To Keep Filter Alive?

[lilacamy931]

Can I just use say flake food or raw prawn? The tank is still up and running as source a fish but need something to keep the filter going?

 

[VaegaVic]

frozen prawn is better, tonnes of ammonia.

 

[lilacamy931]

Brill,

 

[markandhisfish]

go to boots and get a bottle of boots household ammonia , its only £1.75 for a 500ml bottle. this way you can control exactly the dose . i used it to keep my filters fed for about a month .

 

[lilacamy931]

Thanks for that markandhisfish, I could never find the ammonia when needed it oh so long ago. What is the correct formulae per literage?

 

[markandhisfish]

no probs . its usually in with the cleaning products. the calculator located in the tabs at the top of the screen will tell you how much you need to dose to get the desired ppm of amonia . you simply tell it tank volume and desired concentration eg 5ppm and it tells you how much ammonia is required .

 

[lilacamy931]

Fantastic

 

[alan3513]

If you can't get it in boots, try Homebase, that's where i got mine, it was less than £2.

 

[arobinson1984]

Or you can buy it straight from the boots website if you have trouble finding it instore.

Boots link

Andy

 

[VaegaVic]

Although I always recommend the ammonia bottles during fishless cycling, I generally don't for tank "ticking-over". Reasons being:


1) You have no clue how much ammonia you will need in terms of ppm, you could "understock" your tank by measuring out a smaller amount.

2) You will need to add the same amount of ammonia every single day, which has 2 disadvantages, forgetting and money; you can use alot of ammonia very quickly on large tanks.

3) You could just throw a prawn in a cut-off piece of stocking/tight and be done with it, no daily adding and no substantial cost. You don't know how much ppm you need anyway, so guessing with a prawn would be no different.

4) When the prawn has disintegrated, just chuck another one in, easy. It may not be the most accurate way of doing things, but it works, and it's cheaper and less time consuming.

Not to say adding ammonia isn't wrong, far from it, I just prefer this method as I'm rather lazy.