Keeping an empty tank cycled

[ScotJudd]

I have a quarantine tank which is rarely empty as I quarantine for a long time and have had a rolling programme to stock my main tank. Now that the main tank is fully stocked I shall have the QT without fish for a few months and would like to keep it running and keep the filters healthy ready for when I buy more fish. I would normally just chuck in some ammonia every now and then but I keep a colony of red cherry shrimp in the QT. I know - at strange thing to do but they were overflow from the main tank and they keep the QT nice and clean.
So, my question is, at last I hear you say, will a well fed shrimp tank keep my filters fully cycled until I buy new fish or could I add a little ammonia now and then, just a few drops, to feed the filters or will this kill the shrimp?
Any opinions welcome ?.


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[lksdrinker]

I have a quarantine tank which is rarely empty as I quarantine for a long time and have had a rolling programme to stock my main tank. Now that the main tank is fully stocked I shall have the QT without fish for a few months and would like to keep it running and keep the filters healthy ready for when I buy more fish. I would normally just chuck in some ammonia every now and then but I keep a colony of red cherry shrimp in the QT. I know - at strange thing to do but they were overflow from the main tank and they keep the QT nice and clean.
So, my question is, at last I hear you say, will a well fed shrimp tank keep my filters fully cycled until I buy new fish or could I add a little ammonia now and then, just a few drops, to feed the filters or will this kill the shrimp?
Any opinions welcome ?.


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The shrimp should be able to keep the biological bacteria going. Plenty of people keep tanks with nothing but shrimp so their colony is kept alive. How big is this QT tank and how many shrimp are we talking?

 

[ScotJudd]

It's 50 litre, 11g UK, 13g US, and about 50/60 RCS, hard to count them because of all the moss and plant. The number stays fairly constant when I have fish in because they feed on the young but in the past the numbers have really shot up when no predators are present.


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[Andy Sager]

I have a quarantine tank which is rarely empty as I quarantine for a long time and have had a rolling programme to stock my main tank. Now that the main tank is fully stocked I shall have the QT without fish for a few months and would like to keep it running and keep the filters healthy ready for when I buy more fish. I would normally just chuck in some ammonia every now and then but I keep a colony of red cherry shrimp in the QT. I know - at strange thing to do but they were overflow from the main tank and they keep the QT nice and clean.
So, my question is, at last I hear you say, will a well fed shrimp tank keep my filters fully cycled until I buy new fish or could I add a little ammonia now and then, just a few drops, to feed the filters or will this kill the shrimp?
Any opinions welcome ?.


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The bacteria bed grows and shrinks to the bioload that is present. So a small colony of shrimp will not keep the tank fully able to handle a large bioload at one time when that time comes. It will be able to handle a small load comparable to what the shrimp are putting out with very little effort. ( that would mean removing the shrimp and adding bioload that equals what the shrimp were). The good news is that there will be nitrifying bacteria in the filter and tank and once they are established( when the tank is considered "cycled"), they grow rather rapidly when the food source increases so that you shouldn't have too much of an issue when you do start using the tank again as a QT. When the time comes, depending on what you are adding, you may want to prepare yourself for water changes or adding PRIME while the bed increases in size. You'll know what you need to do by taking an ammonia test after adding your stock.
Hope this helps.

 

[ScotJudd]

Thanks for that Andy. That was my thinking, add the stock, test daily, WC as required and protect with Prime.
I put out the ammonia idea in case anyone had done it and was interested in the results.


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