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  1. #11
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    Day 14 ---

    Ammonia - 0ppm
    Nitrite - 2.5ppm
    Nitrate - 7.5ppm
    PH - 6.5
    KH - 50ppm (2.5dKH)
    Temp - 28c

    Note - tested 0ppm Ammonia today, so it looks like the first stage is well under way. Did note a large drop in PH today too from 7ish to 6.5ish. Raised PH back up to 7ish and redosed tank to 5ppm Ammonia.

  2. #12
    Moderator Ben's Avatar
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    Jan 2005
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    Hiya Deester!

    Hows the fish going since you put them in your tank!?

    We need some photo's mate!

    Cheers
    Ben

  3. #13
    Blue Diamond Discus
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    discus

    great article merilyn were do we get the ammonia from?
    i noticed the massive bottle last time i was around
    cheers
    chris

  4. #14
    Hi, I'm New Here!
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    Oct 2006
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    Nice thread, but I wanted to make a couple more points...

    Adding chlorinated water without dechloring first can be misleading for a couple reasons.

    Depending where your water supply comes from it could have chloramines instead of chlorine which does not evaporate overnight. This would kill any beneficial bacteria growth until you treated your water with a dechlor. Also adding chlorinated water to a tank with some beneficial bacteria would just kill any bacteria as soon as it touched the water. Age/dechlor your water first, then add it to the tank. Never add water that is not treated to your tank.

    Every de-chlorinator that I have used doesn't "remove" the ammonia, it just de-toxifies it so it is not harmful to the fish. Your test kit should still pick up trace amounts in the water and you should still be able to grow beneficial bacteria. I have used Amqel and Prime without any problems.

    I hope it helps!
    Respect human talent, respond to genius, recognize reality, admire truth and beauty, realize the meaning of the rare flower Reason.
    -Peter Nivio Zarlenga

  5. #15
    Tiny Fry
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    north wales, uk
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    308
    Cannot get ammonia anywhere! Have found a house hold Ammonia! This isn't it, is it?
    Juwel 96L - Hospital/breeding

    Juwel Trigon 190 Bare Bottom

    3 Chequerboards discus
    1 Red snakeskin discus
    1 Yellow Christal
    1 High Finn Blue Diamond

    1 Congo Tetra
    1 Kulih loach
    1 Clown Loach
    2 Sebra Dianos
    5 Black Tetras

  6. #16
    Hi, I'm New Here!
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    Feb 2007
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    ammonia is ammonia. If it says household ammonia, just check that it is 100% ammonia and no alcohol or anything else in it.

  7. #17
    Just an Egg
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    Jun 2007
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    Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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    A good post and thanks... I just put water in my tank two days ago, added some prime, and then yesterday tossed in ammonia (I get mine from the store room downstairs ) and starter colony.

    When doing all this, does it matter if the ammonia is a bit high, or does that just mean more food for the bugs? Mine is at about 8 ppm today.

    pH / hardness are crazy right now - two of the rocks that I wanted to use seem to be falling apart in the water. I guess I'll need to find new ones that don't have quite so many soluble Ca/Mg salts in them and won't fight with pH down so much. Bugs won't care, but the fish sure will.


    Cheers,

    J

  8. #18
    Hi, I'm New Here!
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    Thanks Marrilyn, this article is uncredibly helpful.

    Quote Originally Posted by Merrilyn
    Hi Dee. I've been meaning to write a comprehensive article on Fishless Cycling for some time now, so I guess this is a good time.

    First, a few basic things that need to be understood.

    The bacteria colony in your bio filter is a living thing. To survive it needs two things. Oxygen and food. The bacteria colony will grow and multiply till it has consumed all the available food, and then the population will remain static. Ammonia is simply a food for the bacteria, so in other words, by adding ammonia in any form to the tank, we are simply feeding the bacteria. If we stop feeding the bacteria, they will gradually die till they are all gone.

    Now to begin your fishless cycle, you need to obtain a source of bacteria. For this, you can use plants, gravel or used filter floss from an existing tank. You are simply taking a small colony, and feeding it well, so that it grows and multiplies into a large colony.

    So, on day one, fill your tank with tap water BUT DO NOT ADD DECHLORINATOR. Some of the dechlorinators remove ammonia from the water, and that is the very thing that we're trying to add. Simply let the water age for a day or two, so the chlorine dissipates into the air.

    Day two, set up your tank, with gravel plants, filter, heater, decorations, driftwood etc and your starter bacteria colony. At the same time, add your food, in the form of liquid ammonia. The amount you add will depend on the strength of the ammonia, but you are aiming for a reading of 5 ppm on your ammonia test kit. That's enough food to give you a good size bacteria colony, which would cope with a full fish load of around 10 adult fish.

    Do daily ammonia tests, remember we are aiming for a reading of 5 ppm. As the bacteria colony begin to grow, they will consume some of the ammonia and convert it into nitrite. As you see the ammonia level drop, add a little more ammonia to bring the reading up to 5 ppm again. If you added too much, don't worry, it's just food, and the bacteria will eventually consume it.

    After about a week, you should be getting a reading of nitrite as well as the ammonia. That means the colony is growing, which is just what we want. Keep feeding the bacteria, and keep your ammonia reading up to 5 ppm. Some time during the second week, you'll begin to detect a reading of nitrate as well as nitrite. This is the second step in your bio filtration. It takes time for the two different type of bacteria to grow. The first type turns ammonia into nitrite, and the second type turns nitrite into nitrate.

    Our aim therefore is to have the ammonia converted into nitrite and then nitrate within a 24 hour period. How quickly this happens, will depend on the size of the bacteria colony you first introduced into the tank at the beginning of the cycle. It can take anything from 10 days to three weeks to fully complete the cycle.

    You know your tank is cycled when your added ammonia has fully been converted to nitrate in 24 hours. Test your tank each morning, before you add ammonia. If you constantly see a zero ammonia reading, and a high nitrate reading, then your tank is cycled. You can keep feeding the colony with ammonia until you are ready to add your fish.

    Ready to add fish ? Then do a big waterchange with de chlorinated water (around 80% change) to remove the excess nitrate, but don't add any ammonia, then add your fish all at once. No need to feed sparingly for the first month. Your tank is fully cycled, and will deal with all the waste that the fish produce.

    It's a fairly simple procedure, and I've deliberately kept this explanation basic. If you're looking for all the scientific names of the bacteria involved, then a quick google will give you all the information you need.

  9. #19
    Just an Egg
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    Feb 2007
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    Adelaide
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    I intend to begin a fishless cycle using ammonia before introducing fish into the tank. I have in the past used a clear ammonia bought from hardware stores but looking about, after visits to various supermarkets and stores, all I can now see is cloudy ammonia. I'm sort of assuming now that the cloudy stuff was introduced to stop people thinking it as water and consuming it, but does anyone know if the cloudy type is a suitable alternative and doesn't add unwanted toxins into the filtration system? It doesn't list all the 'ingredients', only that it says cloudy ammonia on the bottle. If its not of use, any recommendations on a suitable alternative to clear ammonia for a fishless cycle?

  10. #20
    Moderator samir's Avatar
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    cloudy does not work

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