Tropical Fish Forums

[sondre]

Hi guys,

was hoping that you could help me out here .

When cycling,would it be better to add a snail or shrimp first , instead of a hardy fish ?
Would snail or a shrimp have more chances of surviving ?

I can't do fishless cycling because I can't get ammonia, and I can't do silent cycling because I won't have enough plants in my tank ( only one light ) .

As I will have a few plants in my tank,that should help when dealing with ammonia , so I think it is a little better for whoever goes in it first .

I just want to know who would handle it better ? snail ? shrimp ? or fish ?

I know most of the people add fish first,but I just want to know if adding something else would be better ?

Thank you

[diademhill]

Use a dead shrimp from the freezer instead of ammonia.

[sondre]

[monstrosity]

yeah you don't need ammonia for fishless cycling. you can use fish food, or in your case dead shrimp. don't put anything live in, however. it is inhumane.
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29 G

[Zowie72]

You don't need to keep adding prawns... the idea is that as it rots it gives out ammonia gradually over time giving the filter bacteria time to multiply and convert the ammonia to nitrite then nitrate, which won't harm the inhabitants in low doses. Some will be used by plants, but most is removed by weekly water changes.

So just add one prawn (usually in an old stocking to make it easy to remove when you're done with it) and keep checking your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels to see when the cycle has finished.

Hope that helps,
Zowie

PS Have you seen the articles section, some good information there about cycling... http://www.aquahobby.com/e_articles.php