Aquaone 980

[pjandnoo]

Hi all,

We bought a 2nd hand AquaOne tank about a month ago but have since cleaned it out (with only water) and have not done anything with any of the filters which were used up until this point by the previous owner and have now dried out.

So after reading many articles here and on various other websites we are hopefully going to start some nerve racking "fishless cycling" and just a bit unsure about adding "ammonia" stage. Is there a product you can buy off the shelf as I did read about something called "BIO MATURE" or is it just a case of going to diy store and buying a bottle of "ammonia"??? and then working out how much per gallon/litre and adding this to the water.

Thanks on advance for any replies.

Paul

 

[razer121]

yup you would be right, i bought my ammonia from my local Boots store, ive heard they stock them in alot of DIY stores aswell, there is a chart somewhere on this site that you can use to work out how much u need to add

 

[Trollfest]

I had a lot of trouble getting hold of ammonia when I did a fishless cycle. I was told in three Boots stores and a Superdrug that they weren't allowed to sell it anymore. I did however manage to get it on Boots website! It was about £3.50 with p&p and arrived in two days.

The chart for how much to add is at the top of the page under 'calculator'.

 

[arobinson1984]

You can get ammonia like mentioned from boots (most bigger stores or boots website), homebase and robert dyas.

The products off the shelf such as bio nature etc are basically a con, many have very little effect if any and certainly will not cycle a tank. Save your money and do it natures way.

Here is a link to the calculator on this forum, you can use the bottom section to calculate how much ammonia you need to add to your tank to get the desired level. Bear in mind that in the fishless cycling guide it says to add ammonia to reach 5ppm when testing, you will be better adding to 4ppm first, you can always add a little more. Ammonia over 8ppm will have a different effect and different bacteria that you dot want will grow so you are better slightly underdosing than overdosing.

Link to calculator - Calculator

Andy

 

[KittyKat]

Please ignore, I really should stop trying to be useful when ill and in bed!

 

[arobinson1984]

I wouldnt recommend using bleach!

Andy

 

[arobinson1984]

Please ignore, I really should stop trying to be useful when ill and in bed!

Lol Get well soon

Andy

 

[pjandnoo]

Great stuff thanks again for the replies, will try the above shops see what I can find this week. When I start the cycling process is it best to cycle with just some pieces of driftwood and any ornaments I have and leave any plants I buy till after its finished? Or just run the tank with just the sand I have?

 

[KittyKat]

Part of what I said before was have a look at my Flickr page (link in sig) if you want to see what I've done with mine.

Cycling is quicker and more effective at higher pHs: plants will lower your pH, but will probably bring in some bacteria to start you off with.

 

[waterdrop]

The finding of pure household ammonia (which is actually, typically, ammonia at below 10% combined in pure water, which is the rest, so "aqueous ammonia" is a bit better term although you won't see that marked) can be a shopping "adventure." The members here often enjoy hearing about it as they've each had their own problems finding the right stuff!

Ideally its clear, plain, without dyes, fragrances, surfactants or soaps. Sometimes you have to look on the mop and broom shelves despite what store helpers tell you and sometimes despite not finding it on the shelves you have to consult the manager as there are some concerns about other things that can be done with ammonia.

Sadly, we've lost the appearance of each members rough location in the their avatar area to the left of their posts, but that can be a helpful thing for members helping each other with the specifics of a given geographical location (country, city etc.)

If you're in the UK the UK members will recommend Boots and quite a few other specific stores (Robert Diaz?) In the USA, the Ace Hardware stores are a good bet.

-----------------
The reason its worth it to go to the trouble of finding simple ammonia is that it gives you the most control and best "feedback" in the fishless cycling process. You can measure how much ammonia is going in, in fairly quantifiable units and you will be able to better understand the glimpses of what's going on with the test kit readings.

Its possible to "create" ammonia in the tank indirectly by throwing in fish food, prawns or dead organic matter that you get in expensive little bottles that imply they are live bacteria and letting it decompose. What happens in this case is that other bacteria, heterotrophs (not the ones we want in our filters,) will eat the organic matter and produce some ammonia. The -amount- of ammonia they produce and -when- though are wildly unpredictable though, so these kinds of attempts can be quite frustrating and are best left to situations such as countries where you simply find it impossible to find pure household ammonia.

There! you've caught me at morning coffee so I've gone on...
~~waterdrop~~

 

[pjandnoo]

Managed to find some ammonia in Homebase so after setting the tank up and running it for a day we have started the cycle. The last two days we have only tested for the ammonia and its stuck nicely at 4ppm. Whoo hooo fishes for xmas hopefully

Day 3 test 2ppm ammonia thought I would test for nitrite but nothing yet, does anyone else who uses the API kits struggle with the green colour between the 2ppm and 4ppm? Think the first two days were definately a darker green than last nights test!!

 

[pjandnoo]

Managed to find some ammonia in Homebase so after setting the tank up and running it for a day we have started the cycle. The last two days we have only tested for the ammonia and its stuck nicely at 4ppm. Whoo hooo fishes for xmas hopefully

Day 3 test 2ppm ammonia thought I would test for nitrite but nothing yet, does anyone else who uses the API kits struggle with the green colour between the 2ppm and 4ppm? Think the first two days were definately a darker green than last nights test!!

Day four readings were ammonia @ 1ppm!! No nitrites!!!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, everyone struggles with the shades of green. Just keep yourself convinced that after you add ammonia its not dark enough to match the 8ppm. In the end most of the lighter shades that seem to match 4ppm, plus a closeness to what the ammonia calculator seems to suggest should keep you safe. Daily details are much less important than simply keeping records over time and eventually seeing that various obvious changes happen at reasonable points down the road.

For example, before long you'll hopefully see that you are putting in something like 4ppm and yet the next day the test is bright yellow, indicating zero ppm ammonia and meaning the new bacteria colony converted it all to NO2. If it did it very slowly, the N-Bacs may have even converted a lot of it to NO3 and you'll continue not to see any nitrite(NO2) show up. At some point though, the A-Bacs will convert that ammonia so fast that nitrite will show up and then start hanging around, unconverted, which will mean you're moving on to the second stage of the roughly 3 stages of cycling.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[pjandnoo]

Thankyou Waterdrop for the help and advice, I am glad I found this site and nice to see so many helpful people here too.

I tested the water again last night and the ammonia (very light green) was down to .25 and nitrite reading was .25 (bluey/purple) too. So hopefully this evening we should be all yellow on the ammonia level and ready for another dose.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you are starting to make some progress now, Pjandnoo. Just keep an eye on things and dose back up as needed.