Sources of Ammonia for Cycling

[suzanne]

Hi Everyone,

I am just wondering what everyone uses to start the ammonia in their tank for cycling.
I don't want to use starter fish as I'd rather not risk disease being brought into the tank. I know frozen brine shrimp works well..Just curious if someone has found something even better?????

 

[jordan]

Using other plants or filters or other things form pre-established tanks.

 

[joan]

Suzanne, you can use frozen or flake foods, mooshed up into a paste and left in the tank to rot. A rather unconventional method is to urinate in the tank, but I'm not sure about that, especially with disease transmission and whatnot.

 

[casey]

Suzanne, from memory you have an axie already, right?

Whilst I was cycling I would use frozen brine shrimp and also any axie poop from my two axies.

It also helps if you get some gravel or something from an established aquarium - I got a handful of gravel from my local aquarium and I put that in the tank, then when it finished its cycle I took it out so my axies wouldn't eat it.

My cycle took pretty much 30 days.

 

[suzanne]

Joan, what a great idea..(not the urinating) the fish food paste! lol.

Casey,
Yep have an axie already, he's in my already established tank...I've gotten a new much bigger tank now and have started cycling so was just wondering what other people have done to help their cycling. My little guy keeps looking over at his new tank...I think he's as excited as I am! lol.

I might take some of the pebbles out of my little tank to put in there along with the silk plant...

Thanks for your help!

 

[sharn]

when i got my bigger tank (twice the size of the one i had) i put all the water into the new tank and all the gravel without washing any of it and then topped it up and let it set. mine didnt need to cycle at all but i didnt feed so heavily to give the bacteria time to build up enough to handle normal axie life

 

[suzanne]

Thanks Sharn,

I'm thinking that when I do a water change on the established tank I'll use the water I take from it I'll add to the new one.

I think this should help the process along.

 

[sherrisixxx]

Hi! I did a fishless cycle on mine. You can buy pure ammonia from most of the DIY stores. Here's one article on Fishless cycling, but there is plenty more:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/fishless_cycling.php

(Message edited by jennewt on November 30, 2005)

 

[edward]

SherriSixxx, you need to provide a link to the article unless you have specific permission to copy and paste the article here otherwise you may be violating copyright laws.
Please edit the post to include the link otherwise me may be forced to delete the post.

The reason the tank can cycle faster is because the author recommends seeding the tank with bacteria. This can speed the cycle up regardless of the ammonia source. One of the items to consider in performing this type of cycling is that this may not be the best method for people that has problems like asthma as the ammonia can act as an irritant.

One of the reasons I tend to use a fish food or other item that decomposes as a source for the bacteria starter is because it provides more nutrition for the bacteria when compared to a sterile tank (in the article above the plants will leak protiens and other substances that are digestiable by the bacteria) cycled with ammonia.

Ed

(Message edited by ed on November 29, 2005)

 

[jennifer]

I went ahead and edited her post, substituting the link in place of the text. Here are some other articles on the subject. My only concern about this method is that if you have soft water, you could end up with a messed up pH.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~jskoga/Aquariums/Ammonia.html
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/4468/cycling_without_fish.html