Cycle help

[DeeGeeDee]

Hi

I understand the method of cycling completely due to constant reading about it but after reading the method on here I'm a little confused.

How does one know how much ammonia would produce a 3ppm reading?

"Add the initial amount of ammonia (Dose #1). This should be an amount that should produce a test kit reading of 3.0 ppm"

Is there a calculator I can use for the volume of my tank?

I was planning to use the Dr Tim method before reading the article which slams dosing to 4ppm as the "old" method.

Thanks

 

[Gruntle]

There is a calculator on the site under the How To Tips at the top of the screen, http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

Check your ammonia to see the concentration (for example 9.5%). Add the volume of your tank (for example 29 gallons, or whatever your tank size is), and the calculator will tell you how much to use.

Don't worry too much if your initial reading is slightly lower or higher once you have added the ammonia. If it's too low, add a bit more (so if you added 10ml and your reading is 2ppm, add another 5ml). As long as it's not too high you should be fine.

Initially the fishless cycle dosing was 5ppm, over the last 20 years or so it has been researched and proven that 3ppm is enough, and will reduce the chances of stalling your cycle due to too much nitrite being produced.

 

[Justsmarti]

There is a calculator on the site under the How To Tips at the top of the screen, http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

Check your ammonia to see the concentration (for example 9.5%). Add the volume of your tank (for example 29 gallons, or whatever your tank size is), and the calculator will tell you how much to use.

Don't worry too much if your initial reading is slightly lower or higher once you have added the ammonia. If it's too low, add a bit more (so if you added 10ml and your reading is 2ppm, add another 5ml). As long as it's not too high you should be fine.

Initially the fishless cycle dosing was 5ppm, over the last 20 years or so it has been researched and proven that 3ppm is enough, and will reduce the chances of stalling your cycle due to too much nitrite being produced.

FYI, I am about 4 weeks into my cycle and I used this method your asking about. The calculator was a little overwhelming but I came up with about 3.5 ml for my 29 gal and it put it to 5.0 ppm. So to do it again I'd go less wait 30 minutes test if it's not strong enough add a little more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gruntle]

Yep. If that was your reading last time, go for 2ml next time, which should land you on 3ppm or thereabouts.

The issue with 5ppm (and I'm talking rough numbers here) is that 1ppm ammonia is converted to roughly 2.5ppm nitrite. If you get to roughly 16ppm nitrite then your cycle can stall (too much nitrite affects that bacteria's ability to multiply).

So 5ppm ammonia converts to roughly 12.5ppm nitrite, whereas 3ppm converts to 7.5ppm. Since most hobby test kits read anything higher than 5ppm as 5ppm, there's no easy way to check exactly how much nitrite you have (without doing a diluted test or some other stuff). Nitrite bacteria take around 3 times as long as ammonia bacteria to double (roughly 8 hours for ammonia, roughly 24 hours for nitrite). So your ammonia colony produces nitrite at an ever increasing rate, while your nitrite colony is still building up to cope with it.

Which is why 3ppm is considered sufficient for the fishless cycle.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Indeed, Gruntle has pretty much got that spot on.

One other reason why we dose up to 3ppm of ammonia for cycling is the simple fact that no matter what sized tank you have the stocking (as long as not vastly overstocked) will very unlikely make 3ppm worth of ammonia at any given time.

The 3ppm ammonia is calculated to be much safer and more foolproof than 5ppm dosages due to the risk of stalling or crashing the cycle process for a number of reason but namely due to too high nitrites.

In fact if you're planning a shrimp only set up or a single betta splenden in a 5 or 10 gal tank for example, I'd suggest dosing ammonia at 1ppm rather than 3ppm. This will help the cycle be slightly quicker as well as the ammonia at 1ppm is ample dosage as the bioload from shrimps or a single betta (or even both in the same tank of betta temperament is good) will not produce anywhere near 1ppm of ammonia.

 

[DeeGeeDee]

Thanks for the link - that's what I'll use then. I did find a formula online which comes back to the same 1.98ml (I assume I would be ok to round this up to 2ml).