Will shrimp/snails help speed up cycle process??

[Darren86]

Hi all, im new here and to fish keeping, I purchased a second hand 130L tank with complete setup (so old filters ect) and was wondering if shrimp, snails or both would help speed up the cycle process?
Many thanks
For tropical fish btw

 

[Parrisgg]

As long as you have old filter media, your tank will pretty much be cycled within a few days. If you have new filter media, the shrimp and snails probably won't speed up the cycle.

 

[Darren86]

yes the media is old but I spoke to the spotty teenager in the LFS and he said that all the good bacteria in the old media would have died after a day.
Is this true?
Thanks for the reply

 

[jcolon]

yes the media is old but I spoke to the spotty teenager in the LFS and he said that all the good bacteria in the old media would have died after a day.
Is this true?
Thanks for the reply

As long as the media is kept wet, the bacteria can go a day or two before starving. It it dries then your out of luck. This is why you would place your media in a media bag and then into your tank should the filter stop working for an extended period of time.

 

[Darren86]

Ok thanks for the info guys

 

[jetajockey]

The bacteria will actually be fine for several days or more if it's kept wet. We ship fish for days at a time and they are far less resilient.

Just stock light initially and test, if all is well a few days later you should be good to add more. Repeat till fully stocked.

 

[librarygirl]

As Jeta said the bacteria can survive several days without food (an ammonia source such as fish waste) as long as the media stays wet. Shrimp or snails wouldn't create enough of a bioload to sustain the amount of bacteria that's on the media though. If you want to add some fish, you can add a few, wait, test, do extra water changes as needed then if all is stable in a week or two, add more, etc. Here's a guide for you: I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice

You could also add doses of pure ammonia to test the bacteria and make sure it's fully cycled before you add fish: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html

Here's a general guide to aquarium care too: Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium - Aquarium Advice

If you need more help (stocking ideas, etc) let us know.

 

[Darren86]

Ok thank you. I added a biological friendly bacteria over the past 2 days and done my tests and everything seems to be ok other than the KH but the pH was 7.5 so should I be concerned about the KH?
Also bought 3 amano shrimp today just to see if things were ok

 

[librarygirl]

Bacteria starters are hit and miss; sometimes they work, often they don't. However the bacteria still needs an ammonia source to survive. Testing the tank without fish or other ammonia source will give "good" test readings but this isn't an indicator on whether the tank will be able to sustain fish until ammonia starts to be added (through fish waste for example). A few shrimp won't produce much of a bioload (ammonia). I wouldn't worry about KH and a Ph of 7.5 is fine.