Cycling With Ammonium Hydroxide

[suheil]

hi people,
i have a doubt. can we cycle a tank fishless with ammonium hydroxide?
if so how do we do it. same as with ammonium chloride? problem is i live in a remote place in india and there r no testkits available here. so if someone can outline a nice and relatively safe way to cycle my tank without help of testkits and mention a timeframe, it would be great.

could u also tell me how big will an oscar get before it is sexually mature? thing is i have 2 oscars who r six months old and grew up together. but now they still move around together but occassionally liplock. is this normal? they r not aggressive to their tankmates- a convict. the bigger oscar is around 5 inches and the smaller around 3.5 to 4 inches. do post replies

thank u

 

[rdd1952]

I don't know how you would be able to cycle a tank without test kits. I guess you can use ammonia (not sure about the ammonium hydroxide) and just wait till the water starts getting cloudy and the brown algae is present. those are both side effects of cycling. I don't know how you would know to add more ammonia or how much you would add though. Probably the best option if you don't have test kits is to plant the tank pretty heavily and the plants will help process the ammonia and nitrite.

 

[suheil]

i have been keeping fishes for a year now. i had new tank syndrome the first time. no probs after that.
but i have never cycled a tank completely before adding fish and so far no probs except for the first time. i just bought a new 130 gallon tank and i want to get good results for all the money i've spent. but proper cycling is a prob without test kits. well i guess i will keep adding food to the tank do bi weekly 30percent watre changes and then add an oscar after 45 days and do a huge water change after a week. by this time i hope my tank will be cycled!

 

[penguinpimp1990]

how to do a fishless cycle, ive always cycled my tanks with ammonum hydroxide, i dont know about chloride though.

adding food to the tank do bi weekly 30percent watre changes and then add an oscar after 45 days

im assuming the "food" is the ammonia, but if not fish food wont cycle a tank, the food only brakes down into ammonia after it has been digested.

 

[rdd1952]

how to do a fishless cycle, ive always cycled my tanks with ammonum hydroxide, i dont know about chloride though.

The problem she has with a fishless cycle is that she doesn't have or have access to any test kits. Someone else from India had post something similarly just recently too so apparently it's a problem there. Without being able to test ammonia and nitrite, I don't know how you could possibly accomplish a fishless cycle.

 

[chrisquinn12]

I would suggest that without test kits you would really be 'flying blind' doing a fishless cycle.

You could introduce fish to a leathal tank.

In this case you would be better to cycle with fish. But starting with 1 or 2 and adding to your stock very gradually, also regular water changes.

This is how I cycled my new tank. No problem.

 

[suheil]

thanks guys. guess i will cycle using some hardy fish.

and rdd1952, thanks but iam a guy, not a 'she'. anyway lets see what happens

 

[chrisquinn12]

You should be ok.. Just take it easy and most importantly have fun....