Fishless Cycling....

[rust81]

As the title says, if i am using flake as a source of food for the bacteria on a fishless cycle, how much shuold i be adding per day for a 50L tank. So far i have been adding for 2 days and my ammonia readings are showing as 0. Could this be because i put my new filter media in my old tanks filter for 3 days?

 

[Davidtq]

Food will take a long time to break down, and can also mould instead of breaking down to ammonia.

 

[rust81]

what would be a better source of ammonia if i cant get hold of the real stuff?

 

[Davidtq]

Im afraid I dont do fishless cycling so I wouldnt know for sure, but I do know that uneaten food in an aquarium can grow a nasty look mould \ hairy fungus and that it doesnt turn to ammonia as fast as fish will do it.

I believe some hair products contain ammonia but I wouldnt trust them in my tank.

 

[orange shark]

in boots they sell a product called household ammonia

 

[rdd1952]

The biggest problem with using flakes is that it is almost impossible to calculate how much you need. I don't think anyone has ever figured it out or if they have, I haven't seen the posts. Depending on where you live (it would be helpful if you at least listed your country in your profile so people could offer better advice), ammonia is probably readily available at grocery, hardware and home improvement stores. And it is much cheaper. The last bottle of ammonia I bought cost 49 cent and it would probably cycle at least 2 or 3 medium sized tanks. A can of fish food is several dollars and probably won't do one tank.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

If you can't get pure ammonia use frozen shrimp.

The size of your tank / size of the shrimp will kinda determine if you just want to use half a shrimp / whole shrimp / multiple shrimp etc but if you go this route:

1) Put the shrimp in an unused nylon stocking or mesh bag. This makes the old nasty shrimp easier to remove!
2) Check the water parameters daily...you don't want the ammonia to go over 5 or 6 ppm. If that happens do a partial water change to remove some of it. Also consider using less shrimp.
3) Please note that this method can be rather smelly!

 

[alexpitcher]

As the title says, if i am using flake as a source of food for the bacteria on a fishless cycle, how much shuold i be adding per day for a 50L tank. So far i have been adding for 2 days and my ammonia readings are showing as 0. Could this be because i put my new filter media in my old tanks filter for 3 days?

I'm currently cycling my 120L tank at the mo. started off using fish food, after a week the whole house stank to high heaven, even just opening the top of the tank made me want to throw up. Last Saturday, emptied the tank, refilled it with new water (decontaminated of course) and went to homebase and bought some ammonia at £1.99 and popped that into my tank approx 8ml. Last Sunday started getting ammonia readings, Monday nitrite readings and so far everything is looking good plus the house doesnt smell like someone has died in it....which is good. Try just using straight ammonia, it is far better, easier to measure, dose and monitor and best of all the other half will not be moaning and whinging about the smell

 

[rust81]

So i can get pure ammonia from my local homebase then? Does this contain any other nasties - or is it pure ammonia that will be suitable for my tank?

 

[orange shark]

homebase or boots, no it doesnt contain anything which will hurt your tank

 

[backtotropical]

I cycled with frozen squid in a breeding net so it didn't get too messy. Took about 3-4 weeks and worked a treat. I just removed all the food when i got my first fishes.

If you can get pure ammonia, i'd do that instead. I wanted to do that but couldn't find ammonia anywhere so used the food. Should have looked on here first eh? Never mind.

 

[rust81]

Will brine shrimp have the same effect?

 

[Ravi007]

I dunno bout brime shrimp, should work though. Im doing this right now with flake foods in a stocking..you could crush the flakes up all over the gravel i suppose but would get really messy, so ive just put food in a stocking which is soaked in the bottom of the tank, and keep replacing this often. It took me about a day and a bit to get any ammonia readings, and now ive got about 2-3ppm ammonia. Squeezing the stocking releases more of the food which goes into the tank and starts to break down. I was in the same situation and couldnt find any pure ammonia! It should still cycle the same as using pure ammonia shouldnt it guys?

 

[rust81]

OK - managed to get some household ammonia from Boots in the end. It only lists ammonia on the ingredients and it isnt perfumed - so i guess this will be ok in the tank. Has anyone else used this in their tanks - and are their fish still alive to prove it?

 

[backtotropical]

Has anyone else used this in their tanks - and are their fish still alive to prove it?

You're not going to put ammonia into a tank with fish in it are you? Sorry if i have mis-read.