Help in cycling my tank

[Essjay]

Fish food can be used for cycling, the problem with it is that you have no idea how much ammonia it makes, so you have no idea how many bacteria have grown.

The bacterial colonies self regulate in the sense that the numbers are related to the amount of ammonia and nitrite in the water. A lightly stocked tank of fish will make less ammonia than a heavily stocked tank of the same size, so the colonies will be smaller in the lightly stocked tank.
Live plants have an effect as well. Plants take up ammonia as their source of nitrogen and they turn it into protein rather than nitrite. When there are live plants in a tank there are fewer bacteria than in a non-planted tank of the same size with the same fish.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Using fish food is not only an uncontrolled way to try and dose ammonia, but it also rots. Rotten food is something we normally try to avoid in a tank. Besides, ammonia is cheaper than fish food and is also a lot less messier.

Fishless cycling goes the fastest when it is well controlled. Can anybody who tries to cycle using fish food define the method used to produce anything close to 2 ppm of ammonia? When one adds fish food how long before it has made all the ammonia it might? When I add ammonium chloride I can measure it a short time after I add it and that number will be very close to what I intended it to be. And that allows me to know how long it takes for that amount of ammonia to disappear. Do all fish foods decay at the same rate, to they produce X amount of ammonia for X amount of weight? The answer is no, they do not.

Bear in mind we have no idea at any time how many bacteria are in a tank nor the do we know the exact mix of the strains that are present. However, what we do know is that, if we have enough, we do not see ammonia or nitrite in the water when we test. While it is essential that we have enough bacteria to keep the tank safe, we can never know the exact details on the microscopic level. As long as we can measure ammonia and nitrite, we can know that whatever number there are, it is either sufficient or it is not to process the amount of ammonia and nitrite our current tank bio-load is producing. We also know that if we add 1 ppm of ammonia or 2 ppm, they will cause different amounts of bacteria to colonize (as long as the ammonia creation stays at close to the same level).

But the most important thing to understand about cycling is that it is a process. This means it should proceed in an orderly fashion. For this reason newer fish keepers should keep a detailed journal during cycling. All you need to do is to write down the date and time you do things- add ammonia, test (with the results), change water etc. It only takes about 60 seconds to record this stuff, but what it does is to show the process as it moves along. One day's numbers only matter when they are 0 and 0 for ammonia and nitrite as this means either the tank is not at all cuycled or that it is completely cycled. The rest of the time the numbers are telling us where in the process things stand and also to provide the information to know what to do next or to figure out where they have gone off track.

Cycling is science, but it is not rocket science.

 

[outofwater]

I have to say that besides getting the fish, cycling was a fun time. Then again I'm a numbers nerd

 

[Matty24]

Yodel havent delivered my ammonia as planned for whatever reason they will use I agree it is a fun process that's why I'm not really bothered about getting fish in there yet very confusing at the same time, I am slightly worried why my rotala bonsai has by the looks of it died within 48hrs seems to have a alge which has taken over it black beard alge seems to be going through the lot I did move them all together a few days ago so maybe it was my own fault? Should I remove them? Any plant expects in here which I'm sure could tell me

 

[Lynnzer]

That all siunds fair enough and makes sense alot of the vids I was watching didn't really have many fish if any, I'm using 'aquarium lab testing kit' with this test kit it's 5ml of tank water and 5 drops of nitrite ill do a couple small tests and see what the results are and I'll stop with the fertiliser

I have a testing kit and I know the cost of the things. You can quickly run out of chemicals if you follow the doseage instructions. For Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate I use 1 drop from the bottles to 1ml of water. Same result but lasts 5 times longer. OK, 5 ml and 5 drops gives room for small chance of errors depending on the drops coming from the bottle or for very small discrepancies in your 5ml of water but any errors would be so small as to be neglible. The same reasoning also applies to the pH test too,

 

[itiwhetu]

I have a testing kit and I know the cost of the things. You can quickly run out of chemicals if you follow the doseage instructions. For Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate I use 1 drop from the bottles to 1ml of water. Same result but lasts 5 times longer. OK, 5 ml and 5 drops gives room for small chance of errors depending on the drops coming from the bottle or for very small discrepancies in your 5ml of water but any errors would be so small as to be neglible. The same reasoning also applies to the pH test too,

I hate drops, everything should be done in milliliters with a pipette