Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnPaul
The only thing I have heard that makes sense to me (regarding the value of adding a little fish food) is that the fish food not only puts ammonia into the water (when it decays), but also adds other trace nutrients to the water column--trace nutrients that the bacteria might need. If you look at the list of ingredients in any commercial fish food, you can see there are a LOT of things in there. It certainly wouldn't hurt, and it might indeed help, if someone doing a fishless cycle added a pinch of flakes (finely ground up into almost a powder) at the very beginning, just to "seed" the water with these various micronutrients. I don't think it is something one would have to do throughout the process, just occasionally (maybe a tiny pinch of flakes every week or every other week).
Just a thought.
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Fish food can also add in phosphate. Phosphate can lead to algae.
If you use fish food to cycle, remember to clean it out and replace it with more food often. If I remember correctly, 5 grams of decaying food can raise phosphate .4ppm.