Cycling Q Again

[Xraymark]

Can ammonia and nitrite not be added to the tank together to speed up formation of both types of bacteria?

Thought of the day.

 

[ZoddyZod]

quite possibly.......but how would you source pure nitrite?

 

[mike455555]

i cant see why not. although the nitrate would be in higher conc afew days down the line... you could add it to start then stop adding it when the ammonia is being converted into it? or your going to be double doesing.

i take it were talking about fishless cycle

 

[eaglesaquarium]

In theory, yes. In practice, no. As ZZ asked, where would you get the nitrite?


If you are willing to try to find "bottled nitrite", why not just beg some LFS or a local fish club for some filter media? Add that to your filter and your tank would be cycled in a week or less. A little research by you and I'm sure you can find some local aquarists who would be happy to donate a bit of media to you.

 

[This Old Spouse]

In theory, yes. In practice, no. As ZZ asked, where would you get the nitrite?


If you are willing to try to find "bottled nitrite", why not just beg some LFS or a local fish club for some filter media? Add that to your filter and your tank would be cycled in a week or less. A little research by you and I'm sure you can find some local aquarists who would be happy to donate a bit of media to you.

I'm curious why you think it takes a week to cycle a tank when you've used mature media?

 

[Xraymark]

If you are going down the fishless cycle route and have no access to filter media then all you have is a bottle of ammonia. So if there was a nitrite product that was functional in a tank then in theory a fishless cycle could be halfed.

So if a product could be found then this could be an interesting experiment. Quick search on google throughs up sodium nitrite as a common product. I've no chemistry knowledge so i'm pissing in the wind with this.

 

[mike455555]

sodium nitrate will discaoiate in water making NO3- and Na+ so it would work for a source of NO3

 

[eaglesaquarium]

In theory, yes. In practice, no. As ZZ asked, where would you get the nitrite?


If you are willing to try to find "bottled nitrite", why not just beg some LFS or a local fish club for some filter media? Add that to your filter and your tank would be cycled in a week or less. A little research by you and I'm sure you can find some local aquarists who would be happy to donate a bit of media to you.

I'm curious why you think it takes a week to cycle a tank when you've used mature media?

I said, "Week or less". The speed of being "cycled" depends on a few things. #1 - how much media did you take and how much stock was in that tank. #2 - how big is your tank. #3 - how many fish are you planning for your initial stocking.


Simply saying it would be instantly cycled can give the wrong impression to some folks.

sodium nitrate will discaoiate in water making NO3- and Na+ so it would work for a source of NO3

That wouldn't help with sourcing nitrite (NO2).