Fishless cycling

Hi,

New to fishkeeping and new to the forum.

Just dropping a line to share my experience doing fishless cycling using household ammonia.

It went extremly well imo. I cycled my 20 gallon tank in just 2 weeks. Heater on 26 Celsius. I used Household Ammonia Amokleen 9% Ammonium Hydroxide. I bought it in a hardware shop. I checked if it had any kind of surfactants or any other stuff (shaking bottle to see if it foamed).

My aim was to push to 5.0 ppm Ammonia from day one. Progressively (5 drops-test, 5 more-test, 5 more-test and so on) I added ammonia until I found out that I would need 35 drops of ammonia for that 5.0 ppm reading. So every day after work I would put the 35 drops of ammonia and I would test the water for amonia and nitrites in the morning. I really thought I was using far to much ammonia but stuck to it anyway.

I also got kind of upset because after 4 days pond snails started to come out. Maybe 6 or 7... obviusly came in with the plants I had. Btw, plants did seem a tiny bit bothered with the household ammonia but they have recovered extremly well.

Tests were not showing any drop in Ammonia levels and no increasing Nitrite. But then it suddenly happened. Ammonia started to drop and nitirite to show after day 10 and I did reduce the drops of household ammonia to 15. Got a 0/0 reading on day 14 and water heavily loaded with nitrates. On the same day I did a 60% water change and nitrates dropped to 10-20 which I considered safe enough to move my 2 fish in... they have been thriving and look healthy and happy ever since.

I have checked daily for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates since the fished moved in and I have a consistent reading of 0-0-5 (althoug it took two water changes to drop nitrates to 5).

Incidentally the snails vanished with the first water change. I have not seen them ever since and it is more than 3 weeks ago. Died? Hid? Eaten? I don't know...

That's all. Hope that any other new to the hobby find this useful.

D

For someone that is new to fishkeeping i'd safely say that you expertly cycled the tank.

Every tank will have Nitrate readings, if they are under 25/30 i'd say that it is ok. I wouldn't go killing yourself doing massive water changes to dilute it.

As far as the tank goes now I would feed very sparingly and keep an eye on the parameters for a while in case you get an Ammonia/Nitite spike before adding anything else. The tank isn't huge so research what fish and how many to put in.

Also try getting some established filter media from someone elses tank and you will be laughing.

Best of luck,

Peter

Hi dzbtrout,
Thanks for that i have heard of this been done but have not tried it. I would have concerns when it comes to using this! but when proper precautions are taking should be safe.

i have heard of people putting in a full container of ammonia.


I have to agree with Peter You wisely and expertly cycled this tank.

please keep us informed of your progress!

Mickey

hi dzbtrout,welcome to the forum,and well done with the cycling,what type of fish are you going to keep

Paul

Research, research, research. That has been the basis. It seems indeed that there is some confusion around the use of ammonia. I found a couple of articles which i found really helpful, like this one: www.fishprofiles.com/articles/article.aspx?id=31

The 2 fish I have had gone already through a lot of stress because of my ignorance so I didn't want to put them through the whole ordeal again.

I have got into this hobby almost by accident and I am loving it. You probably guess right: goldfish given to my daughter with an improper tank. I must say we have got really attached to them. It is mad they feed off my hand. So this limits really my future in the hobby unless I get another tank which is completely out of scope at the moment.

I was thinking of maybe adding a couple of male variatus platies or maybe a half a dozen of darios or white mountain minnows but for the time being I will just have the 2 goldfish and if they kick the bucket or else I find a new home for them then I would really want to get a nice community tank of tropical fish.

David

Hi dzbtrout/David!

Welcome to the forum!

The way you have documented/handled the fishless cycling is impressive! This is great information and could be very useful to everyone here. Thank you!

Fish keeping is how it all starts ...get one tank, and then get another ... it's a very addictive hobby, ask anyone here !!

Small community fish in a tank are great. Though it's not everyone's taste, I like it for the constant movement and the variation of colours.

Enjoy the forum!

Valerie

just a note on nitrates.. it was good for you to do a water change as high nitrates can impede the cycle process and put you back a few steps

well done and a great post..