How To Do A Fishless Cycle?

[heavenly_d3vi1]

I've bought a tank off my friend, but dont have any spare mature filter media for it so have to start from scratch.. I think the tank is about 100 litres but cant be sure till it arrives and I measure it. I know I have to add ammonia to it, but how much, how often and where do I get it from?

 

[Corleone]

In the UK, Homebase gets mentioned a lot. You want a standard household ammonia, but without dyes or fragrences, and without surfactants (the stuff that makes suds - if you shake the bottle and it foams, it has surfactants. If it acts like a bottle of water, you're good)

The process is covered well here: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861[/URL]

Basically, you'll want to raise the ammonia level to 4-5 ppm (the aquarium calculator at the top of the page can help figure how much, though if you don't know the concentration of the stuff, it'll take some practice - an eye dropper helps, though for a 100l tank, you can probably go by capfuls instead of fine tuning it that much), and test daily or so until it drops to 0, then top it back up.

You're final goal is to get to the point that you can add 4-5 ppm of ammonia, and after 12 hours, have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrIte.

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Oh thats handy, theres a homebase just up the road! Thanks for your help, didn't want to make the same mistake as last time and pay a fortune for 'bacteria in a bottle' then loose all my fish!

 

[waterdrop]

You'll want to track pH as well as ammonia and nitrite during your fishless cycle. Keep checking around the forums, the UK folks seem to be amazingly good at helping people find mature media to speed things up!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[ian96]

i have 1 piranha ternetzi, can i put other fish in with it?

 

[Corleone]

i have 1 piranha ternetzi, can i put other fish in with it?

Best to start another thread for unrelated questions. But in general, no. With enough space, an armored plec might be safe, since they're hard to hurt and will fight back if bothered, so piranhas learn not to mess with them.

Ask down in the predatory fish section, though. Not all piranhas are created equal. The ones I am familiar with are fairly skittish overall, but some are truly mean fish.

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Right, well I'm going to go and look in homebase in a bit.. before I go, can anyone tell me if i'm looking for a bottle with ammonia written on it, or will it be called something else? I cant say I'm aware of what uses ammonia has in the household, so still dont really know what to look for!

As for sourcing mature media... I am tucked away right down on the coast at the very bottom corner of the UK, near lands end (dont know if ppl from us will know of lands end) and its very rare you find people on forums from this area!

 

[waterdrop]

Sorry we missed you yesterday. Household ammonia bottles are usually labeled pretty plainly. In the UK they will often have an ingredients list and let you know its something like aqueous ammonia (ie. ammonia gas dissolved at a level of say 9.5% in water.) In the USA they are usually more cryptic, just saying ammonia and having no other ingredients or percentage labeling. Aqueous household ammonia is used as a cheap household cleaner by people who realize its a primary ingredient in many other cleaners, so its usually found near the other cleaners and mops and things.

Would love to visit Lands End, believe I've read of it in W.Churchill's volumes on the 2nd World War and then again in Arthur Herman's excellent book on the British Navy: "To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World."

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tropicoll]

Did you manage to get ammonia yesterday? At Homebase it's called Household Ammonia and is with the cleaning produts. White bottle with blue child proof lid.

HTH

 

[Bojangles]

If you are really struggling to buy some from your local shops you can buy it here

[URL="http/www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Household-Amm...2715&sr=8-1"]http/www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Household-Amm...2715&sr=8-1[/URL]

But p&p might be more than the product

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

I managed to get some yesterday... was a lot easier to get than I thought! Can't believe I've bever seen it before. I went to the cleaning section of homebase after searching the forum and finding people saying its usually near cleaning products, and there it was! I wasn't expecting it to be called 'household amonia'!
The ingredients say Ammonia solution 9.5%, and I shook it to check for bubbles as it says degreases on the front and thought that might mean it has some detergent or something in it, but just looked like a shaken bottle of water, so I think i'm all good!

Gotta go and collect my new tank later, so getting all excited about my first fishless cycle now! How sad lol

Waterdrop, I've not read those books.. but yes lands end is a beautiful place! I'm about 15 miles away from it, so get to visit quite often! I think it'd be a better place if it wasn't made into a visitor attraction tho.. its nice to just go and sit on the cliffs without loads of people around, and having to pay for the carpark even tho you dont want to use any of the attractions. It kinda ruins the history of it a bit, Altho a couple of the attractions are very informative and interesting! If you do ever get round to visiting, give me a shout you can get reduced parking if you have a Cornish person with you, heh heh.

 

[waterdrop]

Hey thanks diva! If I ever get near that history it would be fun to see! Sometimes TFF makes me feel like I'd have loads of friends to shout to if I ever get over to your islands again!

Glad you found some ammonia that's looks like the right stuff (no foam, yea!) I wouldn't feel silly about being excited by a fishless cycle, I happen to think its really fascinating practical science and for me has led to lots of other interesting things to notice. One really interesting thing has been how once you end up memorizing the nitrogen cycle for your fish hobby, you can't help getting interested in carbon cycles and other environmental/biological cycles and one thing just leads to another - I often find this stuff more entertaining than... well, Entertainment!

Don't forget to get a pretty notebook for your tank log. My son got a spiral notebook with a cover that has a 3D hologram of lots and lots of fish that seem to be moving when you tilt the notebook -- perfect! We have probably a log entry for almost every day of the last year!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Yes, I have my pretty lil notebook ready, its not as good as your sons' tho!! I am strangely looking forward to seeing how this goes, and jotting all the changes down.. this time without fish dying! I wish now I took up fish keeping years ago, I've always wanted to, but thought it was a lot more expensive than it actually is... probably helps that I got all my tanks for 20 quid lol.... originally I just wanted fish to look pretty in my living room, but since I got my first tank and joined up here theres something new and interesting to learn about everyday... I think I might pull my kids out of school and give them a fish tank each, heh heh!!