starting a cycle
- Thread starter Cyproz
- Start date
JohnnyHildo
Member
to be completely honest you don't need a dead animal either! dry pukani has enough formerly living dried matter inside all the nooks and crannies that you can easily cycle a tank just using the rock itself.
Yellow Eyes
Member
I've started several cycles using pure ammonia from the dollar store. I would have to look up how much to use since it has been a few years, but it put the ammonia in the tank, and then the cycle progressed from there.
JohnnyHildo
Member
to me using ammonia seems like the best way provided the user has pure ammonia, good information on how much to use and test kits. after all, a rotting shrimp can make your house smell pretty fishy.
Yellow Eyes
Member
I found mine, easily, at the dollar store. Granted it was a huge bottle and as I remember in order to get to 4ppm of ammonia it only took like 2 teaspoons for my 20g+sump tank. I am sure a quick search on these forums for "fishless cycle" would return tons of information.
You need to know the percentage ammonia in bottle. Pure ammonia (no perfumes etc) is actually more like 90% water and 10% ammonia. The older the bottle the lower the ammonia is likely to be, but work calculations using the maximum likely.
So, presuming 10% ammonia, to raise 100litres of water to 3ppm you would need 3mililitres of ammonia.
If
So, presuming 10% ammonia, to raise 100litres of water to 3ppm you would need 3mililitres of ammonia.
If
gone fishin
New member
As you can see there are multiple ways to get a cycle going. You can ghost feed with some fish food. You can use the deli shrimp method. If you do this I would suggest putting the shrimp into a woman's knee high nylon then tie off the top of the nylon. Makes removal very easy if you need to remove it. My preferred method is to use pure ammonia. It can be found at most hardware or grocery stores in the cleaning section. Make sure it does not have any surfacants or fragrances, If you shake the bottle and it foams up you do not want that one.
here is a calculator and good luck
https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/AmmoniaCycling.php
My method? Flake fish food. Cheap, and you can use it later. About what would lie on a quarter (coin) per 50 gallons, daily, until you see ammonia turn up in your tests (no need to test until 3rd week, then test daily. ) Typical is 4 weeks of this. Continue five more days past disappearance of ammonia to be sure it's holding.
zelie_dad
Always bring a towel
I started my cycle last Monday with a raw shrimp. I threw it in my display whole. Tuesday, I my house had a smell that wasn't horrible, but definitely wasn't very pleasant. When I got home from work, I took it out, removed the shell, cut in into several small pieces, threw them back in. The smell was still around, especially in my basement where my sump is. By Thursday the shrimp was gone, or at least I couldn't find the pieces anymore. I was detecting some ammonia, but I decided to try dosing pure ammonia. My local supermarket had 2% ammonia without surficants, but I wanted stronger stuff. I checked walmart, home depot, lowes, but they didn't have what I wanted. The only place that I could find that had 10% ammonia solution was ace hardware. They sell it in quart and gallon sizes. I picked up a quart, and dosed my tank up to 2.0 ppm, which is the max for my test kit. I also poured a bottle of Bio-Spira in as well prior to adding the ammonia.
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Yup. Easy and effective.
If you don't want to wait then Bio-Spira is a great product. It contains live nitrifying bacteria and will "bang cycle" a tank with an appropriate biological filter substrate in place and good circulation in 24-48 hours. We have used this product many times, it works! The latest application was for a transfer of all specimens from a 2 gal pico reef to a new 5 gallon set-up with a live aragonite DSB and additional live rock and a bunch of zebra hermit and porcelain anemone crabs, nerite and nasarius snails, elegance, hammer, duncan, blastomussa corals and an ocellaris clown. Small initial ammonia and nitrite spikes first 24 hrs, at 48 hrs ALL ZERO with 1-2 ppm nitrate. Instant cycle (of course requires an appropriate substrate, LR, ceramic media and good water turnover, etc.) as advertised! As always YMMV and make sure the expiration date is good before using. One 8 oz bottle is good for 30 gallons.
