could any still be there?

[Jumko]

A friend of mine had a 30g fully cycled, stocked, and planted tank. Well, after a fish or two of his died he decided he really didn't have time to maintain the tank and gave away whatever fish he had left. He pretty much shutdown the tank but left it filled with water. The plants eventually died and he never bothered to remove the bodies of the dead fish from the tank...

[3- 4 months later] Anyways, instead of buying new gravel for the new tank i set up, he gave me the gravel from his tank. I brought the gravel home and rinsed it well in a bucket, put it in the tank, and set the whole thing up... i was wondering what are the chances that any beneficial bacteria might of still survived? I know there were no fish in the tank for 3 months but surely the rotting fish and plants added ammonia in the tank to keep the bacteria alive... or did i probably remove all the bacteria when i cleaned the gravel?

anyways i'm just wondering as i haven't started cycling and am not sure whether i want to go the traditional method or use fishless cycling...

 

[RioXingu]

I think you did well to rinse this gravel before use.
There are more bacteria to consider than just the ones that convert ammonia and nitrite, i.e., "beneficial bacteria."
That old set-up probably contained pathogenic bacteria (disease causing) and saprogenic baceria (producing decay), neither one of which you want in a new aquarium venture.

I think starting out with bacteria free gravel was the way to go, and I think you achieved it with the rinsing. Anyway, bacteria will propagate on most aquarium surfaces, not just the gravel. In fact, that's why filters with sponges are so favored, as they provide surface area and water flow to foster a large beneficial bacteria population for biological filtration in an aquarium.


Bill in WI

 

[Jumko]

so basically i'm starting completely fresh w/o any bacteria?

Also... I've just sparsely planted the tank w/ some low light plants. Will this affect the cycling if i decide to go fishless?

Or if I go the traditional method of cycling I was thinking of starting with a shoal of tiger barbs... but would 4-5 tiger barbs be too much bioload to begin with? ( it's a 20g long)