Hi everyone, I'm a bit of a newbie so bear with me if I sound a little bit stupid. I have a new tank (Rio 50 gallon) and I read loadsa of articles online about fishless cycling and decided to go ahead with this method. However, I couldn't find any ammonia so I went to my lfs and he recommended that I use a product called BioMature from a company called Waterlife. This contains ammonia salts as well as some bacteria (that's what is says on the side of the bottle). The directions say that you must add in a certain amount each day until your nitrite levels reach 10ppm, then you stop adding it and wait for both ammonia and nitrite to drop back to 0, then the tank is cycled and you can add your fish ... slowly! I'm about a week into it and my ammonia is at 8+ (I say 8+ because it's been at 8 for a few days and my test kit doesn't go any higher) and my nitrite is about 4ppm ... I'm a little concerned about this because I only have a test kit that goes as far as 5, so I won't be able to accurately test it when it's reached 10 (unless I buy a Waterlife brand nitrite test kit, which I think is highly suspicious!!) I was just wondering if anyone had ever used this product before because I'd love to know how ye got on with it and how long it took to cycle this way?
Just so you have a bit of background, I have a BioOrb at the moment (30L) which was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Nothing has survived in the thing ... mostly because I didn't have a clue what I was doing and didn't cycle it properly so I had a few deaths at the start, but since then all my fish get sick and eventually end up dying (even though my ammonia and nitrite are 0 and my nitrate is about 15), but I bought a new fish about three weeks ago and she had babies (I have Mollies in it) so that pushed me to get a proper tank that has some hope of sustaining some life in it!!! I'm gonna burn that Biorb when the new tank is sorted!!!
Thanks lads!!!
Just so you have a bit of background, I have a BioOrb at the moment (30L) which was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Nothing has survived in the thing ... mostly because I didn't have a clue what I was doing and didn't cycle it properly so I had a few deaths at the start, but since then all my fish get sick and eventually end up dying (even though my ammonia and nitrite are 0 and my nitrate is about 15), but I bought a new fish about three weeks ago and she had babies (I have Mollies in it) so that pushed me to get a proper tank that has some hope of sustaining some life in it!!! I'm gonna burn that Biorb when the new tank is sorted!!!
Thanks lads!!!
