Ask Questions About Cycling

[Rusty_Shackleford22 137]

I'm confused. I thought the Micro-Lift achieved the same thing. So I still need to add ammonia? The instructions didn't mention this. Or are you saying the ammonia is just a test to see if it worked? Sorry to sound dense.
Since I don't have any ammonia on hand, could I just add more of the Micro-Lift instead?

Micro-lift is basically a bacterial starter culture. It will introduce beneficial bacteria to your aquarium. That bacteria needs "food" to reproduce and colonize your filter. Ammonia is the food.

 

[Chickadee3 23]

Micro-lift is basically a bacterial starter culture. It will introduce beneficial bacteria to your aquarium. That bacteria needs "food" to reproduce and colonize your filter. Ammonia is the food.

Ahh! I misunderstood then. I thought this product would cycle the tank. I'll have to get some ammonia.

 

[Essjay22 137]

Many of these 'bottled bacteria' products imply that all you need to do is add them, but some do nothing while others don't work instantly. Even those which do work can be damaged if stored incorrectly at any point between the factory and your tank, eg left in a delivery van in sub zero temps or during a heatwave.

As Rusty said, the bacteria need to be fed. Adding a dose of ammonia not only feeds them but any 'uneaten' ammonia and/or nitrite shows whether there are enough bacteria yet. A cycled tank is defined as one which can remove 3 ppm ammonia through to nitrate in 24 hours, with no ammonia or nitrite left in the water. The simplest way to add ammonia is using Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride - the company was set up by the man who discovered which bacteria species grow in fish tanks.

 

[Chickadee3 23]

OK, I borrowed some ammonia. Under ingredients it says "softened water, ammonia, chelating agent. Contains no phosphorous." Is this the right thing?
I read the article, and it says for 20 gallons I need to add 2.39 ml of ammonia. I converted this as 0.48 teaspoons, so almost a half teaspoon? Does this sound right? (Hopeless American here, was told we'd convert to metric in 1980.)
Just want some reassurances before I do this.

 

[Essjay22 137]

The ammonia should be OK - you haven't mentioned the words detergent or surfactant or perfume, the usual issues.


20 gallons needs 2.39 ml if the concentration of ammonia is 9.5%. Does the bottle list the strength? It's not usually higher than 9.5% but it could be lower. If the bottle doesn't say, I would add a bit under half a teaspoon, allow it to mix in for half an hour then test for ammonia. If it's below 3 ppm, you can add more to get 3 ppm. If you need to do this, make a note of how much it takes in total to get 3 ppm.

 

[Chickadee3 23]

No other detergents or additives are listed on the bottle, and no strength either. I realized that I have a ton of syringes in cc/ml. This will make it much easier. Just added the ammonia and will test soon. Thanks for the guidance!

 

[Chickadee3 23]

Update: Per last instructions, I tried to get the ammonia to spike. I added 3 separate dosages of ammonia, so 2.39 ml times 3. The highest reading I got was 1.0 and stopped after that. I continued to add 2.39 ml of ammonia daily in addition to the Micro-Lift. (Not sure if the ML is helping, hindering, or complicating this process?)

After that, the readings have been consistently 0.25 for both ammonia & nitrite. Yesterday the ammonia read 0 and the nitrite 0.25, and the same this morning. I have not tested nitrate yet. Should I?

Should I still be adding ammonia daily at this point? Or the Micro-Lift? When should I do a water change? I read the instructions posted here, which are excellent, but I got mixed up by using the Micro-Lift and still trying to get on track.

 

[Essjay22 137]

Don't bother testing nitrate yet. The test works by converting nitrate into nitrite then measuring the amount of nitrite. If there's already nitrite in the water it includes that in the nitrate result.

It looks as though the bottled bacteria product is working. I would wait until nitrite drops to zero, then add more ammonia and see if that can be cleared to zero ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours.



However, a thought occurs to me. Do you have live plants in the tank? Plants take up ammonia as fertiliser and turn it into protein rather than nitrite. Bacteria will also grow but in fewer numbers than in a tank with no live plants, and the presence of live plants does make the cycle run differently.

 

[Chickadee3 23]

Don't bother testing nitrate yet. The test works by converting nitrate into nitrite then measuring the amount of nitrite. If there's already nitrite in the water it includes that in the nitrate result.

It looks as though the bottled bacteria product is working. I would wait until nitrite drops to zero, then add more ammonia and see if that can be cleared to zero ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours.



However, a thought occurs to me. Do you have live plants in the tank? Plants take up ammonia as fertiliser and turn it into protein rather than nitrite. Bacteria will also grow but in fewer numbers than in a tank with no live plants, and the presence of live plants does make the cycle run differently.

Will do, thank you! Yes, both tanks have live plants. I also added Flourish tabs to the tank with gravel substrate, but not to the one with Eco-Complete.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford22 137]

Update: Per last instructions, I tried to get the ammonia to spike. I added 3 separate dosages of ammonia, so 2.39 ml times 3. The highest reading I got was 1.0 and stopped after that. I continued to add 2.39 ml of ammonia daily in addition to the Micro-Lift. (Not sure if the ML is helping, hindering, or complicating this process?)

After that, the readings have been consistently 0.25 for both ammonia & nitrite. Yesterday the ammonia read 0 and the nitrite 0.25, and the same this morning. I have not tested nitrate yet. Should I?

Should I still be adding ammonia daily at this point? Or the Micro-Lift? When should I do a water change? I read the instructions posted here, which are excellent, but I got mixed up by using the Micro-Lift and still trying to get on track.

Here's a good tip for what you can expect when checking for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
1 ppm of ammonia converts into about 2.7 ppm of nitrite, which then converts into about 3.6 ppm of nitrate.
There is some nerdy scientific explanation about picking up additional molecules but I'm not getting into all that.

 

[TwoTankAmin17]

The above work the same and are intended to be used for providing a controlled amount of ammonia for fishless cycling. I have used the Dr. Tim's before I switched to the Fritz dry form as needed to add a lot of ammonia for a bio-farm.

Use 4.5 g (approximately 1 level tsp) per 100 U.S. gallons (380 L). This dose will create an ammonia concentration of approximately 4 ppm. The jar above is 500 gm.

 

[Chickadee3 23]

My 10 gal appears to be cycled. On the nitrite, I got that lovely sky blue color two days in a row. The 20 gal, which I started up a day earlier, is still hanging at 0.25 to 0.50 nitrite (I find it hard to tell the difference between these colors).

What do I do at this point? Add ammonia? Add Micro-Lift? Water change? Being patient and waiting it out is not an option

 

[Essjay22 137]

I would add ammonia and test in 24 hours. If both ammonia and nitrite are zero, the tank is cycled. With plants aim for enough ammonia to give 2 ppm in the water.

 

[Chickadee3 23]

I added a total of 12 ml of ammonia, 3 separate intervals. I can't get a reading over 0.25. I'm afraid to add more so I'll just leave it there for now.

 

[Essjay22 137]

Either the ammonia is very dilute or you have enough bacteria/plants to remove the added ammonia quickly.

I would be inclined to get the first fish and check for ammonia and nitrite every day to make sure they stay at zero. If they do, add the next fish after a week of zeros.