Starter Set Up Advice

[mikka23]

How quickly would the water reflect the increase in ammonia though? to work out how many flakes to put in.

EDIT: read other reply. It should be okay to use fish food until I get my ammonia though?

 

[fatheadminnow]

How quickly would the water reflect the increase in ammonia though? to work out how many flakes to put in.

EDIT: read other reply. It should be okay to use fish food until I get my ammonia though?

Not sure, probable a day or so. The flake food needs to start to break down and produce ammonia.

But then, you never know, you may have too much in there. If your ammonia gets to the 8 ppm mark in your tank, then you are going to have the wrong type of bacteria start to colonize in your filter, ones we do not want.

-FHM

How quickly would the water reflect the increase in ammonia though? to work out how many flakes to put in.

EDIT: read other reply. It should be okay to use fish food until I get my ammonia though?

Yes, you can go ahead and the flakes until you get ammonia.

Do you have a breeding net? If so, hang that on the inside if you tank and place the fakes in there, so that when you get your bottled ammonia, you will be able to remove the flakes right away and easily.

-FHM

 

[mikka23]

Ah okay I will wait to find ammonia then. Seems strange fish stores do not sell it.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Ah okay I will wait to find ammonia then. Seems strange fish stores do not sell it.

Fish stores don't really know about fishless cycling, plus it would take away from their sales.

-FHM

 

[waterdrop]

Trying to do the flake thing is usually a mess for beginners (not to say it doesn't work for old experienced folks, but..) In the UK, the places we hear the most are Boots, HomeBase, possibly Robert Dyas, possbily B&Q.

I think the Boots and HomeBase sources and the kind of plain brands there seem to be the most reliable for the UK folks and there's at least one type of Jeyes Kleen-Off that's ok but that brand seems to be one that has a whole lot of "flavors" of ammonia, some of which have the tnings in them we want to avoid.

To repeat the frequent advice: it shouldn't have dyes, fragrances, surfactants or soaps and the one test you can sometimes do is to shake it (if you can see it) and make sure the bubbles go away in 2 or 3 seconds just like water. You do not want it to foam after shaking.

If it tells you want percentage (9.5% is common in UK since there's a rule that it not be 10% or above) marked, don't just believe it and plug it into our calculator and dose.. instead be a little skeptical, start the dose a little lower and test your way up to a good 3,4,5ppm looking test result, making sure its not 8ppm.

~~waterdrop~~