Fishless Cycle Question

[kharma2815]

Been running a fishless cycle for about 5 weeks now but, although I got 0 ammonia about 2 weeks ago, I haven't been able to bring the nitrates and nitrites down. After doing some reading I discovered that the method I was using may not have been the most effective (adding a pinch of food flakes every day instead of drops of ammonia).

I finally found some ammonia in my local Boots (£1.98 for a 500ml bottle, if anyone is interested) and have added enough to bring it up to about 4ppm. The question I have now is do wait until the level is down to 0 before adding more or should I add more every day?

I've read a couple of different methods and they've just left me confused. Some people say it should be added daily while others say to wait for it to return to 0.

Help!!!

 

[charlton]

Been running a fishless cycle for about 5 weeks now but, although I got 0 ammonia about 2 weeks ago, I haven't been able to bring the nitrates and nitrites down. After doing some reading I discovered that the method I was using may not have been the most effective (adding a pinch of food flakes every day instead of drops of ammonia).

I finally found some ammonia in my local Boots (£1.98 for a 500ml bottle, if anyone is interested) and have added enough to bring it up to about 4ppm. The question I have now is do wait until the level is down to 0 before adding more or should I add more every day?

I've read a couple of different methods and they've just left me confused. Some people say it should be added daily while others say to wait for it to return to 0.

Help!!!

i done a fishless cycle just after crimbo using bottled ammonia and i personally kept adding once a day always adding enough to keep it at about 5ppm, i found once it started processing the ammo i had to keep adding anyway cos it was lowering it back to 0 within 24hrs. don't go much over this though cos alot of people say it can stall the cycle if it gets up to about 8ppm. its quicker to do a fishless cycle cos its the equivalent to being fully stocked with fish !! hope this helps you out

cheers

charlton

 

[AngelOfDeath]

How much ammonia do i need to add to a 16 gallon tank? which has 0ppm

 

[rdd1952]

You should add ammonia any time it drops back to zero but only once a day. if it's dropping in 10 hours, you dont need to add it right back. Once a day is plenty.

For a 16 gallon tank, you probably need about 2.5 ml to get you to about 4 or 5 ppm. If you click on the Aquarium Calculator on the top right of the page, there is an ammonia calculator on it but it's roughly 1 ml per 5 gallon or water but you need do allow for displacement of water by substrate, etc. so a 16 gallon tank will probably only have about 13 gallon in it.