Tank maturity question for RCS

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I'm starting up a tank for Red Cherry Shrimp, and was hoping to get a little advice.

The tank is a 6.6 gallon bowfront with a footprint of 24" by 7" that I plan to plant with Christmas and Taiwan moss on driftwood, Marimo balls, and maybe some good nitrate reducing plants such as duckweed or guppy grass. Since the tank is so long, and I wanted to jump start the cycle with media from my main tank, I went with an AC20 HoB that I'll probably reduce flow on a bit, and cover the filter intake with a sponge prefilter. Since I'll be altering the water chemistry like I do on my main tank (cutting with distilled), I assume that I'll end up with similar stats: 7 dGH and 7.8 pH, and a base nitrate level of 10 ppm (because the tap is ~20 ppm)

Hopefully that all sounds pretty good so far. ~_^

One thing that I haven't been able to find out research wise so far is:
Should I give the tank some time to mature before adding my shrimp?

Obviously it's easy enough to jump start the cycle with some filter media from my main tank, but I guess I'm a little concerned about stability, and having some natural food stuffs for them to graze on. I'd certainly like to give the plants a little time to get filled out, but I'm also very much aware that nice spring weather window will only last so long which really seems like the best time to have anything shipped.

Advice and opinions would be most appreciated! ^_^

[TwoHobbies]

You have a good handle on it. Everything looks fine to me. I usually let my cycled tanks age at least a couple of months before adding shrimp to them although you can speed that up a little by adding some dried, dead leaves to the tank.

[XanAvaloni]

What sort of leaves, twohobbies, or does it make any difference?

(looks out window at 16 trees in yard and several acres of surrounding woods) Oak and/or hickory would be an excellent answer, although with some care I can probably turn up anything from holly to dogwood. :)

[TwoHobbies]

I think I would stay away form the holly, but any of the other three are fine. I use maple and box elder because they are in my yard where I know no pesticides were used.
Soak them in used tank water in a bucket a couple of days, or till they sink, then move them to the tank and let them rot. You only need a couple. You will then have a nice layer of bio film for the shrimp to snack on.

[Aphotic Phoenix]

You have a good handle on it. Everything looks fine to me. I usually let my cycled tanks age at least a couple of months before adding shrimp to them although you can speed that up a little by adding some dried, dead leaves to the tank.
Thanks for the reply. ^_^ Do you do anything in particular to keep the tank cycled, or do you find that the combination of plants and decaying leaf litter keeps things stable? I think keeping it cycled in the safest manner possible for several months is my biggest concern.

[blue2fyre]

I kept some snails in my invert tank while I waited for it to be mature enough to add shrimp. After a month I added some cherry shrimp without a problem.

[TwoHobbies]

Nope..you got it. Sounds to me like you are well on your way to having some very happy shrimp!

[Aphotic Phoenix]

^_^ Thanks again everyone. I'm still waiting on several things to come in before I set up the tank, but I do have some MTS I could pull out of my main tank if I decide I'd feel safer with a bio back-up.