Cycling a new tank

[Camille]

My question: can I cycle my 40 gallon tank with only snails? I seeded the tank with bio material from another established aquarium, bought my first sponge filter from Aquarium Co-op and used plant and rocks from another aquarium for the new tank. I want to eventually add pea puffers purchased from AquaHuna once the tank is good to go. I will probably wait until spring before I add them. 

I read about cycling a new tank on the co-op blog but it wasn't clear to me if I could use snails. I know snails release minimal ammonia but I'm hoping they poop enough to get the cycle started. I have 8 snails in the tank.

[Colu]

You can use snail but what I do is add a small amount of fish food every couple of days  to keep the cycle going and feed the benefial bacterial the snail will all so help with this

[Camille]

Thank you. I’ve been adding flake food and pellets every other day. So far so good. I made a Java moss wall for the back of the aquarium. It came with a snail or two. I ordered the moss from eBay. I’m sure that wouldn’t happen with the co op. 

[Colu]

With the plants and snails plus adding fish food I don't think you will have any problems

[BenA]

You can also dose "house hold ammonia" but make sure not to go over 3ppm. Once your test shows '0ppm' you need to dose the water again.