tyguitar

specifically ammonia with gravel and filter floss?

jdhef

Welcome to Fishlore!

You can cycle with ammonia and no gravel and or filter floss, but I believe if you are using gravel and or filter floss you must use ammonia (or fish food which breaks down into ammonia.)

The reason being that without the ammonia to feed the bacteria, the bacteria will die off and your tank will not cycle. So basically adding gravel and or filter floss will speed up the cycling process compared to just using ammonia.

sirdarksol

No reason you can't.
The ammonia will help feed the bacteria in the gravel and floss, giving you the chance to further build the colonies before introducing fish.

Welcome to Fishlore!

tyguitar

for your help!

tyguitar

do you need to turn the lights on?

jdhef

I don't think so, but turning up the heat to about 85 degrees, and maximum aeration will help speed things along.

tyguitar

did raise temp and aeration anymore i can do. any products? biozyme, bacteria, etc.

pepetj

tyguitar. Every time I cycle (fishless thanks to fishlore) I change/combine things. What I keep constant is the ammonia method (daily Xdrops to reach 5ppm, then half Xdrops daily once ammonia fades down in 12 hours and nitrite spikes, until both read zero).

From seeded fiter media (sponges), to complete filters (I try to exceed the minimun filtering requirements, having multiple filters per tank), to some amount of seeded substrate, to a ton of seeded substrate, to borrowing some decoration from established tanks, moving plants around...
In terms of time:
Tank#1 (10gal) took 12 days,
Tank #2 (5.5gal) in 13 or 14 days (only a bit of sponge media seeded),
Tank #3 (29gal bow) took 12 days (added sponge, some seeded substrate),
Tank #4 (145gal) in 11 days (had 1 filter seeded for two weeks at tank#3, and some seeded sponges -from the 10 gal- and fiter floss -from the 5.5gal- for the other two new filters, plus all the substrate seeded as unexpected courtesy from the LFS manager, plus seeded aquarium decor -from the 29gal),
Tank #5 (40gal) in 9 days (all the substrate seeded -from tank#3).

Except tank #4, all other tanks had lights on 24/7 (I use no heater since I live in the Caribbean) to keep temp at 28-29C. I placed the lights on that tank the day before I moved the fish.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

sirdarksol

I would not use anything like biozyme or Cycle. The only product I would use would be Tetra SafeStart, which uses the right kind of bacteria.

fishrule101

If your doing SW you do. There seems to be an algae attack.

tyguitar

cant find pure ammonia! tried hardware and grocery stores. closest thing i have found is this. http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-44321/Detail
what else can i use? I've heard that fish food would sprout algae.
Can I just collect fish waste from my established tank and place it into the new tank?

pepetj

You are not going to find pure ammonia easily. What is readily available is a solution of ammonia, like the one you found. You only need to make sure that it has no additives or surfactants in it (just shake the bottle, if it forms bubbles as drinking water, it's safe; if bubbles remain, discard it).

You don't need a full gallon. I have cycled five tanks (10, 5.5, 29, 145, 40gals) with 750ml (like a quart) of "generic brand" of ammonia solution I got in the supermarket -household cleaners section, and still has some left in the bottle (I paid like USD 0.11 for it).

Pepe
Santo Domingo

tyguitar

it doesn't list ingredients and when i shake it it doesn't form bubbles so should i use it?it says its 3% ammonia so what is the other stuff?water?

pepetj

Distilled water is what it should have. Now all you have to do is get a drop counter and make some measurements. I have no idea about the percentage of ammonia in the solution I bought, so I was careful by adding ammonia.
I needed 10 drops for the 10gal, but 60drops for the 29gal bow, 25ml for 145gal, 7ml for the 40gal in order to reach 5ppm, this is to give you an idea. Try one drop per gallon to begin with, this should give you an idea where to aim (e.g. if you add 20 drops and get a reading of 2ppm, then 40 drops should get you close to 4ppm, 50 drops to 5ppm)

Pepe
Santo Domingo