Do lots of Seed Shrimp mean my tank is cycled?

[dan_123]

Hi, I've been cycling my tank for about a month now with fish food.

Just wondering if a population boom of seed shrimp is a good indicator that the tank has cycled or is starting to cycle.

Thanks
Dan

 

[Colin_T]

If you have been putting fish food into the tank for the last month, then the filter should be doing something. However, the only real way to know if the filters have cycled is to test the water for ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.

You normally start testing for ammonia within a few days of adding fish or food to the tank. Fish food and waste break down in the water and produce ammonia. Over a period of 2-4 weeks, you get colonies of bacteria that start to grow in the filter materials. These bacteria eat the ammonia and convert it into nitrite. You can tell when this first group of bacteria have developed because the ammonia levels come down to 0 and the nitrite level start to go up.

Several weeks after the nitrite levels have started to go up, new bacteria build up in the filter materials (near the other bacteria that are already there), and these new bacteria convert nitrite into nitrate. When the nitrite levels have gone up, and then come back down to 0 you should start to get nitrate readings.

When the ammonia has gone up and come down to 0, and the nitrite has gone up and come back down to 0, and you start getting a nitrate reading, then your filters have established and are considered "cycled".

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re: the seed shrimp bloom, they might be multiplying because of the food and no predators. But check the water and see what is happening