just a theory

so a lot of people use fish food, liquid ammonia or fish to cycle their tanks but do you really need to that.

we all know that tap water contains chlorine and chloramine which is bad. if we were going to cycle a new 10 gallon tank you would need to pour 10 gallons of tap water. I'm pretty sure that has a lot of chlorine and chloramine in it. now when you use your water conditioner (I am excluding ALL conditioners that have ammonia detoxifying properties like prime) it removes the chlorine and chloramine via reduction which converts it into ammonia. you don't believe me:

quote from Monsterfishkeeping forum: Dechlorinators operate through a chemical process known as reduction. When added into tap water, toxic dissolved chlorine gas is reduced into non-toxic chloride ions. The reduction process also breaks the bonds between chlorine and nitrogen atoms in the chloramine molecule (, freeing the chlorine atoms and replacing them with hydrogen to create ammonia. The ammonia is taken care by the nitrfying bacteria in your tank.





all these links will tell a similar thing to what was said above. so my thought is, why bother dosing ammonia or pouring fish food into the tank when the water conditioner will produce ammonia for you. with dechlorinators like prime, it wouldnt work because it detoxifies ammonia into ammonium which can't be used by bacteria (but plants love ammonium). but if you are using Tetra Aquasafe and stress coat, why not just use it to cycle the tank.

 

Because eventually it will run out. The bacteria will "eat" all of that ammonia, and if you don't keep dosing ammonia or fish food or fish waste, your bacteria will starve, likely before your cycle is finished.

 

really because I have always cycled my tanks like this and never had issues. though I do cycle my tanks with plants and I do WC to replenish nutrients for the plants.

also how does BB in bottles survive then. because they are not getting any ammonia on the store shelves

 

Exactly - you do water changes which adds in more ammonia.

It's easier to do fish-in or use fish food or pure ammonia for cycling - you have a better idea of how much ammonia is going to feed the bacteria rather than relying on how much chlorine and chloramines are in the water (chlorine gasses off after time).

And I believe there's either food in the bottle, or they're held in stasis until the bottle is opened.

 

Alright I understand

 

You can of course continue this way if it works There's more than one way to do things!

 

True that.

 

You have either chlorine or chloramine in tapwater, not both. Some UK authorities, like mine, are still using chlorine.

 

Oh didn't know that. I will check my water supplier to see what they use. I'm with Thames water

 

Yorkshire water use chloramine.

 

You have either chlorine or chloramine in tapwater, not both. Some UK authorities, like mine, are still using chlorine.

Some do use both, and will alternate in different situations. One issue municipal suppliers are up against are bacteria that are becoming resistant to disinfectants. They'll split the ammonia from chloramine, use that as food. What suppliers have to do to combat this is a short term increase in chlorine, called breakpoint chlorination. Using chloramine to do this would just increase the food supply. Chlorine helps to starve them out, as well as kill them.

This is how many folks get by with 25% or less water changes using no conditioner. Those resistant bacteria come in through the tap, colonize in the bio media, leaving chlorine which gasses off in a short amount of time. Plenty of old timers do this, having no idea their supplier switched to chloramine years ago, they figure the fish are getting a short term low dose of disinfectant, which gasses off.

 

Tolak, the breakdown for my water supply (North West Water) mentions total chlorine but never mentions chloramine. If they used it would it need to be listed in the details?

 

Pee breaks down into ammonia, and most of us have a pretty endless supply!

 

Pee breaks down into ammonia, and most of us have a pretty endless supply!

I don't think that's in my tapwater. They don't mention it anyway...

 

There was a thread someone started ages ago about peeing in tanks to cycle them needless to say it dodnt last long and the idea died out quickly

 

There are some nasty things in urine that you don't really want in a fish tank.

 

But you would do a 100 percent water change before you add fish

Shrimp method is just as easy, actually bits of squid would be Good too and probably cheaper. I remember when I had terrestrial snails I went to the grocery store and bought day old cuttle fish to get the bone for them. When I opened the package my eyes watered it was so strong with ammonia, but it was cheap.

Sorry I guess this post was about cycling with tap water not about theories on cycling!

 

There are some nasty things in urine that you don't really want in a fish tank.

That's pretty much why the thread died od try and find it but it was a good 2 yrs ago. I'm no expert but some of the things I read here and elsewhere make me think there's no hope for mankind but then I come across a post that gives me hope