All at sea over cycling!

[Pam-daMonium]

Greetings,

Since things have changed, I am re-writing my post:

I am attempting to cycle a 2 gallon jar since September 18th, but feel unsure of what I'm doing. I'm all at sea! Neither the nearby PetSmart nor PetCo know anything about brackish water and are unable to help.

I used a 1:1 mixture of "Imaginarium Pacific Ocean Water" and distilled water. I put in aragonite sand and a few black lava rocks and some lava gravel. At first, the water was clear, but after a few days, it began to look like "a London fog in aquatown" after a few days. I see some pale translucent clouds swirling in the water. A thin layer of translucent "stuff" has accumulating on the glass and a film has formed on the top. There is a white precipitate that looks like a snow globe when the water is stirred up. The water smells musty to me.

I put in two Nerite snails on September 22nd. I was told to feed them "algae crisps" (not crisp at all - they are rock hard disks of fish food), bits of nori, blanched spinach, and spirulina. But they ignore it all and it all just falls to the bottom. I sent for the macro-algae and the algae ball that you all recommend in hopes that the snails will be tempted to eat some. If I put the snails on the bottom, they STILL ignore the food and snail-race back up the walls of the glass.

On October 8th, then 9th, little Stella and little d'Oro died (they were still alive in the photo). The next day, Petco tested the water for me -
ammonia = 2.6 ppm,
nitrite & nitrate = 0,
salinity = 1.012.
They suggested that I leave the dead snails in the water to increase the ammonia and stimulate the good bacteria, which I have done. (A test kit was $50 - out of reach at the moment.)

Anyway, I am unsure about what I'm doing. Any suggestions will be welcome. ^_^


I could really use a step-by-step guide to cycling a brackish tank, with video images of each step along the way - something like:

* On day 1.............;
* On day 4.............;
* By week 2............;
* By week 3............;
* PS: If the water smells like ___a swamp / roses / musty / a corpse flower ___, then throw everything out and start over.

-- that kind of thing. (Aquarimax - are you willing to help out struggling newbies with an illustrated step-by-step?)

Thank you for your time; I appreciate it.

[Pam-daMonium]

The water is very cloudy with a heavy film on the top. The smaller snail was falling apart, so I removed both.

I read where plants absorb ammonia and that the philodendron plant family can tolerate growing in water. So, I put a cutting of pothos some of the brackish water from the jar. After weeks, it still seems healthy. I put in several pothos and sweetheart philodendron cuttings to absorb ammonia. I saw a video that stated plants are covered with bacteria, so hopefully they will become active to kibosh the rest of the ammonia.

Any input? Guidance is welcome!

[Pam-daMonium]

Bumping up so someone sees my plea.

I got a test kit ---

Ammonia = 4.0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
pH = 7.0
SpeeGee = 1.011

It's been a few days shy of 1 month. How do I convince good bacteria to move in? A clear film persists on the walls of the jar and top of the water. Water is still somewhat cloudy, but less so than in the photo from post above. I thought this would be easy, but now I am wracked with imposter syndrome!

[Shrimplythebest]

Did you rinse your aragonite sand before putting it in? I used aragonite sand for my 9gal tank but had to rinse it quite a bit before I used it in my tank to get rid of the cloudiness. Generally you want to rinse any substrate you're using until the water runs clear before putting it in your tank to remove any fine particulates etc that will cause cloudy water in your tank. I had no cloudiness in my tank at all (going on 3 months now) since set up because I rinsed my sand quite thoroughly.

[Pam-daMonium]

Hello and thank you for your reply.

Yes, I rinsed the aragonite three times with distilled water. I probably could have rinsed more, but did not. I also soaked the lava rock in water for a week while testing the jar for leaks, then rinsed them in distilled water. The soak was a good thing because a lean, but sturdy, black crawly critter about 1" long was given up. I rinsed the lava gravel in distilled water. Then it all went into the jar. A few days later, I put in the ill-fated snails.

What amount of ammonia should I aim for? Is 4.0ppm enough to stimulate bacteria? I am having difficulty finding details of cycling, just blanket statements.

[Shrimplythebest]

My understanding is that with opae ula you don't have to do the traditional cycling process since they're so hardy. You just have to set up your tank and run lights on a 12 hour on/off cycle until you see signs of algae growth on surfaces (on tank walls or rocks etc). As soon as you see algae growth, the tank is ready for opae ula! That's what I did and I haven't had any issues--I did introduce Malaysian trumpet snails to my tank a couple weeks before the opae ula. However, I made my own brackish water using distilled water with Instant Ocean sea salt mixed in and I boiled my rocks and rinsed the substrate extensively until the rinse water was almost completely clear before setting up my tank. My tank water never had any smell to it. I'm wondering if there was some kind of contaminant in your rocks or substrate or water that may be causing the issue?

[Pam-daMonium]

I'm wondering if there was some kind of contaminant in your rocks or substrate or water that may be causing the issue?

Not to my knowledge. The water isn't foggy like it was; it now has a slight haze. The musty smell has greatly diminished, though it smells somewhat briny, like a harbor. No algae spotted yet, but I guess I shouldn't expect it with those numbers?

Thank you.

[Mustafa]

Have you had a chance to read our step by step setup instructions?

https://www.petshrimp.com/set-up-a-supe ... tructions/

If you follow it to the "T", you will not have all the problems you just mentioned above. As Shrimplythebest said it correctly, Supershrimp tanks do not go through a traditional "cycle" as described elsewhere for fish tanks or freshwater shrimp tanks. And for the sake of your own sanity and the plants and animals that might potentially inhabit your tank, stop listening to random people giving advice...as well meaning as they may be, they have usually no idea what they are talking about. It's hard to pinpoint where your problems started, but I'm guessing they started when you bought the nerite snails (which we advise against...see the many posts and threads for years in this forum). They eat too much and when they suddenly die, they kill everything else in the tank with their large rotting bodies. So, I'm guessing you overloaded the tank with organics (the food for the nerites), which killed the nerites, which then added to the organic overload. All of this caused your ammonia spike.

Just follow the instructions in the link above. Keep it simple..do not add anything else...like random decoration, random plants, random drift wood, random fan coral etc...all of which tend to kill your shrimp.

At this point I recommend starting over. Remove as much of the water as you can. If your aragonite sand was "live sand", then ditch that too. Ditch the "pacific ocean water" since it may contain microorganisms from the ocean that die in your brackish water and contribute to ammonia levels and bacterial blooms ("cloudiness"). Then just follow the instructions in the link above. Good luck!