Starting fishless cycle ... with mussel...

[melissa1977]

Hi everybody,
im new here and I have a special question.

Can you start a fishless cycling using a boilled mussels ? I really don't want to harm any fishies so I prefer doing a fishless cycle... and I have a hard time finding pur ammonia here in Montreal, quebec...
Any suggestiongs... ???

Thank you
Mélissa

 

[TankGirl]

You certainly can do it, or with a shrimp, or whatever. The drawback is that there may be some odor to deal with.

 

[TankGirl]

Oh - you will get better breakdown and ammonia production if the mussel is raw, rather than cooked.

 

[melissa1977]

Thank you for the information...

Is there any other way of starting the cycle ? I live in a 1 1/2 apt, im not too sure about the bad smell. 8O
I heard something about cycling with plants... Im planning of getting my tank planted at about 50 %.
Is that really possible ? How long would it take ? :?

 

[swanandmokashi]

you can use fish food

 

[melissa1977]

Thank you !!
: )

 

[TankGirl]

Very good suggestion, swanandmokashi! Just put some in there every day like you are feeding imaginary fish-

 

[swanandmokashi]

plus that way you can practice fish feeding (like that is hard )

 

[poikilotherm]

I'm surprised that you can't find household ammonia in a drug store or garden supply store there. That said, fish food sounds fine, but it would also be nice to have some gravel or a filter pad from someone else's established tank to seed the nitrifying bacteria you'll be feeding.

 

[melissa1977]

Thank you guys for all thoses interesting informations !!

: )