Question On Fishless Cycling

[OneOnion]

Can you use fish flakes instead of ammonia when you're fishless cycling? I can't find any ammonia and the kind of ammonia I bought had surfactant or something in it. Can I use fish flakes to replace the actual ammonia or is it safe to use ammonia with Surfactant in it?

 

[yasinullah]

with fish flakes u cannot control the exact concentration of ammonia you are adding to your tank, plus its a gradual dosing, as ammonia is produced as it rots. Are you in the UK? Boots normally stock ammonia online.
Surfactants are a big no, i think, should state in the original fishless cycling thread.

 

[sjolliff]

I got mine from boots in-store but heard a few people saying they dont stock it no more

 

[yasinullah]

here's the link, if required, and IF you are in the UK lol

[URL="http/www.boots.com/en/Boots-Household-ammonia-500ml_923908/"]http/www.boots.com/en/Boots-Household-am...a-500ml_923908/[/URL]

 

[OneOnion]

Lol no I'm not in the UK oh well I guess ill just use fish flakes thrn

 

[OldMan47]

Fish flakes or a decaying prawn are two of the more common substitutes in places where ammonia cannot be found. That seems to be a fairly common problem in Australia but is seldom given as a problem in this forum. As already said, the real problem with decaying organics is that you do not control the dosing rates. Otherwise those methods seem to work fine.

 

[jmkgreen]

You can also create quite a mess to clean up - and on a small tank the filter may require cleaning out.

 

[Truck]

put some prawns in a filter sock and check ammonia levels regularly, make sure ammonia never goes above 5 ppm