New tank/new to shrimping

[ukfan1976]

Greetings all!

I'm new to shrimp keeping and stumbled upon this forum. Looks like a lot of good info here, still combing through the posts to get educated.

Today, I purchased the equipment for my first tank setup and would appreciate any advice you may have. Here's what I got:

-10 gallon tank
-Medium sized Bio Sponge filter
-10-20 gallon air pump
-Seachem Flourite Black Sand (10 lb bag)
-10 lb bag river sand (from pet shop)
-Water dechlorinator (i'm using Tap water)
-3 Crypt Parva plants
-1 Anubias nana
-Ball of Java Moss
-Fluorescent tank hood with Floramax Plant Growth bulb (made by Aqueon)
-Driftwood (loose pieces from pet shop)
-Couple of small lava rocks (loose pieces from pet shop also)

I started out by attempting to rinse the Flourite and river sand but I'm not sure i did a great job since the tank is super cloudy right now after adding the water (slowly). Next I arranged the plants in the tank and added the driftwood and rocks (after boiling the driftwood and leaching out the tannins). I then slowy filled the tank (with tap water), added the dechlorinator, and fired up the sponge filter. Its only been a few hours so the tank is still super cloudy (i'm assuming from the dust in the substrate that got stirred up). I'm hoping this will settle out in a few days.

Then, after watching a few videos on YouTube about "Fishless tank cycling", I added 2 small capfuls (maybe 10ml total) of household ammonia to the water, and also added a small amount of Biozyme (bacteria) to the water. After this I went out for Pizza and came home and did my first ammonia test, hoping the water would have time to "mix" properly and distribute the ammonia I added. I was gone probably 2 hours. The first test showed I was at least 8 ppm (possibly more since the color scale stopped there and it may have been darker). Now I'm worried I added too much ammonia. Should I give it a day or 2 and check again or should i just go ahead and do a water change? Also, how long does it typically take to cycle a small tank like my 10 gallon? I'd appreciate any info you have.

[Mustafa]

Depending on the temperature it will take anywhere between 2-4 weeks usually..but it can vary. I would do a water change to get the ammonia down to 2-3 ppm. Then just leave the tank alone. You don't need to add more every day or so as some sites suggest. In fact...most water supplies have chloramines, so there is always residual ammonia right in the tap water (go measure your tap water and you'll probably measure ammonia). When you dechlorinate your water, even more ammonia is "set free" from the chloramines. So...you actually don't need to add any ammonia at all. You just fill up your tank with dechlorinated water and wait until you measure nitrate or see algae growth. Cycled...done.