If You Can't Get Hold Of Ammonia.

[ColR1948]

I got a bottle of Ammonia today because I needed some to do a little experiment, (see the scientific section), but a thought crossed my mind.

(IF) I was unable to get some and I did a gravel vac and put the debris in say a nylon sock or something would that contain enough Ammonia to start the filter cycle?

 

[fluttermoth]

Unlikely.

If you can't get hold of ammonia, the best way of doing a cycle is to put a prawn or some fish food in your nylon sock. It'll take three to four days to start producing ammonia.

 

[DreamertK]

If the debris produced 5ppm of NH3, we would all need to do a lot more gravel vacuuming!

Dont use household cleaners that foam up or use dye. Windex is off the charts in NH3, but it always has stuff you don't want going in the tank besides the NH3.

 

[ColR1948]

I already bought some Ammonia the question was (IF) I or anybody else couldn't get hold of any would the vacuumed debris do but it apparently not.

Having said that I did a rescape a while ago with the fish in the tank, doing so I disturbed most of the substrate, this caused a Nitrite spike which I didn't know about and subsequently it killed a couple of fish and the others gasping for air at the surface.

So if there is no Ammonia in the substrate there must be Nitrite, so isn't that a short cut to the cycle if I added that?

 

[fluttermoth]

II would have thought that most of the potential ammonia would already have dissipated out of it.

I know some people have successfully cycled by using mulm and filter squeezings though, so it can work.

 

[ColR1948]

I know but I'm doing an experiment (scientific section) using frozen media so I needed Ammonia to test which I have bought but this other thought occurred to me so I thought I would ask.

 

[fluttermoth]

Ah, yes, I've been keeping an eye on that.

 

[CezzaXV]

There's also the issue that if you're planning on fishless cycle, you shouldn't have any debris in your tank anyway.

 

[ColR1948]

I was talking about taking out of an established tank with debris not a new one, please read the posts properly then you will understand.

 

[CezzaXV]

But if you had an established tank, surely you'd just transfer some media, not mess around with cycling from scratch.

 

[ColR1948]

Yes I have, but I'm doing an experiment in the scientific section which I put in brackets, I needed some Ammonia which I bought this morning but then the thought occurred to me what (IF) I couldn't get any would the dirt from the substrate contain Ammonia and the thread went from there, it was just a question if it would work that's all.

 

[JenCliBee]

I got a bottle of Ammonia today because I needed some to do a little experiment, (see the scientific section), but a thought crossed my mind.

(IF) I was unable to get some and I did a gravel vac and put the debris in say a nylon sock or something would that contain enough Ammonia to start the filter cycle?

To answer your question... yes, it would be sufficient to 'start' a cycle...sustaining one is a different matter altogether..also sustaining a high enough amount/level is also an issue.

I already bought some Ammonia the question was (IF) I or anybody else couldn't get hold of any would the vacuumed debris do but it apparently not.

Having said that I did a rescape a while ago with the fish in the tank, doing so I disturbed most of the substrate, this caused a Nitrite spike which I didn't know about and subsequently it killed a couple of fish and the others gasping for air at the surface.

So if there is no Ammonia in the substrate there must be Nitrite, so isn't that a short cut to the cycle if I added that?

You would also have had a ammonia spike, it was probably the fact you didn't know you had elevated levels which is the issue, the ammonia bacteria probably would have sorted the ammonia out by the time you had tested but the nitrite bacteria wasn't as quick to sort out the nitrite.

You cant have nitrite without ammonia beings nitrite is a by product of ammonia.... so no there isn't just nitrite within the substrate, there will always be ammonia... which would have been converted to nitrite... which is what you was able to test within the water.

As to a short cut to a cycle.... again no.... having nitrite present isn't actually having nitrite bacteria... you have the product nitrite not a a bacteria to cope with nitrite... so adding to another tank is basically just adding a nitrite product which can only be handled once ammonia colony has dealt with.

Hope that makes sense lol.

 

[ColR1948]

Yes that makes sense thanks, like I say it was just a thought and no harm in asking.



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[JenCliBee]

Yes that makes sense thanks, like I say it was just a thought and no harm in asking.

No harm at all mate.... trying new things and asking relevant questions is always a sign of a hobbyist trying there best to further there knowledge and ultimately getting info to understand if things will work or not

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