Fishless Cycling Situation

[Captain Retardo]

Sorry if this is supposed to be in the beginners section (as they have the cycling questions) but I accidently put it here

Ok, so here is the deal:

I started cycling the aquarium yesterday, I have the water level at almost full, but I have a 50 gallon airpump that I connected 2 airlines to and put them in opposite sides of the tank (I have no airstone on them so that the bubbles are bigger and create more surface tension). The tank temp is running at around 83 degrees fahrenheit. My friend is going to give me some of his gravel from his cycled tank and also some bio-spira. I keep the light on for a long time. so basically everything is in perfect condition for a quick fishless cycling...

I added the ammonia in yesterday, it a no-name brand from a family dollar store, when i read the ingredients everything seemed fine ( i didn't notice the last ingredient, i'll get to that later) the ingredients were Water and Aqua Ammonia...Now comes the bad part, when I looked at the ingredients after I put ammonia in the last ingredient was Surfactant, I have read that this is bad to have in your ammonia...The ammonia was a very diluted solution, it took a little over 200 drops to get a reading of 5 ppm. When I shook the bottle; big bubbles rised to the surface and immediately popped when I stopped shaking it, I thought this was just because of all the water in the jug. The surfactant is the last ingredient which means the product has the least ammount of that ingredient, and the ammonia is mostly water anyway...

What should I do?

Should I go on? or Siphon all the water out?

 

[Qays]

I dont know what surfactant is, but its a big risk

 

[clareriley]

errrm i dunno. sorry i cant help but i hope you get it sorted

 

[Captain Retardo]

I really need help with this still...I could siphon out all the water, and thats what I'm thinking of doing...but I had everything perfect

 

[Monte20]

i always looked at fishless cycling to be too much of a chore. danios are great to help cycle aquariums. they are litte swimming tanks, and can live threw a nuclear holocaust im sure. i wish i could help you on your current problem though. all i can say is do what is more time feasable, and less expensive. the prize is in the end, not the means.

 

[steelhealr]

Change it out if I were you and wash everything. Surfactant is sorta like...soap. SH

 

[Teelie]

A few good water changes should do it, provided you didn't add too much to the tank. 50 gallons is quite a lot of water so it will help dilute the stuff faster. I don't know how toxic the surfactant is, but as you said, it's the last thing added and lowest concentration and I doubt it will stay viable for more than a few days or possibly weeks.

 

[Kairi]

definatly change it out and rinse everything good. i'm not 100% sure what surfactant is, but it's kinda like a laundry detergent... just bubbles and bubbles. great cleaning agent- horrid tank cycler.

when i bought my ammonia, there were no ingredients, but when i shook it, i got less bubbles than if i'd shaken a bottle of water.... that's how you can tell it's pure.

sorry

 

[Captain Retardo]

Thanks! I will do some large water changes, then add some more water, change it out, then do it again just to be sure. I'll give the decorations a short bath also

Teelie, the tank is 29 gallons, but I have a 50 gallon airpump pumping air into two airlines into it so there is more oxygen

 

[Captain Retardo]

Okay, this is what I did:

I did a large water change (70%-80%) then I added more water to the tank, I took 70%-80% out again, then added some more water in there and repeated until I had a reading of a little less then 0.25ppm in a very concetrated sample of water (tank only 15% full). I quickly rinsed the decoration except for the sand, now I am going to do one last water change an hopefully my ammonia level is at 0 ppm in a concentrated sample.

Do you think its safe now???

 

[Kairi]

you're going to cycle the tank anyways, right? i think you've all but elimated the detergent that was in the original ammonia... i would go ahead w/ the fishless cycle (that was that you're going to do, right?) ... when the cycle is done, i would add very few fish intitially... see what happens. it sounds harsh, but if the detergent is *still* there after the cycle is complete, you'll know pretty quick. fish don't like soap.

 

[Captain Retardo]

Yep, I'm going fishless


The only trouble is finding the ammonia and not annoying my dad by always asking him for detailed hard to find stuff

 

[Kairi]

is there a non-chain grocery store near you? check there. or walgreens?

 

[Captain Retardo]

Thanks, Ill do that!

The detergent ammonia that we got was a no-name brand from family dollar store

 

[Kairi]

well, whatever you find next give it a good shake and watch for NO bubbles. absolutely nothing should bubble. just sloshing clear liquid