Samba2641 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Hey, I've read different opinions on this so thought I'd see what all you knowledgeable people think:) I am going to cycle my tank using ammonia (if I can find it-Nelson doesn't seem to have it anywhere, will have to search in Wellington...),Once its done can I put all my planned fish in at once or should it be staggered? The main reason I ask is that I don't have a Q tank yet and would hate to introduce some greebly with the second or third batch of fish. Tank stuff: 38L, lightly planted, sand substrate, driftwood. Stocked with Zebra and Leopard Danios and Corydoras hastatus/pygmaeus. Cheers, Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Ammonia can be bought from the super market as bleach, if I remember correctly HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Bleach and ammonia are two different things! You need pure ammonia too I believe. I think the stuff in supermarkets has additives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 or just urinate in the tank... :dunno: will do the same thing. will you be using a filter in the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malevolentsparkle Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 i always find that there are easier ways than adding dangerous chemicals to cycle a tank. 1 - run the filter in an established tank for a while or 2 - add a little bit of fish food everyday 'feed the tank' or 3 - even rinsing filter media and emptying your WCs from another tank into the new one will help. whatever you do, patience is the key! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Do not buy bleach! Ammonia is to be purcahsed as cloudy ammonia or something similar. Woolworths / countdown / foodtown has it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burrowssj Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 just buy some guppys will cost you less an when they survive an breed you will have free food but idealy get some dirty water an drop it straight into your tank or run your filter in another tank.get abit filter media from a petstore or use an additive like stress zyme or cycle(dont use anything other than those you DON'T need them) most fish survive a cycle fine but some are very sensitive, as long as you test it daily an give them water changes you should be fine to put a small amount of stock in there to get things going.also I do recommend stress zyme or cycle additive but only for the cycling of a tank, i doubt you'll ever need it again at least I never did... why not ask for someone local for some media? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 i would do the fish in two lots, dannios first to cycle the tank then your cories, just throw them in and do 20% waterchanges daily for a week, then drop it to 2 waterchanges per week. then add your cories and any more dannios. i would only test the water every 2-3 days during the cycle to give you and idea if you should be doing more or less water during each waterchange. rember to do the test before you do the waterchange, not after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Cloudy ammonia is cloudy because there is other stuff in there other than ammonia. Bleach is HTH solution---chlorine, not ammonia. Just plant the tank out and add fish slowly so the bacteria can catch up with the load. There are products available which will add bacteria to spead the process a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba2641 Posted January 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 Hey, thanks for so many replies:) I wanted to go the ammonia way for three main reasons: 1. I love the idea of precisely manufacturing a whole wee ecosystem. 2. I don't have any other tanks or friends in Wellington to nick filter media from. 3. I'd hate to damage or kill any fishes just because I'm impatient to get some action in there. that said, it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to find any ammonia so I may have to go the fish way, I think I'll add some fish food to an empty tank for a week or so first though to bolster the bacteria numbers if that would work? @ Diver, yes, I have the aqua one hob filter that came with the tank, thinking of grabbing another one off trademe at some point for extra filtration and then perhaps a second tank... Cheers, Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 You are in Wgtn, a lot of members here are in Wgtn, ask (or tell us which suburb you are in) and see if one of them is near you to offer matured filter media. I am sure someone will be able to help! Some work in pet shops, I am sure they can help, even if they take media from home to work for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba2641 Posted January 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 I'm in Brooklyn, went to the local pet shops today, neither could help me out on the used media side of things but I'm not too unhappy about that as I don't know what bugs could be lurking that could have infected my tank. Should I ask if anyone around Brooklyn has any used media on the trade link? And of course, thank you for your help:) Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba2641 Posted January 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 So, if anyones still looking at this thread I have failed completely at sourcing ammonia and used filter media so as going get a few danios to start cycling the tank. Fingers crossed when I go out to the pet shop on wed. the fish guy will be back and I can get me a little used filter media but if not i am prepared to do daily water changes until the ammonia and nitrite levels are 0ppm. How many would be adequate to start off with? -tank is 38L. Cheers, Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink_fish Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 Hi Sam, Just wondering – is your tank an Aqua One 380 by any chance? (Just helps to know how much surface area we're talking about, as that is more important than volume when thinking about stocking.) Start with two danios and aim to leave it at that for a minimum of two weeks (the more patient you can be the better – that rule applies to most aspects of fish keeping, I've found!). You shouldn't actually need to do more than one water change per week, but you can monitor how the cycle is progressing using your test kits every couple of days, and if the ammonia starts to go up to a point where it will become dangerous to your fish, you can increase the water changes to once every two days. You can, but don't have to, use the products available that supposedly speed up cycling – such as Stresszyme, etc. (I've cycled tanks with and without and found no difference in the length of time it took to cycle them). After that you can slowly start to stock your tank, adding no more than a couple of fish every fortnight – remember, slower is better. You probably don't want to put more than about 10 fish tops in a AR380, btw. Keep us posted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba2641 Posted January 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 Hey pink fish, I'm not sure exactly what type of aquaone tank it is, the only measurements i found on the box were 26w, 30h (cm). I'm a very patient person:), the journey is half the fun after all. Thanks very much for your advice, it parallels most of the rest of my research so far:) I'll post some pics as soon as my last plant arrives and the tank is looking presentable:) Thanks, Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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