Am I going to lose my cycle?

[domingo3]

Hi. I'm fishless cycling and wasn't paying attention to my rotting shrimp. The shrimp completely rotted away. I put a couple of new frozen shrimp in there, but I'm afraid that it might take too long for them to start to decay and give off ammonia. That would really suck because the cycle was starting.

Two nights ago, I had 4 ppm of ammonia and 4 ppm of nitrite.

As of last night, I was at .25 ppm of ammonia and had >5ppm of nitrite. That's when I noticed my shrimp pieces were all gone.

Are my beneficial bacteria going to starve to death? How long will it take the new frozen shrimp to start decaying and kicking off ammonia?

Before you suggest it, I've already looked all over for pure ammonia to no avail. There's no ACE hardware nearby.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[rich311k]

I think you will be fine. It will start rotting right away. There is probably residue of the first shrimp pieces all over the place anyway.

[lowlight]

I agree that you should be fine the Ammonia and Nitrite will not disappear over night.

[domingo3]

OK. Thanks for the reassurance. I checked tonight and it's back to 4ppm ammonia or so. I didn't realize it would start giving off ammonia so quickly. My nitrites are seriously spiking, so hopefully the cycle will be coming to an end soon.