I remember not so long ago when we got our first aquarium. I could not wait to get started up and buying livestock to add to this 10 gallon aquatic world. I remember someone at the store telling me that the tank needed to sit for a month before it was ready for aquatic life, on the other hand there were all these products that allowed for instant fish addition. What to do!?
Unfortunately, no one explained the nitrogen cycle to me or why a tank needs to mature a bit before we add animals. I don't want to reinvent the wheel in this post so I am going to link to this article that summarizes the topic.
You will need a source of ammonia to feed your colony and a beneficial bacteria product can help seed your tank with the nitrifying bacteria you want. I use ammonium chloride liquid as a food source but you can also use fish food or a raw shrimp (the eating kind!). The beneficial bacteria will use the ammonia or decomposing food as an ammonia source and the cycling process will be underway.
Some tanks, like my neocaridina tanks with neutral ph, cycle in as little as two weeks. My acidic caridina tanks can take as long as two months. A low Ph environment is not ideal to grow nitrobacteria colonies so patience is the key to success. This process also allows for algae and bacteria film to grow which composes a large part of a dwarf shrimp's diet.
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