Dr Tim's One And Only Or Tetra Safe Start?

[paradiddle]

I used tetra's bactozyme to begin with, but then used pure ammonia, use that if you can get some

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hello!
 
An update...
 
This has turned out to be a bit of a saga!
 
After helping my mate set up a tank for his boy with a cute little submarine that the boy especially chose........
 

 
I used some of my mature filter media (ceramic media, a bit of filter sponge, few handfuls of gravel etc) and put into the Fluval U2 filter they have in the tank. Turned heater temp to 28C / 82F.
 
Explained about cycling process and should test every few day to keep eye on ammonia, nitrites etc, gave hime my bottle of ammonia to use for dosing for cycle. Also gave out paperwork for the Fishless Cycle printed out from this forum and the link for this forum if he wants to read further into fishless cycles, and to text me daily with updates etc.
 
Five days later, he has not done anything at all, tested once and readings were Ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0, pH 8.2. He also turned the tank heater down  to 26C! No idea why he turned heater down as told him to keep it at 28 to help bacs until cycle finished, but 26 is ok, just a bit slower.
 
No idea if he has a nitrite spike or anything.
 
So I sort of assumed that may be past already since nitrite at 0, so told him to dose for 3ppm Ammonia and see what happens in 24 to 48 hours, I used forum calculator and told him to dose 0.39ml of my ammonia (its 35% strength) and test in 24 hours and give me results.
 
2 days later (yesterday) he told me he added 3.9ml of ammonia.....

 not 0.39ml and unsrprisingly ammonia is off the charts.
 
Told him to do at least 90% water change to get rid of most of the ammonia and refill with de-chlorinated water asap and test for ammonia at least an hour after water change.
 
Today he said ammonia at 4ppm, still a bit too high so recommended to change 25% of water, use de-chlore etc. Then retest an hour after.
 
Have I advised him to do the right things? Will the bacteria from my filter to his tank still be viable, may take a few days to get back on track perhaps. 
 
Reckon he has made hard work of this! Think I am more stressed than he is about his fishless cycle!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

No way to know. The amount of ammonia he added can kill the bacteria and likely did.
 
I feel your pain. You went out of your way to give this person everything they needed and he basically tossed it all in the trash can.
 
I think the best thing you could do is to convince this person to trade in the plans for keeping fish etc. for a pet rock. He will for sure be killing fish if he keeps on in this fashion.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hmm, thats what I think too, no way of knowing either for sure.
 
Also about the bacteria having too much ammonia and thus affecting them at best or more likely to have died off.
 
I pretty much know that some keepers on this forum would have loved to have good bacteria/media for starting a fishless cycle and my mate, through either plain ignorance or pure laziness has just basically slapped my face with a wet fish!
 
Lol, convince him to keep a pet rock.........actually, not such a bad idea...........
 
Thanks TTA for your advice even though to no avail for this mate of mine.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Maybe these:
 
http/www.hexbug.com/aquabot/

 

[Ch4rlie]

Thanks Eagles, already sent that to him. 

 

[daizeUK]

Maybe you should have given the instructions to the five year old   Poor lad, I hope this tank gets cycled so that he can have happy fish.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Not a bad idea daize, he is a fairly intelligent lad but afraid not at 5 years old, maybe if he was 12 or older something like that then yeah, no problem in attempting to teach him in doing that.
 
But am disappointed in his dad though, thats the thing, he's a mate but what can you do?
 
Will help out but only if he asks and he is a bit of a lazy so and so sometimes as his wife complains about often enough! lol