Where's the Ammonia?

"cycle" has to be refrigerated too....
"Fuzzy" -DONTEMAIL wrote in message
...
Wez wrote:
Lisa,
I actually used a product called "cycle" that contains dormant
beneficial bacteria which is probably simlar to the product you
used. --Wez



IMO "cycle" is a waste of money. Bio Spira, on the other hand, is good,
a bit expensive, it must be refridgerated, to keep the bacteria alive,
and has been proven to actually work. With the fish load, in your tank,
there is probibly not enough ammonia happening to create readings. If
you are doing water changes then the N03, cannot build up enough to be
detectable. I would ad your fish, and monitor the ammonia, and see what
happens. I suspect you are cycled, and at worst, you may have mini
spike, if you add too many fish at once.

In Wez's case, a planted tank, with an established plant life, is pretty
much ready for fish. The natural cycle is helped by the plants which
need ammonia, and nitrates. A lot of the bio load created by fish, as
long as the tank is not over loaded will be used directly by the plants,
allowing the nitifying bacteria to compete for the remainder.



--
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Starfish wrote:

"cycle" has to be refrigerated too....
"Fuzzy" -DONTEMAIL wrote in message
...
Wez wrote:
Lisa,
I actually used a product called "cycle" that contains dormant
beneficial bacteria which is probably simlar to the product you
used. --Wez



IMO "cycle" is a waste of money. Bio Spira, on the other hand, is good,

I agree, I've used cycle and its a waste of time!

Lisa wrote:

Hello,

I set up my new 50-gallon bow-front 2 weeks ago. 8 days ago, I bought
2 Flame dwarf gouramis to begin the cycle. As far as I can tell, they
have been happy, eating, active, and making bubble nests all over for
the past week.

Water tested EVERY day for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. All 0-0-0,
every darn time. (I confess I got compulsive and started testing for
the "Big 3" twice a day! Ahhh!) I even bought a different testing kit
to make sure I had a good one. Both are in agreement.

So, why aren't I cycling? Where's the ammonia that I am supposed to see
in a new tank?

Do you have any plants in the tank? Plants use ammonia as food
(fertiliser) and may well catch enough of it to keep the concentration
below the detection limit. If so, you have an ideal set up in which the
ammonium released by the fish is eaten immediately by the plants. The
tank will never "cycle" (that is, no bacteria converting ammonia to
nitrite and nitrate will develop), but you simply don't need them. That
may or may not change if you add more fish, but if you don't do anything
rash you have nothing to worry about.

Just do a reasonable water change routine (20% every 2 weeks or so) to
keep other waste products down and both your fish and your plants will
be fine.