Shrimp Tank Cycling Question

[mattmathis]

Ok, I have fallen in love with RCS now and am going to have to have a tank devoted to them. And I would like to make sure I get it set up properly for them before I get them. Someone tell me if this wont work.

I have had the "Biomax bag" part of the filter on a aquaclear 30 in the back of a whisper 60 on my well established 75 gallon tank for about a month in anticipation of something like this.

I plan on using that aquaclear 30 with that biomax bag on a 10 gallon tank along with a couple of handfuls of gravel and maybe some mulm/detrius, and a piece of driftwood from the 75 gallon. Then getting a big bunch of java moss(should have extra bacteria) and about 10-20 RCS.

I have used this method before on hospital tanks and it seemed to work fine, but I just wanted to make doubly sure. I have read that RCS are sensitive to nitrate poisoning.

Should that be enough bacteria to start the tank without doing fishless cycling or something?

I would of course make sure the water temp is right and de-chlorinated good.

My tap water:
ph: 7.2
kh: 4
Nitrates are zero

 

[neilanh]

Yup, should work just fine. The shrimp arent going to create much of a bioload anyway.

 

[mattmathis]

Thanks!

BTW, I have read that RCS like to breed between 72-75F. It is hard for me to keep my water under 78F. Should that still be ok for the RCS to breed?

 

[mattmathis]

I am probably going to go the way I planned, but I'm curious about something. So many people tell me I would still need to add fish. I can't imagine that because, dosen't aerobic bacteria die off without a bio-load to feed off of?

It seems to me if I went to all that trouble putting fish in to help the bacteria, and then took the fish out, when I added the shrimp it would be defeating the purpose. As you said, surely 10-20 shrimp are not going to create enough bio-load to keep all of the bacteria alive that was alive when the fish were living in there.

I know I might very well be off base here, but can someone please help me to understand this?

Thanks!!!