Fishless cycling with ammonia.

I would like to know what you think about adding ammonia to my tank to cultivate the required bacteria. I have started my tank and and added the substrate, some lava-rock and have a tetratec ex1200 running. There is ample airstones and I pushed my temperature up to round about 30 degrees as I have heard that these would be suitable conditions for bacteria growth. I'm brand new at this and would appreciate some help. I have ordered pure ammonia from a local chemist and will be collecting tomorrow. I have to add that I have also used a Interpet new aquarium start up kit which contains water de-chlorinator and a filter start which I added yesterday. It has been 3 days since I set up my tank yesterday the ph was 7,5 and no ammonia present in my water. Thanks for the help.

 

hi and welcome

Go read this article on starting up your first tank.

No one really uses pure ammonia for cycling tanks we use Seachem Stability and a couple of fish food flakes every 2nd day to feed the bacteria, you have done right on increasing the temp to 30 degrees this does help the bacteria grow quicker and also the extra aeration.

Please update your location so we all know where you are from.

Zoom's Article 1- Starting your first tank

Good luck.

 

Hallo and welcome to the forum and hobby, i would stay away from adding any chemicals to the tank. if you want to go fishless rather add small pinches of food every couple days. get some bio vital to startup your colonies. i have read a few articles that suggest using Danios as cycling fish. i think give it one or 2 more days, drop the temp to about 25 and add throw in a couple danios to start the cycling process. i know you're excited and want to get the cycle going ASAP but in the long run you will probably regret it. your fish will be much happier in a naturally cycled tank... my opinion

good luck and keep us posted

 

I would rather go the fishless route. my 2 cents.

 

I always use the fish food method because it seems less technical, but if you've already ordered the ammonia then go for it, I'm sure a lot of people will say it's the best way. A high temperature will definitely speed up the process, and always remember to add only aged / dechlorinated water. I once almost added tap water to a cycling tank, figuring there were no fish in it... but I caught myself in time, realising that the chlorine would kill off my precious bacteria. A smart hint that I've heard, though not used yet, is that once you have the cycle finished you can take some of the media and keep it in the freezer - it won't kill the bacteria but keep them in stasis, and then you have instant cycled media for new tanks / quarantine tanks etc.

 

Thank you for the advice and welcomes. I will keep you all posted. I have to admit that I struggled myself to death to get the Ammonia and would like to give it a try. But lets wait and see if it gets here tomorrow. I'm from jhb Ammar but will update my profile.

 

I'd say stick with the pure ammonia - fish food has other compounds in it, which aren't necessary for the nitrogen cycle in your tank.

 

I have heard of using ammonia to cycle a tank. I'd be interested to see how it goes. Will you measure ammonia, nitrites and nitrates to see how the different bacteria develop? Please post your results.

The reason you see no ammonia in your tank yet is because you have nothing in there producing ammonia. Ammonia is excreted by fish as a waste product - primarily through their gills, interestingly, and not as pee

The way I understand the bacteria in a bottle products work is that they contain bacteria that may not be the same as the bacteria that grow in a tank to "eat" ammonia and nitrites, but they will do the job while the correct bacteria are growing.

 

This has also been something that most of the people on TASA seems to do, is to go a fishless cycle.

why wait for 3-4 weeks when you can use Seachem,s Stability and start adding fish on the second day?
Why waste money on stuff like amonia when you can buy Stability and add fish in the first week?

This is exactly when you want to add fish like ottos, before algae can start to take a foot hold.

I have done this for years and never lost any fish.....ever

 

And then also, you dont need stuff like test kits, which i personally think is a waste of money.

 

That's the point, they don't. They just do the job until the proper bacteria colony has established itself. This is why it doesn't make sense to me to add bottled bacteria and then leave the tank for a month. The bacteria would just die off and there would be nothing to take their place. Unless you mean, how do they stay alive in the bottle? I don't know the answer to that. Perhaps they are the type that produce dormant sporocysts but don't live in fish tanks? I am skeptical about these products, but so many people use them and swear by them, that they must have some value?

Personally, I think the best way to cycle a tank is to put some filter media in another occupied tank for a few weeks. Then when you are ready to set up your new tank, add this seeded filter media to the new filter - and you have an instantly cycled tank. I use my son's Oscar tank - they're very effective ammonia producers. And then, stock slowly as well.

Supposedly, the benefit of fish-less cycling is that you don't transfer diseases from another tank and cycling with hardy fish is considered cruel. It makes some sense, which is why I am keen to see how cycling with pure ammonia works. I have never tried it because I only have Scrubbs ammonia and I don't think that's the right one to use - LOL.

 

Is there anyone on this forum who has had success with ammonia? I have read a number of posts on different forums discussing this topic and it seems to be the most popular way of establishing a stable setup. The reason for this is a claim that the ammonia would be measurable. I have not yet added ammonia as I will only be receiving this from the chemist today. I'm looking forward to get my cycle started.

I have read that people has used scrubbs ammonia by jeyes in there tanks and even though it does contain traces of detergent after the cycle is complete none of that is present in the water. The responses are mixed about using cloudy ammonia though.

What fish species would be recommended for a newb like myself. I was leaning towards a Malawi tank but your input would be appreciated.

 

I bought myself 6 Danios to cycle my tank with, leave the tank running 2 days then every week you buy one more danio and do daily 10% water changes to make sure you dont harm the fish, after that slowly stock up the tank with the fish you want

 

@Vernonst, i have heard about people using ammonia to cycle a tank for sure, and i think the process goes something like this and involves testing the water every day to see when there is a nitrite spike, and eventually a nitrate spike.. once you've achieved the spikes, you know that the bacteria has started converting the toxic ammonia into first toxic nitrites, and then the less toxic nitrates. this tells you that your tank has started a small bacteria colony, once you've established this (normally takes about 2 weeks, sometimes longer), you can start adding some hardy fish like zebra danios in ones and twos over the next few days, adding say 1-2 fish every week. your tank should be fully cycled by about 8 weeks. and then there is another stage of deep seeded bacteria that establish themselves over months in the subtrate, but generally after 2 months you could consider your tank cycled..

personally i find this process too laborious and costly (test kits are expensive! and not always accurate!) so in my opinion, you should run your tank for a day or two, with your dechlorinator in obviously, then get substrate (a handfull of gravel) or a piece of filter foam or both from an established tank of a friend or from the lfs and put that in your tank. a hand full of gravel added to your own gravel normally does the trick.


you should be able to add fish in small quantities from the very next day after adding mature media to your tank..

hoep this helps

 

oh and generally when doing the above, do not do any water changes for the first 2 weeks, to allow the bacteria to settle in. otherwise you just removing the very ammonia you need in the tank for bacteria to feed on.

 

I have added the Ammonia. My water parameters before adding the ammonia was:

PH 7.5
Ammonia 0

I didn't test for Nitrite or Nitrate as they won't be present as yet. After adding 2ml of Ammonia to my 216ltr tank the parameters were:

PH 7.5
NH3 ±4
Water Temp 30

After adding only 1ml of ammonia the test reflected 2ppm. I then added another 1ml ammonia to get the 4ppm I require to kickstart my cycle. If the ammonia was a 100percent pure I would only have had to add 1ml. I will keep you guys updated. Thank you once again for the help and opinions.

 

keep us updated for sure, it would be really informative to watch and learn frm this exercise...