Cycling Idea

[tom130691]

see a guy on here advising to create algae put fish food in water in a jar ect and leave it in the sun this got me thinking

do this with out the sun with a piece of foam in it and surely it would cycle and create bacteria in the foam witch can then be used in the tank

over load it with food ----> lots of ammonia--->lots of bacteria--->lots of nitrite -----> lots of bacterial for fish tank

am i being stupid or could this work?

 

[K-Holed]

see a guy on here advising to create algae put fish food in water in a jar ect and leave it in the sun this got me thinking

do this with out the sun with a piece of foam in it and surely it would cycle and create bacteria in the foam witch can then be used in the tank

over load it with food ----> lots of ammonia--->lots of bacteria--->lots of nitrite -----> lots of bacterial for fish tank

am i being stupid or could this work?

In a sense yes. But the bacteria you want to grow are aerobic (they need oxygen). That's one of the reasons a filter is so effective. You have a constant flow of well oxygenated water flowing over the filter media, feeding the bacteria.

What you are suggesting is basically a fishless cycle, without the water movement. With a little modification your idea would be plausable.

p.s. There are also undesirable bacteria that can reproduce if too much ammonia is present (or so I'm led to believe).

 

[tom130691]

i didn't no about the oxygen or this other bacteria (harmful or just useless?) and i no its similar to fishless
but i am currently doing a fish in cycle (dont shoot me) i was just hoping this would work faster in a smaller container and then i could use the media to boost my fish in cycle witch already has 2 filters to try speed things up lol

 

[rebrn]

You could try it and add an air stone to the container, that would help with the oxygenization. But you can colonize the wrong type of bacteria if the ammonia is too high, so doing it with fish food is harder to control the ammonia ammount. If you substituded ammonia (the type we use for fishless cycles) for the fish food you would have much more control over the ammount of ammonia in the container.

 

[tom130691]

You could try it and add an air stone to the container, that would help with the oxygenization. But you can colonize the wrong type of bacteria if the ammonia is too high, so doing it with fish food is harder to control the ammonia ammount. If you substituded ammonia (the type we use for fishless cycles) for the fish food you would have much more control over the ammount of ammonia in the container.

the reason i did the fish in cycle is i couldnt get the ammonia
i have airs tone ect any i can transfer from main tank and use filter flow to break the surface

how much ammonia is too much or enouugh for the wrong bacteria as i have a test kit and as it would be small scale it would be easy to maintaine the ammonia amount

just had another thought to flaw this temprature change ammonia to ammonium? (think ammonium is the word im looking for) so would it need heating aswell ?

 

[rebrn]

Ok, well that leaves you with fish food if you can't get the ammonia. Ammonia amd ammonium is essentially the same thing, for cycling purposes. Products that say the eliminate ammonia (i.e prime) actually converts ammonia to ammonium. Ammonium is slightly less toxic to fish (but only slightly) but act as food equally as well for the bacteria. You want you ammonia levels to be approximately 4-5ppm, anything much higher than that has the potential to cultivate the wrong type of bacteria, with an ammonia level of 8 ppm you are pretty much guarenteed to cultivate the bad bacteria. As far as the temperature, you don't necessarily have to have the water heated, the bacteria are the same for both tropical and cold water tanks, but the bacteria tend to colonize faster in warm water. But if you have the sponge in a smaller container, then the heat in your home should be enough to keep it where you want it, or you could put in somewhere that you know is a warmer spot in your home, i.e on top of the fridge tends to be a warm spot in most homes.

 

[tom130691]

im a student my house is cold
but i could keep it warm 4-5ppm seems high and wouldnt take a fair bit of food

how long would you guess this method would take ?
i have a tiny tank (10litre max) i could use to do this instead of say a jar
would buy some media for my main tank filter so i can put it in there when its loaded with bacteria
might start this off tomorrow and make a progress thread or journal as this forum teds use

 

[rebrn]

Well I say 4-5 ppm ammonia only because that is what we say for fish less cycling, which is essentially what you would be doing only on a smaller scale. As far as the time it would take, I would have to say the same amount of time it would take to cycle an 10L tank. Only this method may take a little longer since you don't have the same water flow that you would have using a filter.

It would be a great little experiment to keep track of, it could prove to be a way to have spare media ready for iso tanks, fry tanks, or even for donation. Will be watching the progress.

 

[kribensis12]

I don't see it taking any longer than a normal tank. Bacteria can double their numbers in less than 24 hours.

 

[rebrn]

I don't see it taking any longer than a normal tank. Bacteria can double their numbers in less than 24 hours.

It probably won't take longer than a regular cycle, I was just thinking that because it is only going to be the media in the small container, a filter will not be running, and although there will be an airstone, I was thinking that worst case senario it might take a little longer because of decreased (or rather possible decreased) oxygenation. But I have never tried this my self so really not sure if it take longer, the same amount of time or less time. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

 

[tom130691]

well ill start a new thread tomorrow and then update it every day with levels few pics ect
and will put the link in here so you can find it easy

i think it should be faster as the water will have more contact with the media
there will be small amount of water to a large media instead of how a tank is lots of water to small media