Levels

I am new to the hobbie! I have had my tank set up for almost a week now, have the live rock in there as well as a heater and one power head. I was told to hang 1 raw shrimp in the tank to help kick start the cycle process. where should my levels be after about 4 days with the shrimp in there? my test kit is coming tomorrow, so I will do my first test then and post the results. I checked with the hydrometer today, and it was really high. I was curious if that was normal during the cycling process, or if I am doing something wrong. I havent had the lights on much, and havent really done much since the raw shrimp has been in there. Any thoughts would be nice! Thanks everyone!

 

You are asking a question without an answer. Everybody's cycles are different. One tank may cycle in a week, while another may take 8 months. It largely depends on how much live rock you have, how big your tank is, etc. I doubt you are doing anything wrong. What type of hydrometer do you have? I find the most common are Instant Ocean, but they aren't very accurate. If you must use a hydrometer and not a refractometer go with a corralife.

 

What do you have the salinity at as of now..? your Chem levels will be like a great roll-a-coaster for awhile untill your tank stables out.. When that will be who knows may be a few weeks or longer. Oh and how big of a tank do have set up..?


Good Luck....

 

hey addio, as stated above what is your SG - in addition, make sure you look carefully for tiny bubbles on the hydrometer - if your using one of those swing arm types

cycling IME does not have much effect on SG - but evaporation may be the cause - are you topping up on a daily basis with RO or RODI water to replace the fresh water that evaporates?

Hydrometers are known to be unreliable and before I purchased a refractometer, I always had 2 hydrometers around in order I could check results

Steve