Fishless Cycle Using Green Prawn

[ggdd]

Setting up my first tank (90 liter AR620 bought second hand) for my 5 year old daughter. Very hard to find clear ammonia in Aus so decided to try the green prawn approach. 2 Weeks on, the Ammonia spiked at 5 ish 6 days ago and today it is at 0.1 ish. Nitrite peaked yesterday at 3.5 and today it is around 2 ish. Nitrate is rising every day and today it is 60.

So question is, should I put some more prawn in there to keep feeding the ammonia while waiting for the nitrite bacteria to develop? Or should I do something else?

Thanks for any help!

 

[OldMan47]

It looks like you could certainly use a fresh source of ammonia in that tank.

 

[Duck and Dive]

Have you heard of NT labs start ok? The kit contains ammonia, filter bacteria and a dechlorinator. It is the best fishless cycling kit! It was featured in pfk a while ago and jeramy gay said it was brilliant!

 

[ellena]

Do you mean this d&d? It's great that a brand name has introduced something like this, but I disagree with the practical fishkeeping review that it is 'spot on'. There's no ammonia test in it for starters. And the ammonia that's supplied, the bottle called nitrocycle, is only 10ml. That wouldn't last me 10 days in my little 35l! And it says it's enough to treat 500l (not sure if that means in one go, or to fully cycle a 500l tank? Either way, there's nowhere near enough ammonia)
Not knocking your suggestion, but it would be a very expensive way for ggdd to get enough ammonia!

 

[alchemist]

That NT labs product looks very interesting - thank you for pointing to it - PFK review here for anyone interested.

 

[ggdd]

I have put the other half of the prawn in tonight so it will take a day or two to kick in. The ammonia really dropped quickly in the last two days (3.0->0.5) so caught me a bit by surprise. I did not think it would work so fast!!

Thanks for the suggestions though...

 

[Duck and Dive]

It worked for my 30L. It's very good for small tanks, but anything larger than 30l it won't. It is a shame that they didn't put more ammonia in it, and a test kit, then it would be "spot on". Well they have done a good job as it is the only fishless cycle kit really on the market, still well done to them though!

 

[OohFeeshy]

And the ammonia that's supplied, the bottle called nitrocycle, is only 10ml. That wouldn't last me 10 days in my little 35l! And it says it's enough to treat 500l (not sure if that means in one go, or to fully cycle a 500l tank? Either way, there's nowhere near enough ammonia)
Not knocking your suggestion, but it would be a very expensive way for ggdd to get enough ammonia!

Ah, but you don't know how concentrated it is, or what ppm they're aiming for. Typically you would use household ammonia (9.5%) and try to get 5ppm in the tank. Theirs might be more concentrated, going for a lower ppm, or both.