And Another Fishless Cycle Question!

[RedeyesUK]

Hi all,

Just getting towards the end of my cycle (nitrites disappearing somewhere between 12-24 hrs) - all going well, if a little slowly, but I have a small problem:

I'm going to be going away for a couple of days over the weekend - going away Friday evening, will be back Sunday evening. This means a couple of days without being able to add ammonia.

Any ideas what to do here?

My options as I see it are:

1) add ammonia up to 5ppm (if not a little more) just before I leave, and hope the bacteria will survive until I get back (not sure how long you can starve them for!)
2) Put some food in the tank for the weekend for it to start rotting - I was thinking a couple of prawns or something.

I was thinking about putting a fish in there, seeing as the cycle is nearly complete, but on reflection, I'd rather not, in case it all goes wrong.

Thanks in advance - I'd hate to kill the cycle at this stage!

Garry

 

[minxfishy]

If it were me, I would top up to 5ppm just before I left on Friday and also chuck in some fish food for a good measure. The ammonia will probably be processed quite quickly, but hopefully the fish food will take a little longer to break down (try some sinking pellets, not flakes). Even if it does process them both,, its on y 48 hours, test when you get back and add ammonia up to 5ppm and take it from there, it may stall it for a little while, possibly 24 hours but nothing major I would hope

 

[Corleone]

I'll second minxfishy's suggestion. 48 hours isn't that long, and the bacteria shouldn't be more than 24-36 starved if you top up before you leave, even without adding the food. The bacteria should easily be able to withstand that.