Warning...

[dave_gray2077]

Plants will act as filters and can indeed replace them. They'll readily take up ammonia for example. There is a well established plant & fish keeping approach that suggests heavily plant on day #1, add full stock of fish on day #2.

No, I have never tried this.

Re: peeing in the tank for a source of ammonia: I seem to recall a recent(ish) thread about thus and doing so is perfectly ok I believe.
But my memory is so uttery shot I wouldn't be surprised if this was complete crap. I'll see if I can find it in the meantime.

Andy

[Edit] pee ref: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=38840

Doesn’t human urine contact ammoniUm and not ammonia?

On a side note (ill will stress from my PERSONAL experience) you can silent cycle and it work so long as you build up you fish stock slowly and dose Kno3 first to keep plants going. I did it with one of my tanks. I build up the stock slowly and started with my tank full of plants. Plants covered 60% of the substrate before fish went in. I then added 3 inches of fish a week. Only cardinal tetras at first. Followed by ottos. Only one fatality so far is one Otto and that was 3 weeks and the tank is 8 months old now.

The only problem with the plants going in first is the can attract algae. My silent cycle produced a BGA outbreak 1 month in which was due to low NO3 I believe.

My 2p

 

[xxBarneyxx]

As mentioned most LFS dont know about fishless cycling and it is not an easy concept to explain to customers who come in to buy a fish tank (this conversation has been done over many times here so I wont go into it again ).

With regards to plants. There is no problem with putting them in first, they might absorb some of the ammonia before it gets to your filter but they are going to do that when you have fish in there anyway so no big deal. My planted tank had plants in right from the start and did fine. You are adding ammonia so the plants have a food source, if you have a low tech planted setup you dont need CO2 and if you have a high tech planted setup you are adding it anyway.

With regards to "alternative ammonia sources" I have known more then one person to use this method and it has worked for them. Personally I would either use a frozen Prawn or bottle of ammonia but each to their own I guess.

For temperature during cycling I have it set to the same temp as it will be when it has fish in. that way I can see before hand if it is keeping a stable temp and make any corrections before there are fish in there.

Quick note about Algae, Algae is normally due to an inbalance of nurtrients in the tank and will happen if you have plants in or not. If you have too much of one nutrients and not enough of another the algae will start being able to outcompete the plants.

 

[QuotheRaven]

I know it's a bit of a different point but Humans Saliva is more "dirty" or bacteria filled than humans Urine... it's true...so don't spit in your tank

I have read somewhere that someone had a 'wee' in their tank in a fishless cycle...better than nothing

 

[buttercupbabe078]

Ewwwwwwww! I would even attempt to pee in my tank, being female it's too high! lmao. x

 

[Underwurlde]

Point ya bum in the air then & aim (tape a crosshair between your legs).

Oh, God, now I'm laughing at my own jokes...

Andy

PS, love the sig

 

[QuotheRaven]

how quickly you made the thread deteriorate underwurlde

 

[k.o.d]

Human urine is perfectly acceptable as a source of ammonia for kick starting your cycle, and as already said, is more sterile than saliva and other bodily fluids.
Whether you want to or not is a different matter, a well palced prawn or other rapidly decomposable item would be preferable from my point of view.

From a risk perspective I have never really liked the idea of using pure ammonia as a medium as it is not a nice substance to handle, with associated risks to the person who may accidentally spill it on themselves.

 

[buttercupbabe078]

Point ya bum in the air then & aim (tape a crosshair between your legs).

Oh, God, now I'm laughing at my own jokes...

Andy

PS, love the sig

I was never in the brownie's. No one ever taught me how not to pee on my shoes! so what chance have I got of aiming up there!
LMFAO. It's good that we can have a laugh!

 

[rdd1952]

Should I have the heater on while the tank is cycling? If so, what temp should I leave it running at. My water is currently at room temp which is 20 deg c

You definitely need the heater as bacteria reproduce faster at higher temperatures. Proper cycling temp is upper 80s to lower 90s (31 to 34).

If your are going to use the heater to speed up the cycling I would put it higher than 26C, maybe 29C/30C?

Needs to be 31 to 34.

No, sorry - I'm in the other camp.... adding plants first is a bad idea, not only can they "fudge" the chemical tests, but theres NOTHING in there for the plants to use, your tank is sterile (or it should be!) hence, no CO2 or food = dead plants.

Actually, I've never cycled a tank without plants and have never had any problems with my plants. As far as food is concerned, the plants can use both the ammonia in it's pure form or nitrate once it has been produced. I certainly don't have references to back this up but I would think that there is plenty of CO2 in the tank as the result of the nirtification process. Bacteria use O2 to process ammonia and nitrite so CO2 should be theend result. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

Plants will act as filters and can indeed replace them. They'll readily take up ammonia for example. There is a well established plant & fish keeping approach that suggests heavily plant on day #1, add full stock of fish on day #2.

No, I have never tried this.

I've never tried it either but I know there are members that have with great success. The plants basically use the ammonia before it can be processed into nitrite. With the proper quantity of plants it is possible to have an unfiltered tank where the plants handle all the ammonia.

 

[Musho3210]

if there is CO2 in the air, there will be CO2 in the tank, it will dissolve into the tank. Water does not have to be cycled to get CO2, the water that you are drinking has CO2 in it, when you take a shower there is CO2 in the water. And most tap waters will have a small-large amount of nutrients in it like phosphates and nitrates which will feed the plants for a while. So i dont see anything wrong with cycling with plants in the tank.