Fish Food

[jcabs100]

How long does it take for fish food to start producing ammonia?

 

[wrightt3]

Not really sure but the packaging for the food will tell you that you should remove any food from the tank that is not consumed within 5-10 minutes so i'd imagine it happens pretty quickly.

 

[jcabs100]

well i wanted to feed my filter ammonia so it can produce beneficial bacteria for the fish. so ill be doing a water change in about 30 min lol. 

 

[misterpro]

It will release ammonia over time as it is decomposing.  So if you put it in there to cycle the tank (I hope there are no fish in there, right?) you can just leave the food in.  Unless you dumped a truckload in of course.

 

[jcabs100]

No fish in the tank. what happened was that I moved out of my house and into an apartment and I had returned the fish I had in there for store credit and did a complete rescape and I believe I starved out the ammonia as there was no fish in my tank for about a week or 2 but i kept my filter running so now i want to make sure there isn't anything harmful in the tank before I start putting fish in there.

 

[sadguppy]

Leave the food in there, let is decompose and then do a 95% change getting all of the debris out before you put any new fish in.

 

[jcabs100]

95% O.O wow lol
 
How long should I wait for it to decompose?

 

[sadguppy]

Well, the aim is to get the filter producing nitrate again from ammonia, so you need to get rid of as much as possible before putting new fish in. 100% would be better still!

 

[jcabs100]

When I moved I did a complete 110% water change. My filter is 2 years old with a lot of bacteria its just I'm afraid I starved off the ammonia. 

 

[sadguppy]

110% ?

Basically you need to see whether your filter is still 'live' with bacteria. Have you got a test kit? Chuck in a significant amount of fish food and test one, maybe 3 -5 and 12 hours later for ammonia and nitrite. It there is some after 1 but absolutely none after 12 you are ok, just do a small change and stock carefully. If the ammonia or nitrite is still there, you will need more fish food, more monitoring and potentially a much larger water change before you stock.

 

[jcabs100]

When I said 110% my intentions was that I completely rescaped my tank from a gourami natural habitat to an African Cichlid natural habitat tank. I put in sand and rocks to make it natural habitat for the fish could it be that my sand is making my water cloudy(I added the sand,(which was rinsed thoroughly) about 3 days ago there is still some cloudiness very, very little though.) 
 
Also I'm using this thing called Microbe-lift Special blend (you can check google for more info.)
 
I add this every time I do a water change. its beneficial bacteria for fish. 

 

[Noahsfish]

Lol, is there any reason you say 95% rather than 100%? I don't really see why'd you leave 5% of the water in...

 

[sadguppy]

Try getting that last 5% out with a siphon and get back to me!

 

[misterpro]

Try getting that last 5% out with a siphon and get back to me!

 
True that

 

[the_lock_man]

When I moved I did a complete 110% water change. My filter is 2 years old with a lot of bacteria its just I'm afraid I starved off the ammonia. 

 
Was the filter fully cycled before the 2 week break? The bacteria don't die, they go dormant, and the sooner they start getting more ammonia, the quicker it is for them to reinvigorate.