Probably Silly Cycle Question

[mossonthemoon]

I have two fish in a hospital tank right now that I want to move into my 180 litre tank, which I am starting over from scratch. I have the old filter media but there is no way there is still bacteria on it. I am seeding the big tank with the small tank's sponge, but it is a tiny filter and I don't expect it to go very far in the 180. At some point I am going to order some Malaysian trumpet snails. If I get a big group of them, will it help the cycling along? Or is it cruel to put snails into a cycling tank? I am clueless about the hardiness of snails, to be honest.

 

[turtlegirl]

I have two fish in a hospital tank right now that I want to move into my 180 litre tank, which I am starting over from scratch. I have the old filter media but there is no way there is still bacteria on it. I am seeding the big tank with the small tank's sponge, but it is a tiny filter and I don't expect it to go very far in the 180. At some point I am going to order some Malaysian trumpet snails. If I get a big group of them, will it help the cycling along? Or is it cruel to put snails into a cycling tank? I am clueless about the hardiness of snails, to be honest.

Get some household ammonia and a test kit, do a fish less cycle still.

 

[mossonthemoon]

Thanks, I am doing a fishless cycle. The only other time I have had to do one was with my first tank (I have used tank water and filter media ever since then), and I had put a plant in after maybe a week or two. The plant came with snails and I got a nice population from that (hundreds), which made me wonder whether they even care about cycling. They were just common snails though, and not Malaysian trumpets. I actually liked having them, but my first fish ended up eating them all.