New Tank: Nitrite at 0.25 ppm

[attygirl]

My new tank has been cycling for about 2.5 weeks. There is nothing in the tank but the gravel, coral rocks, shells and two plastic plants. I expect to receive my shipment of shrimp, snails, and macroalgae tomorrow or Friday. I just tested the nitrite level and it was at 0.25 ppm. While the test water is not an aqua color (0 ppm) it really is not light purple either. Actually, the test water is a light blue. Should I be concerned about this level? Do I need to anything before adding the shrimp?
Thank you for your help.

[MelWong]

The macroalgae and snails should be able to sort it out quite well. Just take a raincheck on feeding the shrimp until the water chemistry calms down some. I put my shrimp in the same time as the snails and algae, and now I've got diatoms and algae growing on my reef rock about four weeks in, and the shrimp are active and happy.

And I somehow have twelve adult snails, which is a surprise because I got ten of them when I bought them and I don't know how many baby snails are hidden in the tank right now, since I've spotted just the one.

PS: If you're using the API testing kit, the results are easiest to check in natural sunlight. Indoor light can sometimes give the colors a funky tint, especially in very low concentrations of ammonia and nitrites.

[jpccusa]

The shrimp should be fine. If you look at the thread I started, my water parameters were not all at 0 when I started. The tank is now covered in algae, but the shrimp love it!

Do not feed or fuss too much with the tank (water changes, scrubbing, etc.). Stress and overfeeding will kill the shrimp faster than some Ammonia and Nitrite.

[attygirl]

Mel and jpccusa: Thanks for your responses and support!

[MelWong]

Hang in there with the waiting. When I was waiting to get my shrimplings in the mail it was like I was waiting for someone I knew and loved to give birth.

[attygirl]

Update: My shrimp, snails, and macroalgae arrived Thursday! They were packaged like Mel's were (but no Chinese paper). My tank really is not big enough to "acclimate" them by putting the bag in and letting the water mix. I have a 1.2 gallon "modern betta bowl" from PetSmart. So, I cut corner tip off and the water and shrimp poured into the tank and a little on me. The snails were not as cooperative and while the water poured out, they did not. I had to cut open the bag and pry them off the bag. I missed one and he was not in water for about 5 minutes or so.

I was not really sure what to do with the macroalgae. I pulled it apart into four little mounds and placed them in the tank next to the coral stones, underneath some shells on the the gravel, and next to the back of one of the plastic plants. Not very aesthetically pleasing, but oh well --if anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to read them. One string of macroalgae got tangled with a plastic plant leaf and is "free floating." I am wondering if I should remove it. Does the macroalgae actually grow?? My desk lamp is still on a timer to be on for 12 hours every day.

The shrimp have been fairly active, though I only see around six or seven (out of 15 , maybe 16 because the bag had a "16" on it) out and about at a time. Yesterday they were busy grazing on the gravel and today some are grazing on the leafs of the plastic plants and swimming around. And yes, I learned my hard lesson from my first attempt at a tank and did NOT feed them. They are all very, very pale in color and I am concerned that maybe my desk lamp is not strong enough for microorganisms, algae, etc. to grow. It is a LCD light that is very bright but does not put off any heat. Should I add a lamp that puts off a little heat?

I was worried that maybe some of the snails died when I put them into the tank. Yesterday, I saw a few sitting on the shells and then they later moved to the plastic plant leafs. Today, the ones I can find are hiding in the macroalgae.

So, the adventure continues . . . .
Thanks for reading.

[MelWong]

Update: My shrimp, snails, and macroalgae arrived Thursday! They were packaged like Mel's were (but no Chinese paper). My tank really is not big enough to "acclimate" them by putting the bag in and letting the water mix. I have a 1.2 gallon "modern betta bowl" from PetSmart. So, I cut corner tip off and the water and shrimp poured into the tank and a little on me. The snails were not as cooperative and while the water poured out, they did not. I had to cut open the bag and pry them off the bag. I missed one and he was not in water for about 5 minutes or so.

The snails are fun. They really don't want to go into the tank, so I had to pick mine out and drop them in carefully. They seem to do okay outside of water for short amounts of time (Mine climb above the water line to graze sometimes, and then drop back down when they're done) and are very resilient, so don't worry about it too much.

I was not really sure what to do with the macroalgae. I pulled it apart into four little mounds and placed them in the tank next to the coral stones, underneath some shells on the the gravel, and next to the back of one of the plastic plants. Not very aesthetically pleasing, but oh well --if anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to read them. One string of macroalgae got tangled with a plastic plant leaf and is "free floating." I am wondering if I should remove it. Does the macroalgae actually grow?? My desk lamp is still on a timer to be on for 12 hours every day.

I stuffed most of my macroalgae behind rocks in the back, but remember, if you have too much macroalgae for your tank you don't have to use it all. It does grow, and it gets bigger, so you may have to thin out the clumps from time to time. I let mine grow because I've got room for it, and the shrimp do seem to like foraging in it, so for now I've got the room for it. Once it gets too much (ie: takes up too much tank water volume) I'll probably cull one of the clumps and just throw it away. People who keep marine tanks often use similar macroalgae as a nutrient exporter to help cleanse the water better, so this is not a problem.

Harry on this forum stuffed his in the cracks between rocks, and that can actually keep it on a lower profile while also retaining its benefits. It's very tough, and I've a single filament of the stuff that got tangled on my sea fan when I put it in the tank. It's more than tripled in length in four weeks, so yes, this stuff grows, and BOY does it grow.

The shrimp have been fairly active, though I only see around six or seven (out of 15 , maybe 16 because the bag had a "16" on it) out and about at a time. Yesterday they were busy grazing on the gravel and today some are grazing on the leafs of the plastic plants and swimming around. And yes, I learned my hard lesson from my first attempt at a tank and did NOT feed them. They are all very, very pale in color and I am concerned that maybe my desk lamp is not strong enough for microorganisms, algae, etc. to grow. It is a LCD light that is very bright but does not put off any heat. Should I add a lamp that puts off a little heat?

Don't worry about heat. The microorganisms in Mustafa's tank water will take a while to grow on your tank and its decor in any case, but you've definitely seeded your water with the beneficial algae and bacteria. First visible sign your tank is cycling correctly is little fuzzy pinhead-size dots of brownish-colored stuff, that's diatoms moving in. After the diatoms comes an algae bloom which looks like green smears on the stone before they grow in fully. It took me four weeks to see diatoms. All the while my shrimp were very shy and hiding and I was worried I'd killed them all, but I just kept an eye on them and saw them come out to feed from time to time.

Similarly they were all very pale because they were still getting used to the new tank, but now almost all of mine have gone various hues of pink and red. They still go pale if startled, say, by me topping up the water (the fresh water excites them greatly) but they regain their color much faster.

I was worried that maybe some of the snails died when I put them into the tank. Yesterday, I saw a few sitting on the shells and then they later moved to the plastic plant leafs. Today, the ones I can find are hiding in the macroalgae.

The snails are very good at hiding. If you have any kind of substrate in your tank you'll find the little buggers also bury themselves to hide and rest and sometimes feed in there. Mine spend a lot of time on the glass of my tank because that's where a lot of their food grows, but since your tank is new they may prefer to hide until they feel better. Keep count of them. I somehow had two extra snails show up after four weeks despite receiving only 10, because they do breed. These are livebearer snails, so they give birth to one tinytinyveryhardtosee baby snail instead of laying a clump of eggs. Don't worry too much, they are also very hardy creatures.

So, the adventure continues . . . .
Thanks for reading.

I think you're doing everything right for now, so don't worry. Your shrimp will need a bit of time to adjust to their new home and unpack their tiny shrimpy suitcases. That's what I told myself, anyway, in the early adjustment period. If all goes well in about 10 to 14 days they'll be way more active, and after that you'll start seeing the diatom dots and the faint algae fuzz.