A Little Advice Please

[stue0]

Bit embarrassed to ask this! How do i cycle my tank using ammonia??? I have kept fish for many years an after much debate an arguments i had to strip my 4ft tank due to algae taking over, so i was left with empty tank! After much more debate i came to the decision i would start up a African cichlid tank/Malawi setup, so trip to see lfs an he pointed me in right direction, which sand to raise Ph slightly, an also using ocean rock, so after couple weeks cleaning tank of all algae, finally got all sand & rocks in, new external filter plumbed an bought temp up to 80's (i have read the cycling threads) Calculated how much ammonia to use? used 10 ltr bucket added 7 drops an it got ammonia to just over 4. (my kit reads 4 then jumps to 8 ) But after hubby did calculations it worked out that i needed to put in 154 drops of ammonia? that seemed quite alot? an i don't want to put it in an i do it all wrong,
I must admit this is my first time doing a fish-less cycle so even tho kept them for years i feel a bit stupid
Please any help you can give me would help me LOADS!!!!!
Thank you!

 

[Majjie]

Sounds fine to me - after all it's quite a big tank. If you're worried - then add half that amount to the tank and test for ammonia - then add the rest if it hasn't got up to 5ppm.

I take it you're going to use the "Add and Wait" method.

 

[stue0]

I take it you're going to use the "Add and Wait" method.

Is there other methods? this is my first time doing a fishless cycle? plus my ammonia test only reads 4ppm then jumps to 8ppm there nothing in between? maybe an idea to get one that'l read better

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

I tried a fishless cycle with ammonia one time and I have to say it took FOREVER. For my next tank I just got some used filter media from a friend of mine and also some from the LFS here. I then just slowly added fish, like one or two a week. That system worked extremely well for two tanks so far. Also if you can get your hands on some BioSpira as well as old media that would work really good.

Just something to consider.

 

[thegnu]

take a litre of water in a jug or something, add a drop of ammonia, give it a stir, wait for a couple of hours preferably with an air line in it and test for ammonia. keep adding ammonia and testing until it has risen to 4ppm and multiply with number of litres in your tank and add that number of drops

 

[stue0]

I tried a fish-less cycle with ammonia one time and I have to say it took FOREVER. For my next tank I just got some used filter media from a friend of mine and also some from the LFS here. I then just slowly added fish, like one or two a week. That system worked extremely well for two tanks so far. Also if you can get your hands on some BioSpira as well as old media that would work really good.

Just something to consider.

Wats biospira? just thought could use some filter material out of my other tank thats been established for a long time, that should be OK
Thanks for your replys everyone, keep em coming!!!!!

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

BioSpira is a product thats basically a bag full of the "good bacteria". Its about 15$ or so and is sometimes hard to find. I called about 6 or 7 pet stores around here before I finally found it. It actually says you can fully stock your tank within 24 hours of putting it in, but I would still only go with a few fish.

 

[Majjie]

I take it you're going to use the "Add and Wait" method.

Is there other methods? this is my first time doing a fishless cycle? plus my ammonia test only reads 4ppm then jumps to 8ppm there nothing in between? maybe an idea to get one that'l read better

The other method is to use lower levels of ammonia and just add a bit more each time the level comes back down to 0. When I cycled my tanks, I kept adding ammonia each day to bring the level up to around 1.5 - 3 ppm. It's a bit more work that's all - I used to test the tanks twice a day - morning and evening.

I wouldn't bother getting another ammonia test - it'll be fine for when you want to test the tank with fish in it. (If the levels are ever above 4 - your fish will be dead). Try adding half your calculated dose to the tank and test that. (If the worst comes to the worst and the level appears to be very high - just change some water)

If you've got media from another tank - then the new tank should cycle really quickly. Fishless cycling only takes weeks if you have to build up the bacterial population from scratch. In fact, if you've got used filter media, I wouldn't put in a very high level of ammonia to start with. You only need to build the bacterial population up, check that the ammonia and nitrite levels go down and that nitrate is being produced - change a huge amount of water - and add most of your fish

The only thing to be careful about is that you don't ever leave your bacteria for more than say, 5 or 6 hours, without any ammonia at all - else they'll start dying.

 

[stue0]

So say i put in my used filter material then added say half the ammonia that I'd calculated, leave, then test for ammonia an nitrite going down, an also test for nitrate make sure its being produced? how long should this process take roughly???

 

[stue0]

So say i put in my used filter material then added say half the ammonia that I'd calculated, leave, then test for ammonia an nitrite going down, an also test for nitrate make sure its being produced? how long should this process take roughly???

??

 

[vinylman]

Well, there is another method that worked for me, but I don't read about many people using it. My first tank was a Tropiquarium 88 (bought from a work colleague for £30 - RESULT!). For the first few days I put a pinch of fish food in the tank (probably less than you'd actually put in to feed them); within three days I'd had the bacterial bloom which cleared two days later. I just put a little more in every day until the tests showed Ammonia had dropped to zero. Then just a matter of patience and regular small water changes. I had fish in the tank in around 3-4 weeks and have never had any problems.

 

[Majjie]

So say i put in my used filter material then added say half the ammonia that I'd calculated, leave, then test for ammonia an nitrite going down, an also test for nitrate make sure its being produced? how long should this process take roughly???

??

Sorry Donna - been busy working. It's very difficult to tell - too many variables. I guess it might take a week or so if the volume is much bigger than the tank the media came from and there weren't many fish in the original tank - but don't hold me to that!

 

[stue0]

Thanks Majjie for you replys, i tested my water last night an some how i have a reading of 0.50 of ammonia, 0.25 nitrite, nitrate 20, not sure how that happened as 4 days earlier i had a reading of 0 everything, please could someone enlighten me a little as i have added nothing to the water so i would have thought ammonia would still be 0???

While changing some water on other tank i thought i might as well take some of the media out of my filter an put in new filter to help things along? see how that doe's! i'll let you know wat happens in couple of days??? ?

 

[stue0]

???

 

[Majjie]

There's two possible explanations for the ammonia:

1. 
   1. the test kit isn't very sensitive at these levels and will sometimes give a reading and sometimes not
   2. something is decaying in the tank and producing ammonia - plants/algae perhaps

Be interesting to hear how you get on with adding filter media - I would have thought the bacteria would grow really quickly.