trickshot3102
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2013
- Messages
- 468
Well, the tittle says it all; how long until an uneaten piece of food starts to release ammonia?
Sounds like a fun experiment! Just use a cup of tank water and a pinch of food then test periodically. I know folks sometimes fishless cycle with cheap flakes but no clue how long it takes to get the ammonia up.
If you're using sterile food, with sterilized container, and seal all this, you'll probably not see any ammonia spike before months, years... Or never...
This is the way they make conserve cans. Still no ammonia in my old two years tuna cans. hehe
That's a different process completely. The ammonia comes from stored nitrogen that's in everything that is or was alive. It just has to be broken down (decomposed) in order to release the ammonia.
The can of tuna on the other hand has been cooked to kill any bacteria in the can as well as removing every ounce of air inside it. Many types of bacteria need air to live and grow and without some in the can they can't break anything down.
No, it takes at least 24hrs. In this case feed them less.
What I do for feeding big cubes for my few fish, is I split the cubes via melting and refreezing.
I take a container, put grinded flake food, pellet foods, frozen brine shrimps, frozen bloodworms, I put water in this, I wait 20 min it melt, then I mix a bit and freeze this mixture. Then I crush it into small pieces that I can give to my fish, and there's never uneaten food in the tank.
Then I put water and freeze and crush the ice plate:
You can make the ice plate more thin for easier ice crush. They seems to like this food, and the grinded pellets feed my corys in the same time.
Wow that seems like a great way to feed! I should try it! I just feed the flake food and for a treat, I give them the shrimp.
I didn't know that it take almost 24 hours! That is such a relief!
My cories take at least 30min-1hrs to eat sinking pellets... No worries.