eepruls

Hi,

Just about to start a fishless cycle and have a question about adding pure ammonia. I've read some conflicting info.

In one article (http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_fishless.php) it says to add ammonia until you get a spike (3-5mg/L) and then to stop adding it and let things be. When ammonia gets back to 0 (and there's some nitrites in the tank), then start adding about half the ammonia you originally added to keep the ammonia eating bacteria going until you get nitrates.

The article on this forum (http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm) indicates to add ammonia until you get nitrites where at that point you'll halve the amount of ammonia that's added but you keep adding it until you get nitrates.

So what's best? Continuing to add ammonia throughout or only doing so to get the initial spike and to maintain once there's none left? We can add fish once we have zero ammonia and nitrites and only nitrates under 10mg/L, correct?

Thanks for helping me clear this up. Since I'll be starting soon, I want to do it right and in a way that's most efficient.

armadillo

I"d keep adding. The whole idea is to grow the bacterial colonies, then to keep them there for as long as it takes for there to be no ammonia at all.