Cycling the fishless way

[Danio35]

I've decided to try to cycle my tank the fishless way and I was wondering if I am going about it correctly. I've been taking bits and pieces from the collective knowledge from my feeble brain and this website and this is what I decided to do.

1. Took gravel and decortions from my established 10-gal and placed it in my new one.

2. Bought some "Cycle" and put it in.

3. Put some pesky snails from my 10-gal to my 55-gal.

4. Put some fish food into my cycling 55-gal.

It's been about 24 hours and I have 4.0 PPM ammonia in my tank - which I figured is a good thing.

20PPM Nitrate and 0.5ppm Nitrite. I have the dipstick method for the Nitrite and Nitrate. I think I need a better type of monitor.

I also put activated carbon in the mediafilter cartridge of my Bio-Wheel filter. Would bioballs or something like that be better, or is chemical filtration better?

I appreciate you taking time to read about my predicament and greatly appreciate any feedback at all - positive or negative. I wanna get this right the first time

 

[FishLover14]

First of all you need pure ammonio put it in your tank.

Gte the test tube test kits they are soooo much more accurate.

once you see Nitrate cut back on the ammonio- when you have a 0ppm Ammoinoi and Nitrite Reading you have a fully cycled tank.

HTH

 

[Kasakato]

Well the "cycle" product you have bought is more or less useless. It will not help you in any way. You might want to get a liquid test kit, as these will give you better readings.

 

[FancyGuppyGuy]

ghjkl;'

 

[StyleUK]

Wow!

You must take very detailed notes! 8O

 

[FancyGuppyGuy]

Well when I do something I want to understand exactly what I am doing and why

I tend to research heavily so that I am well informed before trying something because I really hate to fail or get it wrong!! I figure it this way the more information I can find, learn, and understand the better my chances are for success.

 

[TankGirl]

You certainly can cycle with fish food, but it is just hard to control how much ammonia is in the tank. If you just toss in fish food every day and wait about 6 weeks, eventually the tank will cycle, whether you test the water or not. It is just a little messy and not as elegant!

 

[Danio35]

Well, it's already day 5 of cycling and I am measuring NO3 at 20, NO2 at 10 and NH3/NH4 at 4.0. This seems too good to be true to me. I am using 'aquarium pharmaceuticals ammonia test kit' - which is the test tube kind. The NO3/NO4 kit I am using is a Jungle 5-in-1 test strip. I've ordered test tube NO3/NO4 kits.

One of my LFS attendants told me that I have NH3/NH4 in my local water supply and that is probably why I am getting high NH3/NH4 levels in my 55-gal. I measure my tap water NH3/NH4 at 1.0 ppm. I asked if there was a way to distinguish between the NH3/NH4 and she said 'no'. Is that true? She said that I'm basically not doing anything if I don't have any fish in the tank, but how can I have a higher NH3/NH4 plus reading NO3/NO4 without having some kind of cycling going on?????? I did put H2O from my 10-gal into the 55-gal yesterday.

My tests indicate I'm doing OK, but I'm afraid I may be missing something.



Thanks,

Michelle

 

[TankGirl]

You are cycling! The fish food is breaking down and producing ammonia, feeding the bacteria. A lot of SW folks cycle with a raw shrimp, allowing it to decompose and producing ammonia that way - they just wait 4-6 weeks and ignore the tank completely. I know several people who would not cycle any other way, but I have heard this is stinky

You likely have chloramine in your tap water, that is a combination of chlorine and ammonia, which is more stable in tap water and is used on conjunction with chlorine to purify drinking water. That is probably what the person at the LFS meant, but assuming you are using a dechlorinator most of them handle chloramines as well. This is usually about 1ppm out of the tap, and is not going to be enough to cycle your tank, and you have to use dechlor anyway even without fish because the chlorine will kill off beneficial bacteria.

I think you are doing fine and will just need to wait it out, and continue to provide your ammonia source, whatever it may be.

 

[Danio35]

I'm so excited! Today my Nitrites were at 40 and the nitrates were at 40. The ammonia had dropped to 0.50, so I added more fish food. Was that the best thing to do? I don't have any pure ammonia. I'm only at day 6, seems like things are going faster than they should.

Gracias

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

(Cannot leave my house as I have turned green with envy).

Best of luck!

 

[Danio35]

Thanks Moxie!

I've been watching your saga and have been rooting for you! I look forward to the next installment, I'm sure you'll wind up with a beautiful and healthy tank!

Michelle

 

[TomK2]

nice fishless cycling review GuppyGuy! I love it when there is personal, real life data instead of just textbook and theory stuff!

 

[TomK2]

TG Wrote:

You likely have chloramine in your tap water

Uhm.. doesn't the aquarium pharmacueticals ammonia test use a two reagent salycilate test that would not be fooled by chloramine? My tap water has just chlorine, so I get zeroes from the tap. I just read my A-P instruction book and it says the salycilate method measures total ammonia, even ammonia that has been treated with ammo-lock, but maybe not ammonia treated with other NH3 "removers." It doesn't mention chloramine in the booklet. But what other explanation is there? A city doesn't want NH3 in the supply!

darn chemistry is so confusing. I just read that chloramine is not detected by the salicylate method unless a dechlorinator (and only a dechlorinator) is used, because dechlorination leaves ammonia behind. This would imply that chloramine does not show up on a regular ammonia test. I need a chemistry lesson just to fill up my fish tank!

 

[FancyGuppyGuy]

I'm so excited! Today my Nitrites were at 40 and the nitrates were at 40. The ammonia had dropped to 0.50, so I added more fish food. Was that the best thing to do? I don't have any pure ammonia. I'm only at day 6, seems like things are going faster than they should.

Gracias

Its ok to add some food at that point because the bacteria that converts ammonia needs some type of wastes also

My cycle time if you look only took about 9 days after adding ammonia.

 

[FancyGuppyGuy]

Nitrobacter, especially, is unable to oxidize nitrite to nitrate in the absence of phosphates. ( ph Down is phosphoric acid)

Also add a couple drops of this stuff to help

 

[TomK2]

"I asked if there was a way to distinguish between the NH3/NH4 and she said 'no'. Is that true? "
Tests for home use do not distinguish between NH3 and NH4. I believe total ammonia is measured. The fraction of NH3 in relation to total ammonia is dependent on the temperature and the PH. There are charts to figure this out, but I don' know of any real use for this info, other than PH effects toxicity. Get the total ammonia to zero and you are o.k, mess with your tanks temp and pH and you probably will not be OK. I just started a thread asking for resources to explain test kit chemistry. I remember just enough chemistry to make me THINK I know something, and usually find out I remembered wrong. I would love a resource that explains this stuff. Kinda bugs me when I do something frequently but have no idea how it really works.

Great job with the fishless cycle! Sounds like you will be done really soon. I am jealous.

 

[Danio35]

You likely have chloramine in your tap water, that is a combination of chlorine and ammonia, which is more stable in tap water and is used on conjunction with chlorine to purify drinking water. That is probably what the person at the LFS meant.

Oh, yeah! I see what you're saying. I did get it mixed up ! Thanks for unmixing me TankGirl! You are a

Michelle

 

[Danio35]

Good frosty and icy afternoon all,

Well, it's day 7 of my cycle and I still have no ammonia, 80 NO3 and the NO2 is off the scale. I know I need more NH3, but there is no way I'm getting out in this ice storm.

I have an insane thought . The girl at the LFS the other day told me about a customer who uses urine to increase ammonia. I've been thinking and thinking about this and I cannot find a logical reason why this would not work.
1. Urine is sterile
2. If there is a lack of a urinary tract infection and the urine is collected as cleanly as possible, it should work just as well as buying pure ammonia.

Of course, there is NO WAY I would do this unless I'm absolutely sure. I've been trying to convince myself that this is a bad idea, but cannot think of a concrete reason why it should be avoided.

OK, let me have it..... Any thoughts negative or positive appreciated.


Thanks,

Michelle

 

[Danio35]

"I just started a thread asking for resources to explain test kit chemistry. I remember just enough chemistry to make me THINK I know something, and usually find out I remembered wrong. I would love a resource that explains this stuff. Kinda bugs me when I do something frequently but have no idea how it really works.

Great job with the fishless cycle! Sounds like you will be done really soon. I am jealous.

Thanks for the compliment, TomK2!! I appreciate it, but I'm not done yet.

I've looked for the thread that you talked about, but cannot find it. Could you lead me to that direction? I want to know exactly how things really work as well. We both must be Type A personalities


See ya,

Michelle