Just lost all my fish to ICH Now starting over and want to cycle 10 gal quarenteen tank without fish. Do you put a shrimp in it and just let it sit for 4 to 6 weeks? Also will it hurt to leave my 55 with liverock,3crabs,3snails and a pepermint shrimp with no fish for 2 months? Will I loose my cycle?
cycling tank
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Hi Ron, and welcome to ARC and TRT!!!
I'm sorry for your losses. First of all, do you know what caused the ich outbreak? Fixing that (pH swings, temp swings, stress etc.) is the first step to recovery....
There are a few ways to cycle the q-tank. You could use a small piece of live rock (which will never go back into the main tank, esp. if you use medications in the q-tank) and that will seed your biological filter. What kind of filter are you using on your q-tank? If using a bio-wheel type filter, you can take a wheel from an established filter and that will work too. The shrimp method will work but there are faster ways of doing it.
Your 55 will not lose its cycle - the bacteria will die back due to the smaller bio-load but if you go slowly when you are ready to add fish again, you should be able to proceed normally - going slowly, the bacteria will repopulate to compensate for the changes when you add new organisms.
Hope this helps.
Jenn
I'm sorry for your losses. First of all, do you know what caused the ich outbreak? Fixing that (pH swings, temp swings, stress etc.) is the first step to recovery....
There are a few ways to cycle the q-tank. You could use a small piece of live rock (which will never go back into the main tank, esp. if you use medications in the q-tank) and that will seed your biological filter. What kind of filter are you using on your q-tank? If using a bio-wheel type filter, you can take a wheel from an established filter and that will work too. The shrimp method will work but there are faster ways of doing it.
Your 55 will not lose its cycle - the bacteria will die back due to the smaller bio-load but if you go slowly when you are ready to add fish again, you should be able to proceed normally - going slowly, the bacteria will repopulate to compensate for the changes when you add new organisms.
Hope this helps.
Jenn
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475 Posts
The copper won't affect the algae or beneficial bacteria, but it will kill the invertabrates on the LR. So if you have some LR with just algae, use that one to cycle the tank. Also, if you use substrate, you can transfer some to the qt tank for a seed.
What kind of filter are you using in your 55?
What kind of filter are you using in your 55?
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