Subbing ammonia

[despreauxb]

I've been cycling my tank for a little.over a month th. I had to do multiple water changes because my nitrates keep getting to high and would stall. My nitrates are slowly going down. But my question is, after everything levels out it says to dose my tank with ammonia and see if after 3 days everything goes back to zero, can I use something else for this? The only ammonia I have is cleaning thank you

 

[coriesinhawaii]

Have you been doing a fishless cycle? Or are there fish in the tank? If fishless what has your ammonia source been up to this point (fish food, prawn, etc)?

 

[Fishmanic]

Shake the ammonia container. If soap suds appear , do not use. You can buy concentrated ammonia from amazon. Dr Tims ammonia is recommended.

 

[despreauxb]

Have you been doing a fishless cycle? Or are there fish in the tank? If fishless what has your ammonia source been up to this point (fish food, prawn, etc)?

Its fishless and I started with fish food and that aqua jump start bottle

 

[Essjay]

My nitrates are slowly going down.

Do you mean nitrite or nitrate? Nitrate usually goes up during a fishless cycle, one of the reasons we do a big water change at the end, to reset nitrate back down to tap water level. Nitrite will go up as the ammonia eaters make it, then drop as the nitrite eaters grow.

Nitrite will stall a cycle is if goes above ~15 ppm. But our test kits don't measure this high. This is why we need to limit the amount of ammonia in the tank, so nitrite can never get that high. This is not easy to do when using fish food as you can't control the amount of ammonia. Using ammonia from a bottle is very controllable.

American members often buy ammonia from Ace Hardware if that's an option for you. If you can source any ammonia which doesn't contain detergent or perfume, the simplest thing to do would be to do a big water change to get ammonia and nitrite right down, then add enough ammonia to get 3 ppm and follow this method

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

You should find it goes through quickly as you've already grown a lot of bacteria.

 

[StevenF]

I've been cycling my tank for a little.over a month th. I had to do multiple water changes because my nitrates keep getting to high and would stall.

Generally nitrate do not go down while the tank is cycling. When you add ammonia to a tank Bacteria will eventually convert it to nitrite. And then eventually nitrite is converted to Nitrate.

The conditions for bacteria to convert nitrate to nitrogen are very specific and are often not pressent in most aquariums. So in general is your ammonia and nitrite are zero you are probably cycled.

See this article for my information on cycling.

 

[coriesinhawaii]

Just want to add that you would need to have been adding the fish food (ammonia source) regularly for your tank to be cycled. If you added it initially but didn't keep adding it the good bacteria would have died back again (even if your tank is reading 0 ammonia and nitrite) and need to be cultivated back with a steady source of ammonia (like fish would produce if they were in the tank). Just can't tell from your post if you were adding fish food regularly or only in the beginning.

 

[despreauxb]

Generally nitrate do not go down while the tank is cycling. When you add ammonia to a tank Bacteria will eventually convert it to nitrite. And then eventually nitrite is converted to Nitrate.

The conditions for bacteria to convert nitrate to nitrogen are very specific and are often not pressent in most aquariums. So in general is your ammonia and nitrite are zero you are probably cycled.

See this article for my information on cycling.

Okay so silly question. When I do my final eater change (is it 100% water change or 80? I've read both) can I put in a new filter cartiage thing or do I wait a week or so so the bacteria stays in the new water for a bit? Thank you

 

[starzfish]

Okay so silly question. When I do my final eater change (is it 100% water change or 80? I've read both) can I put in a new filter cartiage thing or do I wait a week or so so the bacteria stays in the new water for a bit? Thank you

Don't replace your filter cartridge. Thats where a bunch of your beneficial bacteria live.

 

[despreauxb]

Don't replace your filter cartridge. Thats where a bunch of your beneficial bacteria live.

When do I change it then? The box says every 30 days

 

[starzfish]

When do I change it then? The box says every 30 days

What kind of filter do u have? Tank size? What kind of filter media? Like is it sponge? carbon? If u don't know, please send a pic.

 

[despreauxb]

What kind of filter do u have? Tank size? What kind of filter media? Like is it sponge? carbon? If u don't know, please send a pic.

It hangs on the back of my 20 gallon. And I don't replace my bio wheel, correct?

 

[FF_Member146894]

in my experience, the marineland bio wheel filters are really ineffective and badly designed.
the wheel thing, which is supposed to be bio filtration, doesn't function as it should half of the time.
and, you really don't need the cartridges, but if you try to replace them with a sponge or something, the filter, again, doesn't function properly. "changing out the cartridge every 30 days" is such a money-grab.
i suggest replacing it with a better filter, it'll be so much more manageable in the long-term.
edit: get an aquaclear filter or something that's customizable.

 

[starzfish]

You do not replace the biowheel. Ever. I would replace the blue cartridge with with some sponge cuz it will save you money see vid:

Attach files

 

[starzfish]

in my experience, the marineland bio wheel filters are really ineffective and badly designed.
the wheel thing, which is supposed to be bio filtration, doesn't function as it should half of the time.
and, you really don't need the cartridges, but if you try to replace them with a sponge or something, the filter, again, doesn't function properly. "changing out the cartridge every 30 days" is such a money-grab.
i suggest replacing it with a better filter, it'll be so much more manageable in the long-term.

@despreauxb If you want to replace a filter, don't just take out the filter and put in a new one. Run the new filter alongside your current Penguin for about 6 weeks then remove the Penguin. But tbh, the penguin will work so i wouldn't replace it.