Why Not Do More Ammonia

[Nik00117]

I always see people say "get to 5 ppm Ammonia" well why not 6 or 7? To build up a bigger bio-load? Just supposing you wanted to to slightly overstock your tank wouldn't going to a higher ppm content during your fishless cycle create more bio load capacity at a later date.

 

[deftuch]

I always see people say "get to 5 ppm Ammonia" well why not 6 or 7? To build up a bigger bio-load? Just supposing you wanted to to slightly overstock your tank wouldn't going to a higher ppm content during your fishless cycle create more bio load capacity at a later date.

the bacteia takes the same amount of time to multiply no matter what the ppm levels are. 4 to 5 ppm is the recommended range as any higher than that you run the risk of your bacteria not coping well and starting to die off before the ammonia has been fully convereted to nitrite ( this is what i have always believed anyway, i may be wrong but it seems logical to me

 

[Aquascaper]

You could but doing that from the start would increase the length of the cycle dramatically as too much free ammonia will keep stalling the cycle. If you did a complete fishless cycle using 5ppm you could always increase the amount of additional ammonia afterwards in gradual increases but there will be a finite limit to the amount of ammonia a given filter will process (hence the 'tanks up to approx' value given with filters).

 

[deftuch]

You could but doing that from the start would increase the length of the cycle dramatically as too much free ammonia will keep stalling the cycle. If you did a complete fishless cycle using 5ppm you could always increase the amount of additional ammonia afterwards in gradual increases but there will be a finite limit to the amount of ammonia a given filter will process (hence the 'tanks up to approx' value given with filters).

coudnt have said that better actually. i didnt know that was why filters say that. i always thought it was the lph rate compared to the tank volume and the lph rate should be atleast 4 times the tank volume. but now i think about it, it makes sense now lol

 

[Aquascaper]

It's a bit of both I think but there must be some factor used to determine how much space for media is needed in the filter. Logically this must be something like 'x' volume can hold 'y' number of fish which produce 'z' waste so a filter designed for a tank of 'x' volume needs enough media to house the bacteria capable of converting 'z' waste.

 

[mossonthemoon]

At some point in my fishless cycle my ammonia accidentally was overdosed (not by much, I estimate maybe 6ppm), and I promptly ha a pH crash that stalled my cycle. The cycle was advanced by then, so I sorted the pH and was back on track and finished very quickly, but it shows that in my very soft water, ammonia can be a risk at high levels.

 

[fluttermoth]

There are also different 'families' of bacteria that grow best in differing amounts of ammonia.

Fishless cycle with a very high level (6-8PPM) of ammonia and you'll end up with bacteria that will live and work only at those high levels.

Your fish wouldn't produce that much, so the bacteria would die off and you'd be, more or less, back to an uncycled tank.

 

[Nik00117]

That would answer my question

 

[raptorrex]

There are also different 'families' of bacteria that grow best in differing amounts of ammonia.

Fishless cycle with a very high level (6-8PPM) of ammonia and you'll end up with bacteria that will live and work only at those high levels.

Your fish wouldn't produce that much, so the bacteria would die off and you'd be, more or less, back to an uncycled tank.

indeed,.
you could end up developing sewage farm bacteria.
or a variation, there of.

 

[snazy]

There are also different 'families' of bacteria that grow best in differing amounts of ammonia.

Fishless cycle with a very high level (6-8PPM) of ammonia and you'll end up with bacteria that will live and work only at those high levels.

Your fish wouldn't produce that much, so the bacteria would die off and you'd be, more or less, back to an uncycled tank.

indeed,.
you could end up developing sewage farm bacteria.
or a variation, there of.

Yep, agree as well. The type of bacteria we like to grow in our filters does not tolerate high ammounts of ammonia or nitrIte, although they eat it. We are talking about serious overstocking of fish to produce anything above 4ppm of ammonia in a tank a day and 4ppm is a high stretch too in majority of tanks.

 

[Nik00117]

Ah so even at 4 PPM or 5 PPM we are still well above what a normal tank would produce.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, well above