Cycling tank w/ shrimp

Hello all! Just a quick question.

So I am in the process of cycling my tank (28gal JBJ Nano) and have just tested my water for ammonia and nitrites. I am using the "Shrimp Method". Ammonia is high at about 6-8ppm. Nitrites are at about .25ppm. Is it safe for me to remove the shrimp? I have seen some people say to leave it in the whole cycle and others say that it is ok to remove it after the ammonia has built up.

Thanks for the help!

-Allen

 

I left mine in the whole time Some say leave it in until the ammonia peaks at 8.0-10.0 ppm then take it out.

 

yeah thats what I was thinking. But if it will prolong the process then I do not want to leave it in there haha

Anyone else?

 

I left mine in there till it was gone.

 

well I have it in pantyhose lol it's seeping through! ewwww

photo by allenmay8, on Flickr

 

I'm not saying my way is right and others ways are wrong. I honestly don't know. Heck it all probably works to some extent lol. But I removed mine after one week, my cycle took four weeks total. To me the whole idea of jump starting life is fascinating, what a great hobby!

 

Yea that's what mine looked like, I just poured what ever was left out of the panty hose.

 

took the shrimp out today. Hope it does not affect anything!

 

It shouldn't. The ammonia is high so the process started My cycle took about 5 weeks with shrimp in. All I had left was an empty shell LOL And I didn't want to touch it :-X

 

Without reading a single word in this post aside from the title my gut reaction is to yell "DONT DO IT!"....

I will go back and read the post but shrimp are very delicate creatures that don't really produce any considerable ammount of waste. Shrimp are probably one of the worst things you can cycle a tank with in terms of sheer efficiency. In terms of cruelty it is down-right wrong.


I don't know where you got "the shrimp method" from but that is a completely asinine idea.

Edit: Reading the replies on this post reveals that many people use shrimp to cycle their tank and I hope that anyone reading this and thinking of doing this will reconsider. Shrimp are very delicate creatures and putting them in unstable water is nothing short of torture. Properly cycling any fish tank requires patience and should never be done with living creatures. If you do not have patience then you have no business attempting this trade. Rant over.

EDIT: If the OP is referring to dead cocktail shrimp then I apologize. Yes, remove the dead shrimp if ammonia is present, which you have already done. Good work.