fishless cycle starts today!

[AmyD]

I have just received my heater after deciding to keep tropical fish so i shall make a start on my first fishless cycle tonight. Hope it all goes smoothly

 

[LyndaB]

Yay for fishless cycling!!!!! Let us know how it goes!

 

[AmyD]

Will do any tips for measuring ammonia?

 

[LyndaB]

I've never used ammonia. Hopefully someone else will pop in.

 

[AmyD]

Tank dosed up to 4ppm, heater on. just have to wait for the nitrites to start showing up

 

[librarygirl]

How did you end up measuring it? The first time I used it I overdosed and had to water change to get it down. Then I just added a few drops at a time and tested the water about 30 mins after each drop and counted the drops it took to get to 4. You might see a drop in ammonia before nitrites show up, which is normal. Good luck!

 

[Nubster]

How large a tank? I used 1 tablespoon (14-15ml) in my 75g (285L) tank to get around 5ppm ammonia.

 

[Nubster]

Opps...nvm...now I see you already got it...lol

 

[AmyD]

It took more than i thought it would and took me a little while as i was adding a couple of mls at a time so i didn't over do it. I used one my kids spare medicine syringes. (obviously never to be used for their medicine again!) it measures up to 5 mls, very useful

 

[Nubster]

Those are great for measuring out water for testing as well. Much easier than scooping up water, getting too much, pouring some out...but too much, scooping up some more...ugh...gets tedious. Now, I just pull up 5ml and squirt it in to the testing tube and on to the next one.

 

[Vol4Ever]

How big is the tank? 1.5 mL is all it takes to get a 10 gallon to 4.0. Sounds to me like you might've overdosed the ammonia unless you have a really large tank. Just trying to save you some grief.

 

[Nubster]

Well...if she tested it and came up with 4ppm...it sounds like things are good to go. Some people say dose lower, some say 4-5ppm is good. I like the idea of dosing a little higher. That way when the tank is cycled you have a huge bacteria colony and you can stock a lot more fish at once. However, don't forget, quarantine is your best friend. I just learned that lesson the hard way after loosing 20+ new fish to columnaris and ick. I would likely have lost them even in a QT tank but since I didn't QT them, just placed them in my newly cycled main tank, I really mucked that tank up. Not to mention I had to medicate 75 gallons of water vs. 10 gallons of water. Would have saved me some money and headache.

 

[AmyD]

I'm pretty sure i didn't add too much, i have a good testing kit

 

[The Editor]

4ppm is ideal but anywhere up to 6ppm is OK, any higher and you'll kill the beneficial bacteria.

Nubster, start sucking up 2.5ml of water and halving the number of drops of liquid reagent you add. Your test kits will last twice as long

Glad you're on track with the fishless cycle, good luck!

 

[sobersteve323]

Nubster, start sucking up 2.5ml of water and halving the number of drops of liquid reagent you add. Your test kits will last twice as long

This is the simplest, but best, advice I've ever read. Why didn't that occur to me before? Haha

 

[Vol4Ever]

Is there any reason that half dose idea wouldn't work? Outstanding, but evilly simple.

 

[TankMan]

I've never used ammonia. Hopefully someone else will pop in.

If you haven't used ammonia, then what have you used? i start my 55g cycling this weekend.....

 

[The Editor]

Is there any reason that half dose idea wouldn't work? Outstanding, but evilly simple.

This is the simplest, but best, advice I've ever read. Why didn't that occur to me before? Haha

It never occurred to me either, it took my biochemist girlfriend to ask me why I was using so much water and reagent each time.

It absolutely works fine, you could scale it up or down as much as you like so long as you keep the ratio of drops per ml the same.

For example the Ammonia test requires 8 drops of each solution per 5ml, I do 4 drops per 2.5ml.

The Nitrites use 5 drops per 5ml, I use 2 drops per 2ml normally. But 1 drop to 1ml would work fine also.

Nitrates need 10 drops per 5ml, I go for 4 drops per 2ml.

pH is 3 drops per 5ml, this ratio doesn't go lower without horrible fractions so I just leave it as it is. High range pH test scales just like nitrites, 1 or 2 drops per 1 or 2 ml.

I found the API glass tubes a bit large for this smaller scale reaction, so I nicked a load of disposable 5ml plastic test tubes and lids from work. Wash em out each time and they're fine for a good few uses! Don't leave them too long though as they stain.. The API tubes work fine though if you don't have as easy access to labware as I do though

Like I said it took a biochemist to point it out to me... But it works great!

 

[Nubster]

I read that somewhere else to that a guy (he worked/owned a shop) asked an API rep about using half the sample and half the reagent. The rep said that there was no problem doing that but to not tell anyone because then their test kits would last twice as long...lol

 

[Nubster]

If you haven't used ammonia, then what have you used? i start my 55g cycling this weekend.....

You can use fish food and you can use raw shrimp/fish. I have done the raw fish and shrimp methods and both work great but are a bit stinky after a while. Ammonia works best cause it's easy, doesn't stink, and you can be precise with the amount of ammonia in the tank. Plus if you get your tank cycled but can't get fish for one reason or another for awhile, you can use ammonia to continue feeding your bacteria until you get fish.