Fishless Cycling

[KkAaNnEe]

Hi,

I am pretty new to all of this, so any advice would be great...

Basically, I began a fishless cycle around 7 days ago, I couldn't get hold of any ammonia and was obviously eager to begin so started with fish food (flake).

Eight month old (bought second hand)
Juwel Rio 180, standard internal filter (used for eight months im guessing) heater... etc
Lights are on, a few plants...


The trouble im having is that I have had readings of 0 ammonia 0 Nitrites and High Nitrates, Nitrite and Nitrate readings were only taken around 3 days ago due to not having tests available. I have been adding flake food everyday so its seems a mystery to me to not be getting any readings of Ammonia?

Do you have any ideas why this is? Could it be due to the Filter having been used already? Should I get my hands on some Ammonia and start again?

sorry for all the Qs..

Cheers guys

 

[Twinklecaz]

I think it's because you have to wait for the fishfood to rot before it starts to produce Ammonia.

It's up to you if you want to start again but I think it's more precise and easier to monitor is you use Ammonia

 

[waterdrop]

Yet another reason why we recommend the Add & Wait method using household ammonia is that we've watched many beginning members give up in frustration after trying fishless cycle with fishfood. It -can- work, and is a good method to have in some of the countries where its just really, really difficult to find the plain ammonia, but the feedback it gives you during the process is terrible and so we consider the search for plain ammonia to be worth the effort.

Current easiest search order in UK seems to be Boots, Homebase, B&Q, and then other mop&broom sections. In the USA its Ace Hardwre, Walmart and a few others.

~~waterdrop~~