Cycling Issue?

[Squid]

I am about to kick off the cycling of my tank.. been saying that for a while now, but had a number of show stoppers, primarily with my Girlfriends mum being really bad with altzeimers.. takes a bit of our time up going down to see her..

What i have been concerned about with kicking off the cycle, is how it will cope if i go away for a couple of days. I expect in the first week or so it would not matter, as I would be adding 5-6ppm of ammonia and waiting for the levels to drop. But once the bacteria has built up for handling the ammonia, then i would need to add more ammonia daily so that the bacteria dont die off. So am i right in thinking that the whole cylce would get a little buggered if i was away during that period for 48 hours. I expect you couldnt get away with adding double the ammonia really and hope it takes 2 days to get rid of it. we are away every 2 weeks for 2 days, so you can see what the predicament is.

Wonder if im ever gonna get this thing cycled. My only alternaive is using bactinettes to cycle the tank and put the fish in straight away, but even thier leaflet shows ammona levels rising to .25 or .5 , which of course i dont want to happen with the fish in.. i think tis stuff may be good for helping the tank to cycle, but not for relying on.

Any thoughts
Cheers
Squid

 

[rdd1952]

In an emergency, you could probably add the days ammonia (before you left) and also throw in some fish flakes. The ammonia would cover that day's dosing and the flakes would break down and cover the next day or so. I just dont' know how many flakes it would take to give you the amount of ammonia you need.

 

[annka5]

I'd go for the fish flakes option also. Not ideal, but you could find yourself waiting for ages to find a time where you're sure of never being away for 48 hours at a stretch.
If you can find anything which says it's low in phosphates, i'd take that. Phosphates can encourage algae. However, i'd not get to concerned about that aspect, just for preference.

 

[Squid]

Thanks to both of you..

Sounds like a plan! Or.. heres hoping im one of the lucky ones with a two week cycle, then i could kick it off a few days before going away !

 

[rdd1952]

Just to test how much ammonia is produced and how fast it shows, you might want to add some flakes to a 5 gallon bucket of water and check it daily for a week to see how fast or how high the ammonia builds up.

 

[Squid]

You are the cycling king.. you seem to think of everything..

Thanks

 

[rdd1952]

I don't know about that but thanks. I sure wish I could think of a way to get rich quick so I could quit work.

 

[Squid]

How about selling cycled filters.. one big big tank, loads of filters hanging off it, and buckets of ammonia.. Just figure out how much ammonia to cycle 300 filters at once.