20gallon Journal - Updated Daily - Indir

[Miss Wiggle]

hop over to the plecs forum and ask there, they'll be able to give you the 'L' number and if you pop that into planetcatfish.com you'll find all the info you need.

you may be able to find them on PC just with 'pitbull plec' anyway though.

 

[indir-emir]

Thank miss, i found the L number a little while ago (wrote it down somewhere, now just gotta find). Didnt know about that website, ill check it out THank you very much.

Dont worry waterdrop, i understand Ill have to check out that calculator and figure out how much id need for my 20Gallons by more than likely the same way you did lol. Bit confusing but i think i understand. Thank you very much.

Gonna try get my hands on an ammonia bottle. I went to LFS that was open for Australia Day (public holiday) and asked about it but they said they didnt have any, nor did they know of where to get some. Wierd part was, lady asked why and i told her it was in order to complete my fishless cycle and she looked at me funny, as if she didnt know what i was on about, and said shes sorry but doesnt know lol. This shop has some pretty good people from the times ive gone for some questions, and for my little brother (has a 40L full of guppies). Havn't seen this lady before though

Thank you all for so many replies,
Indir

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I switched to Seachem Prime as my conditioner during my fishless cycle (mostly because I got some on a great sale) and I just save my aloe-vera stuff (mine is API Stress-Coat) as an extra "emergency" bottle of conditioner to have around. I'd still use it if I needed it. The Prime is the most-liked here and I would consider it the safest during cycling, however, once cycling is over and the months/years roll by, most of the word here is to change over to "pond dechlor" products as they are good enough and work out to be the cheapest of all!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rabbut]

In mature tanks, you could even argue that dechlorinator isn't required.....

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, before long we'll have restarted that whole giant discussion ... I should have left my mouth shut!

 

[indir-emir]

Lol, glad i can get the forum talking lol. Ill stick with the aloe vera one after the water clears a little more. If it comes back again im gonna throw it at an oncoming car lol.

Just out of curiosity, how much do you guys pay for your bottle of ammonia (i know most of you are in a different country to me, but itll give me a rough idea) and also how big a bottle do you have or how big a bottle should i buy?

Oh also, as a quarantine tank (as i havn't gotten one ) how big does it need to be? I intend on keeping fish at a maximum of about 4inches...

Indir

 

[waterdrop]

Just saw a bottle at my grocery store last night, it was $1.99 (about 2 dollars american) for 0.5G/1.9L (so I guess I've either exaggerated a few times on here saying it was "a buck" (1 US dollar) or else its gone up since I got my last one a year ago or so.)

For you, you wouldn't need nearly that much, just putting little squirts in and being near the end of the cycle probably. The problem is its rarely in smaller amounts because they think you want it for cleaning floors and such!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[indir-emir]

Hmm so 2L is plenty then? Ok cool, ill have to go to some store and see if i can find it (apart from fish stores). What type of things am i looking for? Im a bit confused about the whole household ammonia thing lol.

Also, got a question (yet again lol). If i was to get/make a QT would say a 5 gallon one be enough? And would it also need to be cycled with a filter and such in there, or is a heater on its own enough for a QT?

Indir

EDIT: Oh one more thing, since my nitrites are 5+ ppm should i wait till they drop to 0 before i add any ammonia? Or should i just add it and see if they drop to 0 over night?

 

[rabbut]

For ammonia, you want one with just water and ammonia in the bottle, no surfactants/soap. It should behave like water when shaken, the foam quickly clearing. If it foams and does not clear, it isn't what you want

I'd switch to ammonia as soon as you get it if you are going to use it

The size of QT tank you require realy depends upon the fish you are QTing and how many. There isn't enough info there to say yay or nay You need a filter and heater for it. I tend to throw the filter foam for the QT tank into the exturnal filter on the main tank. When I need a QT tank, I set it up and then add the foam from my exturnal to that filter. Bingo, one cloned tank ready to go Obviously you will only need the QT tank after the first lot of fish

All the best
Rabbut

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with rabbut about the size, its all up to you... 5g,8g, 10g, 20g depends on your fish and availability of space etc.

The method of choice here seems to be to have just this tank (it will be bare-bottom, no substrate) and a heater. Then for filtration you either have some sort of extra filter which you run on your main tank all the time and then set it up with the Q-tank when needed, or you move mature media over to an empty Qtank filter as rabbut described.... basically though its just equipment that you keep somewhere to pull out (although its loads better to have tested it right after you bought it of course!)

Yeah, you go ahead and add ammonia as soon as you find it, hopefully getting the tank to 3 or 4 or 5ppm. Its not gonna cause nitrite(NO2) to drop to zero overnight, quite the opposite, its going to help the A-Bacs produce even more nitrite at first. What you'll be accomplishing however is finishing up your fishless cycle with the colonies becoming much larger and more robust before they drop back to match the size of your first fish population.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[indir-emir]

Ah okay, i understand now. Ill see if i can find some in grocery stores, hopefully there is some and its cheap lol. Got a feeling LFS will be expensive about ammonia lol. Thanks everyone.

Ill post an update on water stats later on tonight.

Indir

 

[indir-emir]

Ok ive got a bit of a problem now. I went to the 4 LFS around my area and non have ammonia in a bottle and non even know where i can get some. Any specific types of brands of ammonia i can look for in grocery stores? I know im in australia but im sure there some that are worldwide.

Which types of bottles can i look for? or What needs to be the ingredients the bottle needs/should have so that i can find some?

Indir

 

[Thommo]

Ok ive got a bit of a problem now. I went to the 4 LFS around my area and non have ammonia in a bottle and non even know where i can get some. Any specific types of brands of ammonia i can look for in grocery stores? I know im in australia but im sure there some that are worldwide.

Which types of bottles can i look for? or What needs to be the ingredients the bottle needs/should have so that i can find some?

Indir

Hi Indir,

Just read your post and you are in the right place for some really great advice. The guys on here are very helpful.

Anyway I live in Adelaide, Austraila and you would not believe how hard it is to get ammonia . Do not use cloudy ammonia from the supermarkets. (only stuff at the shops that says ammonia). Unfortunally no one sells it to the general public here due to being able to make bombs with it or something like that so it is not available over the shelf.

I ended up ringing about 30 different Chemical supplers and only 2 sell in small quantities of 500mls for about $35 cant remember who they were. One of the mobs actaully are in Sydney and only courier it and you have to pay shipping etc. I ended up buying 4L of the stuff because I could get it for $40. Anyone in Adelaide want some Ammonia . I ended up getting it with a shonky deal from the factory as they were not supposed to supply it to the General public.

If you want 1000L of the stuff there are plenty of Chemical companies willing to sell it to you.

CHEERS

 

[indir-emir]

Oh... well screw them then haha, ill fight them all!

Thanks Thommo, i guess ill have to try and ask around.

Oh, at a LFS a guy told me about a bottle that encourages growth of ammonia and such in the tank.. Any ideas of what this is?

Indir

 

[indir-emir]

I finally figured out why the substance was ontop of the water... The water conditioner i am using (the one with aloevera) is causing it, saw it start up again after topping up my water.

Oh tested water about 45 minutes after topping up my water (bout 2L of water) and these are my results:
Ammonia = 0 to 0.25
Nitrite = 5
Nitrate = 20
PH = 7.4

What could have caused my ammonia to go up overnight (it was at 0, 24 hours prior to test)?
Could it have been the bit of fish food i put in about 2 nights ago (didn't get off surface completely till today when i woke up)? If this is the case, ill have to use this as my ammonia source because aparently cant find ammonia in Australia lol. Also if i was to put twice as much as a fully stocked tank would eat, would it double the ammonia thats in there now?

Indir