Fishless cycling recipe...

[Marcus Fox]

According to directions published on the internet - in particular, that of
Chris Cow, found at:- http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html, I have
decided that I need to attain a concentration of 5 ppm in my tank of two
cubic feet. I was hoping other people here could review my calculations, and
make suggestions along the way.

I have converted two cubic feet, and it works out at 14.9 gallons, or 56.6
litres. Given that my tank is not full to the brim and contains gravel, for
the ease of calculation, I will say 50 litres.

I have a bottle of 9.5% ammonia, purchased from Boots (UK). It's very
smelly! To make it easier to work out, I'll assume 10% concentration.

In a 100% solution, one ml in one litre is one part per thousand. Divide by
1000 and we have one part per million. So that's 0.001 ml in one litre.

Since we have only a 10% solution, we need 10 times as much. So that's 0.01
ml in one litre.

For fifty litres, that's 0.5 ml to attain a 1 ppm concentration. To work
this up to 5 ppm, that's 2.5 ml.

Anything wrong with my calculations?

Marcus

[FRBSTRD]

wouldn't know i juts add it till i get a reading of approx 5.ppm with my test
kit

[Marcus Fox]

"FRBSTRD" > wrote in message
...
> wouldn't know i juts add it till i get a reading of approx 5.ppm with my
test
> kit

Errr, yes, but I wanted to calculate how much to add beforehand, so I'm not
wasting my tests and I don't spend ages adding a little more, testing,
adding a little more, etc etc, only to find I've added too much.

Marcus

[SG]

In article >, Marcus Fox wrote:
>
>Anything wrong with my calculations?
>

They look fine.

[Alan Silver]

In article >, Marcus
Fox > writes
>Anything wrong with my calculations?

Your calcs look fine, but remember that too much is not a bad thing.
Your tank will cycle quicker and you can always do a huge water change
afterwards. Remember, the bacteria live mainly on surfaces, so even a
complete water change will leave your bacteria colonies intact.

--
Alan Silver

[fisherman]

Alan Silver > wrote in message >...

> Your calcs look fine, but remember that too much is not a bad thing.
> Your tank will cycle quicker and you can always do a huge water change
> afterwards. Remember, the bacteria live mainly on surfaces, so even a
> complete water change will leave your bacteria colonies intact.

Forgive me Alan, but too much ammonia can be a bad thing. It is
possible to overdose ammonia during a fishless cycle. The following
is an excerpt from http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html -

"It IS possible to add too much ammonia to the tank (generally several
times the amounts suggested in either recipe), as some individuals
discovered by mistake (thanks Boozap). What happens in this case is
that the ammonia will spike very far off the chart then the nitrite
will spike as well (also way off the chart), and it will continue to
spike for a very long time. Why? There are a couple of
possibilities... the first is that the filter media and surfaces in
the tank or oxygen levels are simply insufficient to grow and maintain
a bacterial colony massive enough to convert all of the ammonia and
all of the nitrite to nitrates. Another likely possibility is that the
ammonia levels are high enough to inhibit growth (through a
biofeedback mechanism) of the bacteria rather than promoting it. The
solution is quite simple, however. If you realize that you've added
way too much ammonia simply do a water change, or if necessary a
series of water changes to bring the ammonia and/or nitrite levels
back into the readable range on your test kit. Then proceed as normal
with daily additions of ammonia until the tank is cycled."

Good luck with your cycle!!

[Marcus Fox]

"Alan Silver"
> wrote in
message ...
> In article >, Marcus
> Fox > writes
> >Anything wrong with my calculations?
>
> Your calcs look fine, but remember that too much is not a bad thing.
> Your tank will cycle quicker and you can always do a huge water change
> afterwards. Remember, the bacteria live mainly on surfaces, so even a
> complete water change will leave your bacteria colonies intact.

The bacteria will only grow as fast as their mitosis allows, and they have
some ammonia available.

Marcus

[Alan Silver]

In article >, fisherman
> writes
>> Your calcs look fine, but remember that too much is not a bad thing.
>> Your tank will cycle quicker and you can always do a huge water change
>> afterwards. Remember, the bacteria live mainly on surfaces, so even a
>> complete water change will leave your bacteria colonies intact.
>
>Forgive me Alan, but too much ammonia can be a bad thing. It is
>possible to overdose ammonia during a fishless cycle. The following is
>an excerpt from http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html -

You're forgiven ;-)

Interesting info. I guess I should modify my comment to "too much is not
a bad thing unless you go way too much" !! I know when I cycled my last
tank, I added far too much, but it cycled in a few days and all has been
well ever since. I added a tank load of fish over two days and didn't
lose a single one.

Thanx for the info.

--
Alan Silver

[Marcus Fox]

"Alan Silver"
> wrote in
message ...
> In article >, fisherman
> > writes
> >> Your calcs look fine, but remember that too much is not a bad thing.
> >> Your tank will cycle quicker and you can always do a huge water change
> >> afterwards. Remember, the bacteria live mainly on surfaces, so even a
> >> complete water change will leave your bacteria colonies intact.
> >
> >Forgive me Alan, but too much ammonia can be a bad thing. It is
> >possible to overdose ammonia during a fishless cycle. The following is
> >an excerpt from http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html -
>
> You're forgiven ;-)
>
> Interesting info. I guess I should modify my comment to "too much is not
> a bad thing unless you go way too much" !! I know when I cycled my last
> tank, I added far too much, but it cycled in a few days and all has been
> well ever since. I added a tank load of fish over two days and didn't
> lose a single one.

Did you seed it, or start from scratch?

Marcus