# cycled or not



## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

I checked water conditions in my 10gal Shrimp tank with about 20+ red cherry shirmps (including juvs) and a baby pleco and an oto. This tank is heavily planted.

It reads 0 for all 3 - ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.

Last water change was about a week ago, and did about 1/4th (no longer 50%). No problems with inhabitants, the tank is about 3 months old. 

I was expecting some level of nitrates. Is this because there's very little bio load from shrimps and plants consuming all nitrates?

Could this mean the plants could be suffering from nitrogen shortage?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Having 0 nitrates doesn't necessarily mean that the plants will be starving for nutrients, but I would monitor growth and if you see any indication of problems, supplement with ferts, or go longer between water changes.


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## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

If you have shrimp, you may want to read the label on the ferts to see if there is anything that might hurt them. 

It sounds like you might have set up a nice balance similar to the ones in a Natural planted tank.


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## Trigga (Sep 5, 2008)

I think your plants are getting rid of all the nitrates before it has a chance to establish on your readings which is a good thing. Maybe try and add some small tetras or something if you want to add a bit to your bio load if your filtration can handle it.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

Trigga said:


> I think your plants are getting rid of all the nitrates before it has a chance to establish on your readings which is a good thing. Maybe try and add some small tetras or something if you want to add a bit to your bio load if your filtration can handle it.


I do have 2 fishes in this tank - oto and short finned brown pleco (juv).

I do not want to add other types of fishes - they will happily eat shrimplets!

I was just curious if my readings are still correct for a cycled tank - I'm sure there is *some* bio load in this tank, considering it's got tons of snails as well.

This tank is the wal-mart 10g kit one, which comes with a tetra HOB filter. I do have a fair amount of bio rings and ceramic bits to supplement bio filteration.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

What ferts would hurt shrumps?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Sunstar said:


> What ferts would hurt shrumps?


Anything with a high concentration of heavy metals (copper, especially is toxic to invertebrates)


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