Fishless Cyclin

[steve_b21]

About to start my Fishless Cyclin...

Gravel, filter, heater and air stone are all connected.

1. Can i add water and then add de-chlorinator?

2. Shall i set the temp to 28/30 ?

3. Do i have to wait to add ammonia (Until the water is warmed up?)? If so how long?

4. I have a API test kit, what tests shall i first do?


Thanks

 

[ashleybrown2]

1. Yes
2. Yes, thats about right
3. If you want to wait for the water to warm up it should only take a couple of hours, but i dont see a problem adding ammonia right away.
4. You need to keep testing while adding ammonia, and adding a little more at a time until it gets to about 5ppm, then just leave it a couple of days, test to see if it has dropped, if so test for nitrites. not much point testing for anything else at this point unless you have a problem (ie ammonia disappearing but no nitrites for like a week )

Im sure someone can expand on that for you but its a start.

Ash

 

[Amunet]

1. Yep. If it's a fishless cycle, chlorinated water right into the tank and then dechlorinating it isn't going to hurt anything. Just gotta make sure you add in enough dechlorinator for the entire tank.

2. Very good temp for a fishless cycle. The warmer temp helps the bacteria to grow quicker.

3. No you don't have to wait to add the ammonia. It won't matter if the water is a little bit cooler than the ultimate goal.

4. Ashley pretty much said it. At first what you want to test for is ammonia. Get it to about a reading of 5. The add and wait method seems to be the best way to go. So once the ammonia reading is at 5, leave it and keep testing ammonia. When you start seeing it drop, start testing for nitrites.

At first you might want to check your pH as well to make sure the pH isn't too low. We had this problem when trying to cycle our tanks. The pH coming out of the tap was 7.5, but after sitting in our tanks, it would drop well below 6.0 to the point that the beneficial bacteria stalled/stopped completely, thus not allowing the tank to cycle.
It's not a very common problem, but I just thought I'd throw this info out there just in case.

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Steve,

If you post the size of your tank and the % of ammonia in the stuff you are using, i can work out exactly how much to add for you. Saves messing about with adding a little bit, waiting, testing, adding, waiting, testing.........................

Backtotropical

 

[steve_b21]

Hi Steve,

If you post the size of your tank and the % of ammonia in the stuff you are using, i can work out exactly how much to add for you. Saves messing about with adding a little bit, waiting, testing, adding, waiting, testing.........................

Backtotropical

Hi, i have the Homebase Household Ammonia... on the bottle it sais it contains 9.5% Ammonia Solution.

My tank size

Height 28"
Length 47"
Width 5"

Thanks for your help

 

[backtotropical]

5" wide? Are you sure? That seems unusual for a tank which is 47 x 28.

 

[steve_b21]

5" wide? Are you sure? That seems unusual for a tank which is 47 x 28.

Yup its 5" width, tank is placed in a wall

 

[backtotropical]

Ok, cool here goes.

Yout tank is 47 x 28 x 5 = 108 litres

108 litres = 108,000 ml

You want to raise ammonia levels to 5ppm(parts per million), so

108,000 x 5 / 1,000,000 = 0.54ml is the desired ammonia level

Your solution is only 9.5% ammonia so

0.54ml / 9.5 x 100 = 5.7ml of Homebase Ammonia required to raise level to 5ppm.

Hope this helps Steve.

BTT

 

[steve_b21]

Thanks for that.

I have just filled my tank up, added the dechlorinater... filter, pump etc is running. Do i add ammonia immediatly? or do i wait a while becuase i have just added the dechlorinater?

 

[backtotropical]

No reason you can't add it straight away.

 

[steve_b21]

I decided to wait till the morning to add the ammonia.... 1 thing i have just noticed is that there are a lot of foam bubbles at the top of the tank.... is this normal?