The hidden impact of poor cycling – Expose!

The background of cycling the tank is to ensure that the beneficial bacteria has now in good number and ability to convert ammonia from nitrite and then eventually to Nitrate.

The long and short of this is that there are sufficient beneficial bacteria to convert ammonia to a less poisonous state. The tank will continuously produce ammonia as there are shrimp waste, food, rotting plants and that is the food source of beneficial bacteria, by ‘eating’ the ammonia and converting them to Nitrite and Nitrate.

As you can see there is a time line against the nitrogen in the tank, so when the ammonia and nitrite levels hit 0 it takes about 40 days.

Now we are aware of the reasons behind why we need to cultivate beneficial bacteria, is there ways to speed it up by 50%?

Certainly there are ways to speed up the cycling process however if you are a new breeder, you might want to find someone who is reputable to help you out.

Tank seeding, this means to seed the filter in another established tank for a week or two so that the beneficial bacteria can colonize the filter and then bring it back to your tank. This is much easier if you have already an established setup. If not then you can still continue with the 40 day cycle. Alternatively if you have other established tank and are 100% healthy no pest etc, you can consider exchanging one of the old sponge into the tank. This will help kick start the process as well. How fast does it help to cycle? It will certainly help to reduce the cycling time.

Bacteria products: There are many nitrifying bacteria products on the market, it helps introduce the beneficial bacteria in hope to colonize filters quickly and establish the colony. However, there are no dates as to when the batches are made and some do not see any results by using it.

Elements affecting speed of cycling:

low pH doesn’t do bacteria growth any good, so it slows down the bacteria colonization process hence it is a good idea to ensure there are oxygen in the tank, and a good filter media such as sponge filter/hang on back/cannister.

That is also the reason why cycling may take longer than usual for low pH tanks. There is no rush in cycling the tank because once you get it right the shrimps will keep breeding.

Add more tanks: If you can’t wait for the next tank to be fully cycled, than keep adding tanks until you are able to. That is what i normally say jokingly.

The weight loss industry in 2021 is worth $71 billion. What am i trying to relate here? There is a lot of financial incentive to introduce fads and connotation about speeding up cycling. The faster someone is able to cycle the tank, the faster they can purchase livestock and i think while we can super charge our tanks to cycle faster, we can’t magically turn a blind eye on science.

The stronger less delicate fishes and shrimp may be able to handle a 7 days cycle or a shorter cycle time without much effects.

I was also made known on many occasion that to get around it is to use old buffering soil which have lesser capacity to buffer which would in a short period of time send your ammonia test kit reading 0. Technically this can easily fool many new breeders but to an experience breeder we all know all too well because the tank will continue to remain sterile, microorganism can’t thrive and reproduce which on my other post on how to see if the tank has mature.

Water parameters the hard and soft value are equally important so if you are serious about shrimp breeding in the long haul, it is critical that cycling and maturing the tank before the shrimps are being place into it. Like i’ve mentioned the hardier ones would probably get through, but along the way people will look you up as a mentor to guide them. It is never wrong to do the right thing.

I have got many pictures from hobbyist where their tank look almost sterile with no life to it. Despite it being ‘fully cycled’, the tank just couldn’t get to a point where shrimps are happily breeding constantly.

Here are some impacts to a poorly cycled tank:

• Shrimp doesn’t breed
• shrimp look lethargic
• female shrimp do not want to saddle
• shrimps do not consume daily feed eagerly
• hiding most of the time
• constantly 1-2 dead shrimp on a daily to weekly basis
• no microorganism visible
• sterile looking tank, no algae, too clean

These observation can deduce a few things

• insufficient beneficial bacteria
• insufficient biofilm
• insufficient microorgasim
• insufficient balance to the tank

There is really no shortcut to maturing a tank, like wine, the wait is where the goodness is. Can’t rush it, because how you do anything is how you do everything.