with loaches (I have dojos myself and considered kuhlis at some point) but I do know either of them will go after shrimp. Not necessarily adult ones, but any small enough that they'll see them as prey. My 2 cents on that

Awesome! The LFS and the fish person at petco agreed so I went ahead and started small with 2 mystery snails and 5 blue velvet shrimp so as to not shock the ecosystem. After seeing how these do I'll be adding oto catfish and and some more shrimp from another source. Schooling fish after the shrimp have established themselves. The snails buried themselves pretty quickly and 2 of the shrimp haven't stopped eating since putting them in, 2 have been swimming around the whole tank amd one is munching away by itself in a corner on some rocks. I acclimated them for 4 hours before putting them in.

That's a shame about the loaches. I did read that they will eat baby shrimp but I was told on other forums that they never had that problem with their loaches.

 

[outofwater]

Your tank is cycled, it won't get "shocked" by newcomers unless you load it all at once well above its capacity. There are online tools where you can input your tank and equipment info, select the type of inhabitants and their quantities, and a calculator will tell you whether you're ok, under or over the tank capabilities.

My 2 dojos are voracious hunters. They decimated an accidental colony of scuds that came to my tank by chance with some plants, and they also will eliminate any "pest" snail. I have learned to tolerate and appreciate those critters as part of the whole ecosystem, but the dojos won't have any of them living for too long

 

[Magnum Man]

I'm certainly not going to tell you not to cycle a tank...

but, sounds like your tank is big enough, and your expected bio load so small, plus add in the plants, I'd be temped to do a fish in cycling... you still will need to do your normal water changes, and I'd be careful with any fertilizers for your plants, with the shrimp, but your bio load is so small that your beneficial bacteria will have to be throttling back to match what you are putting in, and with the plants, they' be literally taking care of the bioload... if you decide after a few weeks to add a bunch of fish, your tank is going to act like it's not cycled, as the bacteria will adjust to your current load, so you'll need to add fish slowly, if and when you choose to add more...

 

[MaloK]

Did you do any water changes during cycle ?

The nitrate vanishing with such a low plant level is somewhat unexpected.

Since you used 2 frozen shrimps as ammonia source, I would expect your cycle is completed as all the tests shows that all byproducts are processed.

But it is pretty difficult that have any idea of what that could represent as live stock it could support.

Adding shrimps fist constitutes a barrier in parameters stretching during an "inauguration". When I read the title of the tread I thought of a shrimp only tank...

If you want fishes I would start with the hardiest and biggest school I want to have. then introduce the shrimps as things stabilize then the other fish.

If you have them in the tank and are forced to do large water changes it going to be difficult.