Sustaining cycle in DT while fish are in QT

[TikiBird]

My main tank housed two clownfish, two nassarius snails, and one skunk cleaner shrimp. Sadly my two clowns have died from internal parasites, I am fairly certain. I will be putting any future fish into QT for several weeks before introducing them to the main tank. I will also be leaving the main tank without fish for several weeks now.

This leaves just the shrimp and snails in the main tank, along with my live rock. The tank recently completed cycling but is going through an ugly diatom phase, so it's relatively new in its life.

I'm just wondering how I can maintain all the beneficial bacteria it's built up so far, when I don't have fish in the tank for several weeks?

Will the shrimp and snails be enough to maintain the cycle? Should I add anything to increase ammonia?

Hopefully this makes some sense! Not sure I'm explaining it well....

 

[Brew12]

My main tank housed two clownfish, two nassarius snails, and one skunk cleaner shrimp. Sadly my two clowns have died from internal parasites, I am fairly certain. I will be putting any future fish into QT for several weeks before introducing them to the main tank. I will also be leaving the main tank without fish for several weeks now.

This leaves just the shrimp and snails in the main tank, along with my live rock. The tank recently completed cycling but is going through an ugly diatom phase, so it's relatively new in its life.

I'm just wondering how I can maintain all the beneficial bacteria it's built up so far, when I don't have fish in the tank for several weeks?

Will the shrimp and snails be enough to maintain the cycle? Should I add anything to increase ammonia?

Hopefully this makes some sense! Not sure I'm explaining it well....

Your bacteria will not die off quickly unless you do something to sterilize the tank. As long as you have food to keep your CuC happy the tank will be fine as far as bacteria goes.

 

[TikiBird]

Your bacteria will not die off quickly unless you do something to sterilize the tank. As long as you have food to keep your CuC happy the tank will be fine as far as bacteria goes.

Excellent. Thank you, @Brew12!!

 

[brandon429]

Agreed

Once set, even removing the clean up crew for mos won't downscale it, bac will remain when hydrated.

 

[Triggreef]

Agreed. You could also add some shrimp or crabs you can feed a bit more normally too.

 

[TikiBird]

Thank you @brandon429 and @Triggreef!!

 

[4FordFamily]

Agree, ghost feed and you'll be fine

 

[brandon429]

my claim is opposite. It's fun to detail this stuff for no reason

No need to feed anything, ever, to bac established on massive surface areas only to keep them wet is required once they are set in

They get feed without us helping at all after they are set in numbers via cycling, withholding obvious feed doesn't kill off the bacteria or starve them.

Even cycling itself doesn't require us to dose ammonia or bacteria, both get in naturally upon hydration and those surface areas will still cycle it just takes months longer if we don't boost.

Ghost feeding is an action aquarists do but isn't required. It's following the notion that aquarists control bacteria and sterility by what they give or not give which isn't the case... the reason that concept is important is because it branches off into more things we plan (withhold) around bacteria that isn't the case too, like big water changes, sandbed rinsing, air exposure and transport, tons of actions

If you take an aquarium with nine fish and typical live rock and sand and water, remove the fish, don't feed for a year straight, you can put all the fish back in anytime and it will not mini cycle, because those bacteria were fed constantly without our help

It will be important not to use an API ammonia test kit when validating that claim, but since the aquarium hobby is built on what API seems to indicate, that notion will never go away.

One of the myriad natural support/feed mechanisms for nitrifiers when we don't feed are the non filtration bacteria they are always complexed with... those bacteria bloom and die in rapid succession and provide ammonia that way and there are many other pathways as well

 

[FishOfHex]

Just feed the shrimp a little every other day. The tanks bacteria population will go down based on the lower bioload but it won't completely die off. Once you start adding fish again go slow to allow it to repopulate.

 

[FishOfHex]

Bioload dang auto correct

 

[TikiBird]

Thank you, @4FordFamily and @FishOfHex for your input too!!

@brandon429, I've just finished catching up on your thread about ghost feeding--very interesting!

 

[brandon429]

Tiki howdy! That was written solely to challenge what I wrote in your thread for accuracy

I want the team dissecting that like think tank

What's better self-honing for claims made


I watch the group for key verifications and make changes to my own reef based on honing, testing of claims. The purpose of that is to assemble tricks to make my own reef live longer, that thread has implications to tank cleaning threads as well, all shared science.

Whatever emerges after that melee might be reliable info lol

 

[TikiBird]

Whatever emerges after that melee might be reliable info lol

Hahaha! I think that's a good strategy!

 

[427HISS]

my claim is opposite. It's fun to detail this stuff for no reason

No need to feed anything, ever, to bac established on massive surface areas only to keep them wet is required once they are set in

They get feed without us helping at all after they are set in numbers via cycling, withholding obvious feed doesn't kill off the bacteria or starve them.

Even cycling itself doesn't require us to dose ammonia or bacteria, both get in naturally upon hydration and those surface areas will still cycle it just takes months longer if we don't boost.

Ghost feeding is an action aquarists do but isn't required. It's following the notion that aquarists control bacteria and sterility by what they give or not give which isn't the case... the reason that concept is important is because it branches off into more things we plan (withhold) around bacteria that isn't the case too, like big water changes, sandbed rinsing, air exposure and transport, tons of actions

If you take an aquarium with nine fish and typical live rock and sand and water, remove the fish, don't feed for a year straight, you can put all the fish back in anytime and it will not mini cycle, because those bacteria were fed constantly without our help

It will be important not to use an API ammonia test kit when validating that claim, but since the aquarium hobby is built on what API seems to indicate, that notion will never go away.

One of the myriad natural support/feed mechanisms for nitrifiers when we don't feed are the non filtration bacteria they are always complexed with... those bacteria bloom and die in rapid succession and provide ammonia that way and there are many other pathways as well

If not API, who do you suggest ?

 

[brandon429]

Must go with salifert but that's only my opinion not everyone agrees. Colors seem more discernible and matched to what's going on in the tank vs the classic .25 we see across API threads

Our tank cycle threads try to show that ammonia testing isn't needed when dealing with live rock kept in decent water, things will hold course with or without testing but it's best to verify any low level readings before taking action is my opinion from seeing so many reported stalled cycle .25 threads