How do I maintain a cycled tank with no fish?

[Mixer]

So I am doing a fish less cycle on a 10G tank with a few plants. I have Co2 in for the plants, and it looks like my cycle is going well, my ammonia was down to .25 from 3 and my nitrite was about 1.0 and my nitrate was just starting to read something more than zero.

So my question is, this is a planted QT tank, so how much ammonia and how often to keep it cycled with no fish? Would 1ml every couple of days be enough? Too much? Should I just get a dropper and put in 1 or 2 drops per day?

I could get a single fish but didn't want to move the fish in and out when I need to QT another purchase, and didn't want to risk that fish if there was something wrong with the new fish.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

So I am doing a fish less cycle on a 10G tank with a few plants. I have Co2 in for the plants, and it looks like my cycle is going well, my ammonia was down to .25 from 3 and my nitrite was about 1.0 and my nitrate was just starting to read something more than zero.

So my question is, this is a planted QT tank, so how much ammonia and how often to keep it cycled with no fish? Would 1ml every couple of days be enough? Too much? Should I just get a dropper and put in 1 or 2 drops per day?

I could get a single fish but didn't want to move the fish in and out when I need to QT another purchase, and didn't want to risk that fish if there was something wrong with the new fish.

Pure ammoina is the recommended choice here. I like the eye dropper idea since you have such a small tank. Maybe a few drops and an hour later test your ammo (liquid testing right?)

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[BigJim]

Calculator

There's an ammonia calculator in this link.

 

[straick]

I used a syringe to measure my ammonia. Nice and accurate. I know that here at least you can buy a few at a time from a pharmacy without a prescription.

 

[eco23]

Don't go by any type of calculator or recommendation.. you've gotta experiment yourself to get it right. My ammonia is "pure" but it's such a weak mixture with the water that it actually takes me over 200 drops to get up to 4ppm in a 48 gallon tank. Mr Limpet's got the right idea, add a little, let it circulate for an hour and test again.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I used a syringe to measure my ammonia. Nice and accurate. I know that here at least you can buy a few at a time from a pharmacy without a prescription.

Not here in CA lol.

Here's a pic of mine and it saves my sanity, since I test everyday.

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[straick]

That does make life a little bit harder. A graduated measuring thing, like what Mr.Limpet has does make it so that you can keep track of how much to add so that you can repeat it with greater accuracy.

 

[BigJim]

That calculator includes inputs to account for your ammonia mix. Unlike stocking a tank, mixing a solution with a certain ammonia concentration is science.

 

[eco23]

My ammonia bottle and another brand they had at the store didn't give the %. Just says pure ammonia, no surfactants, no dyes and no perfumes. It'd be nice if it gave the %. Another thing to keep in mind is that the older a bottle is, the weaker it is. It evaporates out of the bottle because ammonia is a gas, not a liquid and they just bubble the gas through distiller water to bottle it.

 

[Mixer]

Pure ammoina is the recommended choice here. I like the eye dropper idea since you have such a small tank. Maybe a few drops and an hour later test your ammo (liquid testing right?)

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So do you think a few drops a day to keep the bacteria alive would be enough? Is there a specific amount daily that I would be shooting for?

 

[eco23]

From everything I've experienced there seems to be 2 schools of thought on the amount. Some keep it dosed up to 4ppm every day while others let it drop almost to zero before they dose it back up to 4ppm. During my cycle, I kept it up every day at 4ppm until late in the cycle so the nitrItes didn't peak super high and potentially stall my cycle.

Regardless of tank size or stage of the cycle, the ability to convert 4ppm of ammonia to nitrAtes in 24 hours is considered the perfect way to cycle your tank and maintain it at that level. Just make sure you do a really big water change to get the nitrAtes down before you add fish. Feeding it high levels of ammonia every day is going to make the nitrAtes pile up to really unsafe levels.

 

[doogle]

probobly more like a 1/2 teaspoon(or any smaller measuring device available), more ammonia will grow more bacteria, my question is why plant a qt ?

 

[siva]

I am just keeping 4 nerite snails in mine. Not sure if that will do it?

 

[eco23]

I've been researching an ungodly amount about the cycling process and what happens after it completes, and my full understanding is that during the cycle there are optimal levels of ammonia/nitrItes to colonize and grow the two different types of bacteria needed. During a cycle, the statement that the more ammonia the better is not the truth. A cycle can stall or fail if the ammonia or nitrItes are above a certain level.

However, once the cycle is completed and you simply need to keep the bacteria fed before you add fish it does not NECESSARILY require a high amount of ammonia input. The bacteria can stay alive for at least a couple weeks without ammonia/nitrItes being in the tank. That being said, 4ppm of ammonia added to the tank on a consistent basis is the recognized level that promotes the most growth and healthiest colony of bacteria that contributes to the best bio-filter possible.

So to sum it up, you can actually not add any ammonia for a short period of time and the bacteria will survive (but not continue to colonize) if the tank is already cycled, However, if you want to make your bio-filter as strong as possible to handle what you're eventually going to throw at it, try to keep the ammonia level around 3-4ppm until you add your fish.

Review the above posts about how there is no general rule for how many drops of ammonia to add (as strengths differ among brands) and remember to do a mojor water change to get your nitrAtes into safe levels before adding fish (super important!)

Good luck!

*My above advice is regarding fishless cycling only! If you have any animals in the aquarium you would never dose your tank up to 4ppm with ammonia.

 

[spoonman]

Couldnt you just leave it alone with plants and have an HOB on an already established tank and just move it over when you want to use it as a QT? Seems like alot less trouble than dosing ammonia all the time.

 

[doogle]

i wasnt saying MORE ammonia like you think(bacteria wont feed without it, should have expained that better, but i also never said it was better, you read into what i posted), . why would you ever want more than .25ppm ammonia ? you say more ammonia is bad then you say 3-4ppm, you are a little confusing(and that is extremely high)...why would you plant a quarentine tank? meds can harm plants, a power head or bubbler will give more oxygen, so why risk the plants???

 

[Mr. Limpet]

i wasnt saying MORE ammonia like you think(bacteria wont feed without it), . why would you ever want more than .25ppm ammonia ? you say more ammonia is bad then you say 3-4ppm, you are a little confusing...wht would you plant a quarentine tank?

4ppm is the designated default level to seed a tank to be able to cycle it and I agree that .25ppm would more than enough to maintain a colony. IME the last thing you want to do is have anything decco wise in a QT.

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[doogle]

snails need food and they poop , so in time it should cycle...because those are two sources of ammonia.

 

[siva]

snails need food and they poop , so in time it should cycle...because those are two sources of ammonia.

no I meant just to keep it alive, not cycle

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I am just keeping 4 nerite snails in mine. Not sure if that will do it?

If you have any "animals" in your tank, do not dose with ammo. They create it and will suffer greatly if you're trying to maintain a 4ppm level. Throw food, veggies, raw shrimp in as anything that decays wil feed the cycle. I know squash does since I lost a piece in my planted tank and had a small ammo spike. After I dealt with it, the spike went away.

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