Cycling 8 Gallon New Tank

[milindsaraswala]

I have questions that found 10% Ammonia Hydroxide from ACE Hardware. Will it work for cycling the tank.

I have another question that I put some ammonia in my 8 gallon tank first time and my ammonia test was showing is more than 8 ppm. What should do next. Should I add more ammonia after 12 hrs or just make another ammonia test every 12 hrs and wait up to ammonia test become zero.

Please advice and give some tips

 

[JustFrozen]

what other ingredients are in the ammonia solution?

and what to do with the cycling depends on which way you are going. if u going the often suggested "add and wait" method, then yes you will be waiting till it drops to zero.

more info on the cycling methods can be found here http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861

 

[OldMan47]

I have a bottle of ammonia that I got from Ace hardware that has cycled at least the last 15 tanks for me.

 

[ellena]

When I was cycling I was told to not have the ammonia above 5ppm as that encourages growth of the wrong type of bacteria. How did you work out how much ammonia to add? On the blue bar at the top of this page is the link 'aquarium calculator'. You can work out there how much to add to get it to 5ppm. For now, I would do a just under 50% water change, leave it 30 mins and check the ammonia again. Once you've got it around 5ppm (I used to go with 4 tbh as that was easiest to read with the API kit) then you just have to wait for it to drop to 0

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, you don't want the concentration of ammonia for fishless cycling to be up around 8ppm as this will encourage a different species of ammonia oxidizing bacteria, the wrong one. It should be down anywhere around 3, 4 or 5ppm for now.

Agree that you want to top up your ammonia only after 24 hours have passed at the soonest and only if your ammonia reading reached a true zero ppm sometime in the last 24 hours. Its a good idea to establish a regular "add-hour" within the 24 hour day when you will plan to do this, if its required. Most people just pick a regular time in the morning or evening when they are likely to be available to both test and to add ammonia.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[milindsaraswala]

I change water make ammonia reading to 4 ppm and now I brought heater so i wanted to know how much should I keep heat heater.

My another question was that should I put first plants in my aquarium or should I put fish. which will be good ??

Just I finish 2 days after fillling my tank with water 4 ppm ammonia reading

I really very excited for my tank so sorry for any ignorant

 

[OldMan47]

No problem having only a little knowledge. It is why we are here to help.
The temperature for a fishless cycle should be held about 30C. After the cycle finishes, you would lower temperature to suit whichever fish you will have in the tank.
After he cycle has completed, it is probably a good idea to add your plants right before the fish. That way you don't need to reach your hand into a new tank with scared fish to plant the plants. The fish will be nervous the first several days without that going on in their home.