First tank fishless cycling help
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Mrs.h2012
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Someone who is more knowledgeable about the cycling process will have to chime in to explain better how to do it, but I can say you l need the API master test kit, or if you prefer to purchase the test kits separately you will need one for pH, nitrites and nitrates and ammonia. And be sure and buy the liquid tests, members here say to stay away from strips because the readings aren't as accurate as liquid tests.
somethingsfishy
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Yep you would need a liquid test kit. API is a popular brand and most of us use it. Strips are hit or miss so avoid those. Also you need some pure ammonia. No color or scent or additives, just ammonia. In a nut shell you dose with small amounts of ammo and then test the levels with the test kit. It takes about a month to six weeks. It sounds complex but is worth the effort.
Mrs.h2012
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Ive been recommended by members here that you look for the ace janitorial strength at ace hardware is what you want.
+1 on the ace ammonia you want "pure" ammonia (to be specific it's ammonium hydroxide since ammonia is a gas at room temp). If in doubt do the "shake test" meaning if you shake the ammonia bottle and it foams it's no good because it has detergents added.
As for the cycle, just dose ammonia to about 4ppm and keep testing until you see nitrites, if you know someone with a tank and can get some of their filter media adding this to your tank would speed up your cycle. Unless you have live plants it's better to keep the lights off during during fishless cycling to minimize algae. I kept mine on about 3hrs per day for viewing.
What will happen is for a while you will only see ammonia readings on your test kit ( I also second getting the API master kit) and eventually you will start to see nitrites and nitrates. It is important to keep dosing ammonia to around 4ppm (2 to 4ppm) when you start seeing nitrites because you don't want your ammonia-consuming bacteria to starve while you grow the nitrite-consuming bacteria. Also, you might need to do a PWC if your nitrites get above 10ppm since this can sometimes stall your cycle.
Your tank is considered cycled when it can convert 4ppm to nitrAtes in 24hrs. At that point you want to do a massive water change to get rid of nitrates before adding fish.
Good luck! Patience is key here but it is a lot better for your future fish and a lot less work for you to fishless cycle (who wants to do daily or more PWCs?????)
As for the cycle, just dose ammonia to about 4ppm and keep testing until you see nitrites, if you know someone with a tank and can get some of their filter media adding this to your tank would speed up your cycle. Unless you have live plants it's better to keep the lights off during during fishless cycling to minimize algae. I kept mine on about 3hrs per day for viewing.
What will happen is for a while you will only see ammonia readings on your test kit ( I also second getting the API master kit) and eventually you will start to see nitrites and nitrates. It is important to keep dosing ammonia to around 4ppm (2 to 4ppm) when you start seeing nitrites because you don't want your ammonia-consuming bacteria to starve while you grow the nitrite-consuming bacteria. Also, you might need to do a PWC if your nitrites get above 10ppm since this can sometimes stall your cycle.
Your tank is considered cycled when it can convert 4ppm to nitrAtes in 24hrs. At that point you want to do a massive water change to get rid of nitrates before adding fish.
Good luck! Patience is key here but it is a lot better for your future fish and a lot less work for you to fishless cycle (who wants to do daily or more PWCs?????)
heyheyitsrae
Aquarium Advice Activist
Just answering a future question you'll have:
You'll want to dose about one mL (a little less actually, if you're only going to 4 ppm) of 10% ammonia. I just did the calculator for my 6 gallon tank and it said 1.165 mL.
You'll want to dose about one mL (a little less actually, if you're only going to 4 ppm) of 10% ammonia. I just did the calculator for my 6 gallon tank and it said 1.165 mL.
Mrs.h2012
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Just wondering if you had a link to the ammonia dosage calculator? I've had my tank set up but haven't been able to get the ammonia and master kit, all the articles I've read just said to dose the ammonia and test the water until you got to 4ppm and to keep up with how much you add so know how much to add when you have to continue dosing ammonia.
Ohh and I'm tempted to help with the calculating part so here goes (the warning is I'm a chemist so I do it the long way - just ignore it if you're bored out of your mind and skip to the very last part)
Here is what is called the dilution formula (essentially you are taking a concentrated solution (your 10% ammonia) and diluting in your tank to obtain a dilute solution):
CconcentratedxVconcentrated=CdilutexVdilute
Where C stands for concentration and V for volume. The concentrated will be your bottle of 10% ammonia and the dilute will be your tank.
You want to know how much volume of concentrated solution to add so solve for that (I'll abbreviate the names somewhat):
Vconc = (Cdil x Vdil)/Cconc
The important part it to keep Cconc and Cdil on the same units, in this case ppm, and whatever units you use for Vdil is what Vconc will come out as. You won't need to use gallons on concentrated stuff only mL so we will need to convert the volume of your tank to mL.
Plugging in the numbers:
Cdil:
This one is the easy one, it's whatever you want your ammonia at, but this assumes no ammonia to start with so if your ammonia is 0ppm (you might see this happen towards the end your cycle) then its 4ppm but if it's say 0.5 then you want to add enough the get to 4ppm so it's 3.5ppm. Whatever the difference between between what your ammonia is at and the level you want it at - that is your Cdil
Vdil:
Like I said we want mL here.
Your tank is 5.5gal and you can assume that 10% of that volume is taken up by decor and substrate so let's go with 4.95gal.
Multiply by 3785 to go to mL (don't have a calc right now and I'm too lazy to close the app and use my phone).
The hard one:
Cconc:
We need this in ppm so we need to go from 10% (I'll assume it's weight to volume which what these usually are, the other thing it could be is volume to volume but I doubt it, I can explain why if you want so let me know if you're curious - but I did this when I cycled my tank and it worked fine) to ppm (parts per million).
Part per million can be thought as for example 1ppm as 1g of substance (ammonia in this case) for every 1million grams of solute (water in this case).
So back to the 10% we are assuming weight to volume so 10g of ammonia for every 100mL of solution. This is a dilute solution so we can use the density of water to go from volume (the 100mL) to mass (we want grams). The density of water is 1g/mL so 100mL is 100g. So now we have that the conc solution is 10gammonia/100gsolution we need parts per millions so the 100g should be 1million g. So we need to multiply top and bottom by 10,000. That gives us 100,000g ammonia per million that is 100000ppm
Cconc = 100000ppm
So for your tank:
Vconc = (Cdil x (4.95x3785)mL)/100000ppm
Cdil = 4ppm - whatever your tank is at.
So, whether you use this or the online calc (which is the same thing only it does the long work for you) you still need to know what your ammonia is at to be able to dose for the difference. Also you will want to test for nitrites and nitrates along your cycle too so I suggest you invest in the master API test kit if you can. I think you can find it online for like $18
Good luck
Here is what is called the dilution formula (essentially you are taking a concentrated solution (your 10% ammonia) and diluting in your tank to obtain a dilute solution):
CconcentratedxVconcentrated=CdilutexVdilute
Where C stands for concentration and V for volume. The concentrated will be your bottle of 10% ammonia and the dilute will be your tank.
You want to know how much volume of concentrated solution to add so solve for that (I'll abbreviate the names somewhat):
Vconc = (Cdil x Vdil)/Cconc
The important part it to keep Cconc and Cdil on the same units, in this case ppm, and whatever units you use for Vdil is what Vconc will come out as. You won't need to use gallons on concentrated stuff only mL so we will need to convert the volume of your tank to mL.
Plugging in the numbers:
Cdil:
This one is the easy one, it's whatever you want your ammonia at, but this assumes no ammonia to start with so if your ammonia is 0ppm (you might see this happen towards the end your cycle) then its 4ppm but if it's say 0.5 then you want to add enough the get to 4ppm so it's 3.5ppm. Whatever the difference between between what your ammonia is at and the level you want it at - that is your Cdil
Vdil:
Like I said we want mL here.
Your tank is 5.5gal and you can assume that 10% of that volume is taken up by decor and substrate so let's go with 4.95gal.
Multiply by 3785 to go to mL (don't have a calc right now and I'm too lazy to close the app and use my phone).
The hard one:
Cconc:
We need this in ppm so we need to go from 10% (I'll assume it's weight to volume which what these usually are, the other thing it could be is volume to volume but I doubt it, I can explain why if you want so let me know if you're curious - but I did this when I cycled my tank and it worked fine) to ppm (parts per million).
Part per million can be thought as for example 1ppm as 1g of substance (ammonia in this case) for every 1million grams of solute (water in this case).
So back to the 10% we are assuming weight to volume so 10g of ammonia for every 100mL of solution. This is a dilute solution so we can use the density of water to go from volume (the 100mL) to mass (we want grams). The density of water is 1g/mL so 100mL is 100g. So now we have that the conc solution is 10gammonia/100gsolution we need parts per millions so the 100g should be 1million g. So we need to multiply top and bottom by 10,000. That gives us 100,000g ammonia per million that is 100000ppm
Cconc = 100000ppm
So for your tank:
Vconc = (Cdil x (4.95x3785)mL)/100000ppm
Cdil = 4ppm - whatever your tank is at.
So, whether you use this or the online calc (which is the same thing only it does the long work for you) you still need to know what your ammonia is at to be able to dose for the difference. Also you will want to test for nitrites and nitrates along your cycle too so I suggest you invest in the master API test kit if you can. I think you can find it online for like $18
Good luck
Mrs.h2012
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That's what I'm waiting on, is to get the API master kit. That's why I haven't added ammonia yet and am just letting the tank sit there and run.
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