Cycles

[reaper]

hi all

im kind of new to this hobby, when i was younger i used to have tropical fish until i went on holiday and my tank exploded. however my cat thoroughly enjoyed it

but the thing is i never really done cycles when i was younger really it was a case of when i got the tank put in sand, decorations, fill it with water leave the filters lights, heater on for a few days, check the ph and adjust accordingly, ( never had a problem with adjusting ph but never used bog wood or live plants either,

usually every 3 months i used to set up another tank, put in a heater leave it to settle down adjust the ph accordingly then transport the fish into there,

and completley clean out the other tank, filters e.t.c and repeat

during that process i was lucky to have any dead fish, actually the only fish that i lost were a couple of neons to white spot because i never noticed it in time, but saved the rest of my fish, and a couple of silver sharks because i introduced a red tail shark and he just attacked them.

now that im older and wiser im reading up on this cycle, and wondering to myself that since i work away from home week in week out,

if i can add alot of amonium so that when i get back, i can top it up again or is this pointless ?

 

[Geoff1991]

I doubt that would work because after the bacteria had formed and processed all the ammonia, it would then begin to starve and die off.

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861[/URL]

Have a read there, the add and wait method is the easiest way to do it in my opinion.

 

[reaper]

problem is i leave tomorrow to go to sheffield, will be back wednesday, thursday at the latest then on the friday i leave for ireland and wont be back till the following wednesday?

what im considering is a decent soloution aqarium holds 110 litres so desired is about 5ppm, but if i double the dosage, and once the dosage turns down to 0, then add a few "hardy" fish ( i know its not the best welfare option ) to keep the dosages up is this a viabal soloution,

correct me if my logic is wrong as never doing a cycle like this before im completley in your hands for options

 

[Mikaila31]

the issue is also once you go over 8ppm of ammonia the cycle will stall. If you add 5ppm it will probably be fine for the first week, but one the cycle get going its going to start consuming the ammonia much faster. You would probably run out during the second week.

 

[reaper]

that makes it alot better,

if i top up thursday, i will be back thursday following week so i can contine it thursday friday saturday sunday ( or whatever of those days require it)



or will i still be fighting alosing battle ?

 

[Mikaila31]

I think it will work. The first week goes slow because you don't start out with much good bacteria, so they won't be consuming a lot of ammonia.

 

[reaper]

right o, one final question before i go reading up, what can i use to for amonia, i had alook on the other thread but the image dosent display, can i pick it up from a fish shop or ? living in cheshire (northwich) if anyones from around that area

 

[Mikaila31]

You need pure ammonia, I found mine at a hardware store in the cleaning section. A good way to determine if it is pure is to give the bottle a shake, if it foams up don't use it. It should also be clear, you want no fragrances, sucrants(sp)(soaps), or color additives.

 

[Geoff1991]

You can get it from homebase here in the UK.

 

[reaper]

is it just called ammonia or is it under a diffrent label ? dont think homebase would enjoy it if i started shaking bottles and opening them

 

[OldMan47]

Ammonia can also be obtained by letting organic matter rot in the tank water. It is a way to keep adding some ammonia while you are gone but it is harder to control dosage. Overdosing to 8 ppm or more will encourage the wrong bacteria to develop. then when the ammonia levels come back down the right bacteria will not be present in large numbers to function as a biological filter. In your situation, I would try to get the right amount of decaying organics in the form of maybe a prawn so that the bacteria would continue to increase while you are gone but you wouldn't need a huge overdose to get started. A newly cycling tank does need some attention so being gone a lot can get you into trouble trying to get through things.

Another option that we seldom recommend is trying to do a silent cycle by planting a ton of fast growing plants and adding fish right away. In theory, the plants will absorb the waste ammonia before it builds to high levels in the tank and you never do go through a cycle. The problem is that if plants start to die, they also rot and add to the ammonia input. That means that an imbalance can go undetected while you are away and you return to a tank full of dead fish. I have one tank that runs fine on this principle and am getting ready to start another but I do not usually recommend it for a new fish keeper, or even one who is starting over from scratch. The method is laid out in a book by Diana Walstad called Ecology of the Planted Aquarium if you want to read up on it before trying it. The book should be required reading for anyone seriously considering the technique we call an El Natural tank.