Prime Question

[JMorris271]

Hi Everyone that is reading this.
I am going to cycle a tank .with shrimp in a 120 gal. DT using distilled water
At the same time that I begin the cycle, ,I want to purchase a cleanup crew and put it into another smaller tank whose water is treated with Prime to observe(QT) and see if there is a problem with any of them before they go into the tank.
My thought is that cuc should be clear to be put into the aquarium at the same time with both the tank cycled and their observation time (or QT as some will say)over.
I am not trying to cut corners but only trying to use time wisely and get this **** tank going asap.
Would the Prime bit work?

 

[Sniperhank]

The only thing prime will do is make the toxic ammonia and nitrite in the tank not harmful. You want your ammonia to rise to build up enough of a bacteria base so when you add livestock it can handle how much you feed and how much they poop. There isn't an effective way of speeding this process along. There are claims that there are products out there that will, so called bacteria in a bottle like Dr. Tim's, but there isn't any real info out there about this stuff. Some say it works, some say it doesn't...but all of this isn't putting shelf life and refrigeration into their statements. I know I don't use or trust what a cocktail shrimp and patience can do.

 

[JMorris271]

Thanks for responding Hank
I understand about how the cycling process works and the need to build up bacteria and that the bacteria needs to be fed to grow and expand.
I just want to be able to be able to QT my cuc while the DT is cycling which I anticipate will take from 3 to 4 weeks. Because I do not currently own anything cycled, I need to be able to neutralize ammonia(Prime) to pass the time so I can check these guys outin a smaller tank (10 gals.) to be sure they are clear to jump into the big tank.
Do you think this will work?

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

There's no need to qt a cuc, and a new tank won't have enough algae to support one really either. Just cycle the tank and add a couple snails or hermits after, just go slowly because if they don't have enough to eat they'll die and cause a spike.

 

[TheTodd]

I agree. The CUC should wait, as they have nothing to "clean" at first. I've never QT'd snails/crabs/shrimp. I do dump them out of the bag into a container and drip acclimate them, then transfer them into another container filled with DT water and then they go into the DT. Probably overkill, but I figure on the off chance there was something like an Ich parasite on a drop of water from the bag water, it would probably get rinsed off in one of the transfers.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[JMorris271]

I didn't know so that is why I posed the question I have read in RC on a Sticky that it should. This guy was talking Everything including LR,LS, CUC, Coral and fish. The CUC seems overboard to me.

Have you ever used flakes or a piece of nori to feed the CUC before algae is established?

 

[bond300]

Man oh Man! I just wanted to say the easy way to get your tanks started is to used Dr. Tim's Bacteria and add two clowns and be done! I took 1 week for both my 90G and 75G it works.........

 

[JMorris271]

Man oh Man! I just wanted to say the easy way to get your tanks started is to used Dr. Tim's Bacteria and add two clowns and be done! I took 1 week for both my 90G and 75G it works.........

I wish it was that easy.