Going Away, But In The Middle Of My Fishless Cycle

[Lazerus]

Hi all….

I’m in the middle of my fish-less cycle, and things are going as they should be… actually I'm nearing the end as my filter is now processing Ammonia very well, the nitrites are still high, but its processing lots of nitrates too.

Now, only thing is I have to go away on Wednesday for five days, and I’m thinking this is going to put an end to my cycle as I won't be able to add my ammonia and by the time I get home next Monday, I’ll have to start over again….

Is there anything I can do to maintain the cycle process while I’m away… ?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well the obvious option is to get someone to babaysit the tank for you, so they'd come in, do the testing, add the ammonia etc etc

however that's often easier said than done, it can be a bit of a complex thing to ask a neghbour to do.

there are some other options which should work but are a little uncontrolled so you may come back and find it takes a few days to get back to where you are now.

basically you want to add something to the water which will release ammonia slowly over the 5 days and keep the bacteria alive.

If you've got an automatic fish feeder on a timer you can set this to drop a few pinches of crushed up flake into the tank once every 24 hrs, if not then get a couple of prawns, put them in a mesh bag (foot of a pair of tights works well if you're needing to improvise!) then these will decompose through the week and give off ammonia.

when you come back you'll most likely need to do a large water change with a good gravel vac to clean up any mess in the tank, then top up to 5ppm of ammonia and keep your fngers crossed for the 12 hr test!

It's pretty much guaranteed to keep some if not all of the bacteria alive as it will give off ammonia but as it may be more or less than the 5ppm you usually put in you might find the cycle goes a bit haywire and takes a few days to get back on track.

 

[Truck]

you know tablet capsules, couldnt you fill some of them with NH4CL? and put them in an automatic feeder?

 

[Lazerus]

Thank you!!!

Yes, I do have an automatic feeder.....so I could do that alright. How much feed would I need to use every 24hrs?

And I can also do the prawn thing either...how many prawns should I use 2? 4? More?

Great!!! Either way, I'll be happy knowing that at least not all of my bacteria will be dead. It might take a few days to stabilise after I come home but a least not ALL will be lost!

That is an interesting point about dosing the tablets with ammonia? Has anyone done this?

 

[Truck]

you could buy the ammonium chloride off ebay and fill the capsules with enough to raise ammonia to 5ppm, but what you would need to do is see how much ammonium chloride is needed to make it up to this,


second thoughts, you shouldnt even need capsules because some automatic feeders can dispense powdered food.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nope never tried the tablet thing so don't know how it would work.

if you've an auto feeder i'd just use this with flake food personally, it's tried and tested. crumble up the flake as small as you can as this will dissolve easier in the water.

ideally you want to add the same amount of food as you'd use to feed the tank with a full stocking of fish, however that can be a little bit hard to guage. it's better to be under not over as if it gets above 8ppm of ammonia it can totally stall the cycle, if it's under 5ppm then some bacteria may die off but where you are in the cycle now it's easier to grow a little back than recover from a stall.

so if you're not sure then just get it to add a couple of pinch fulls.

 

[Lazerus]

Great!

That's what I'll do so....thats a relief!

Actually I must post up my results soon actually for my fishless cycle and see if I'm on track...I haven't posted for a few days...

I'm anxious that I may need to do a water change or something???

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well let us have the numbers then