Efficiency Of Mature Filter Media Squeezing

[ron4sum1]

Hello guys,

How efficient is mature filter media squeezing? I set up a small shrimp breeding aquarium. Hopefully, it'll be matured soon. I got the mature media from other aquarium that's been set up for 8 months. I used one of its sponge and squeezed all the debris to the smaller aquarium. Is this efficient? or would it just help the cycling by a little, but not massively?

I cannot incorporate the old sponge to the new filter due to specificity issue. I have no choice but to do squeezings.

Any advice would be gladly appreciated

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Squeezing will help, but not nearly as much as many of the other alternatives. The other way to put it is it will make the cycle go faster than if you did nothing at all to seed.

It also depends on what media you squeezed. Mechanical media like dirty filter floss would start with the least bacteria on/in it and bio-media like a sponge would have the most.

 

[Jimbo1984]

Hi, I believe all the bacteria squeezed into the tank will die off if there isn't a constant source of Ammonia. Is there anything living in there?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I believe all the bacteria squeezed into the tank will die off if there isn't a constant source of Ammonia.

Nope they wont. It takes some time for this to happen. And when the squeezings went in they were mostly organic waste which will produce ammonia pretty quick. The bacteria do not want to be floating around in the water. As soon as they get sucked into the filter or land on a hard surface they will work to attach to it.

I assume the OP will dose an ammonia source to build up the colonies before adding the shrimp or will add the shrimp immediately which will also provide ammonia. Unless its a small number of shrimp to start or there are some live plants in the tank, I would want to add ammonia in some fashion simply to increase the size of the bacterial colonies before stocking. I would for sure not try to dose it up to more than 1 ppm or so and would then not add any more til the ammonia went to 0 or when nitrites appeared. When they did I would add about 1/2 the initial dose. When nitrates zero out you should have nitrates, and its cycled. Do a big wc and stock the shrimp.

 

[ron4sum1]

I believe all the bacteria squeezed into the tank will die off if there isn't a constant source of Ammonia.

Nope they wont. It takes some time for this to happen. And when the squeezings went in they were mostly organic waste which will produce ammonia pretty quick. The bacteria do not want to be floating around in the water. As soon as they get sucked into the filter or land on a hard surface they will work to attach to it.

I assume the OP will dose an ammonia source to build up the colonies before adding the shrimp or will add the shrimp immediately which will also provide ammonia. Unless its a small number of shrimp to start or there are some live plants in the tank, I would want to add ammonia in some fashion simply to increase the size of the bacterial colonies before stocking. I would for sure not try to dose it up to more than 1 ppm or so and would then not add any more til the ammonia went to 0 or when nitrites appeared. When they did I would add about 1/2 the initial dose. When nitrates zero out you should have nitrates, and its cycled. Do a big wc and stock the shrimp.

Thanks everyone for the reply.

@TwoTankAmin

I used a sponge from my Fluval U2. Just one of the four, and squeezed all the dirt to the water. The water went really cloudy but then the dirt got sucked to the filter. It's actually my 2nd week of doing this. First week, I added the filter and squeezed using the mature filter media. I added a bit of fish food. Then, after one week, I did another squeezing and more fish foods. I didn't do any water changes at all. It's been 13 days now. I don't really want to add any shrimps until I'm certain. The temp is set to 28 degrees centigrade, so hopefully, the bacteria would multiply at a faster rate.

I can't do any test in the meantime, so I'm relying on what people would advice. Is two weeks sufficient? I'm planning to add one 'sacrificial' shrimp soon to see how it would react. I would like to ask when do you think is the best time to do this?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I do not know of any method to know for certain that a newly setup tank is safe that does not involve some testing. Even when I instantly cycle a new tank I always confirm it by dosing the appropriate amount of ammonia and testing in about 1.5 - 2 hours.

I have never used anything but ammonia or ammonium chloride to cycle. I do not use food (or rsw shrimp) for this purpose as it is messy and can lead to a bacterial bloom.

 

[ron4sum1]

I do not know of any method to know for certain that a newly setup tank is safe that does not involve some testing. Even when I instantly cycle a new tank I always confirm it by dosing the appropriate amount of ammonia and testing in about 1.5 - 2 hours.

I have never used anything but ammonia or ammonium chloride to cycle. I do not use food (or rsw shrimp) for this purpose as it is messy and can lead to a bacterial bloom.

Thanks for the help