Fishless Cycling W/O Ammonia?

[mattlowry]

Ok, I live in a very small town in Texas, and I cannot find ANY ammonia w/o bubbles when I shake it. Any other ways to do a fishless cycle. I am going out of town for a week, and would love to out something in to cycle while I am gone.

[hondamx]

Just put a sprinkle of fish food in and that will create ammonia.

[echoofformless]

Urine?

(I'm actually only half kidding - I read once on someone's crazy website that he uses his own urine to cycle tanks. Just wanted to share that to gross everyone out.)


Okay but in serious, I have heard that feeding the tank some fish food will actually make it cycle.

[naps]

You can use fish food/brine shrimp or bloodworms etc. Also people use actual cocktail shrimp too. Just shell them and let them rot in the tank, it's sometimes a little messy though and you have to net out little pieces of rotten shrimp later, but it works very well.

[mattlowry]

Just put a sprinkle of fish food in and that will create ammonia.
How Much?

[aquarious]

A dead rotting shrimp is the way to go. It will consistently create ammo while your gone. Plus get your hands on some media from an established tank, this will help your cycle go quicker.

[jm1212]

i use fish food and bacteria from previously cycled tanks to cycle new ones.

do you have a test kit? if not, you should stop by petsmart and get a liquid test kit.

take a good ammount, perhaps a big pinch and put it in ther and then wait. tomorrow you should see the water starting to get cloudy, and then in the next few days the water is gong to get so cloudy it will be hard to see thgouh, and then you wait some more, and once the tank starts to clear up and the ammoina starts to drop and you see nitrites, add a tiny bit more food to keep the bactera eating and multiplying

[NeonJulie]

A dead rotting shrimp is the way to go. It will consistently create ammo while your gone. Plus get your hands on some media from an established tank, this will help your cycle go quicker.

This is what I would do... I did the fish food for about a week... it was SO incredibly messy, I'll probably never get it fully vacuumed. At least with the shrimp you can get rid of it. Maybe even put it in a bowl or something.

[echoofformless]

Wow..dead rotting shrimp.

Makes me almost want to reconsider the urine... :joke:

[TKOS]

Urine is urea and not ammonia. So it isn't as concentrated and contains other substances. (FYI)

But if you put a shrimp in a piece of nylon panty hose and let it rot that would work great and then allow you to easily pull the mess out of the tank at the end.

[mattlowry]

I have some bait shrimp in my freezer, would that work?

[fballguy]

Urine?

(I'm actually only half kidding - I read once on someone's crazy website that he uses his own urine to cycle tanks. Just wanted to share that to gross everyone out.)

Now THAT would be a funny sight to see... from behind of course.

[Tommy Gun]

Any type of shrimp can be used and in fact, any food really. Some people use ground meat (hamburger), but of course, the mess is the main issue. The main key here is that you are trying to add something to your tank that will decay and is organic (once living) so that it becomes ammonia over time.

I like the shrimp method myself in absence of ammonia. (Pure ammonia dosing is NOT good if you cannot keep adding some anyways). The panty hose trick saves a lot of mess and will reduce the gag factor since you can just pull it out and throw it away quickly. Also, you can keep the shell on which will also keep stuff more intact, thus making it easier to remove. Just weigh the shrimp (or panyhose with shrimp in it) down so that it stays in the water. If you dont, you are opening yourself up to mold and other bacterial issues.

The amount is of course, based upon the size of your tank. I like to use one big shrimp per 5 gallons or so. Without getting too technical, I doubt if you can have too much if you stay within reason but too little will not keep the bacteria fed and thriving for as long as you may be away. The shrimp method is also good because you wont have to be around to drop more fish food in every so often and again, is easily contained in a nylon.

If you can, which it may sound like you can't but just in case, you can get some substrate from an established tank and put it in another nylon since it will have bacteria in it as well. This good bacteria is not found solely in filter media, however it is not abundant in the tank's water itself and so using old water is not going to do much other than possibly bringing some small amounts of wastes to your tank but more than likely a bunch of nitrates, which you do not need.

[echoofformless]

Urine is urea and not ammonia. So it isn't as concentrated and contains other substances. (FYI)


:duh: hey it's not my idea! hehehe Though I must say, I do wonder what this guy looks like.

I tried googling the site but turned up nothing. However I did find mention of the practice on about.com

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/bionitrogencycle/a/aa042403.htm?terms=in+harms+way

[desertgoldhound]

OK everyone I am seting up a new tank and don't realy have to go that bad.

Everyone is invited to use my tank as the toilt.


P.S. Please do not fulsh

[Star_Rider]

urea- organic compound of carbon,nitrogen,oxygen, hydrogen (NH2)2CO or CON2H4

compliments of ;) wikpedia

[Ms.Bubbles]

I don't recommend using rotting meat or shrimp to cycle a tank. Big chance of salmonella bacteria, which could transfer to your hands and make you sick.

A pinch of fish food every day or 2 is what I would recommend.

[jm1212]

dont use urine thats the worst thing you could do. you'd inrtoduce bacteria like E.coli to your tanks and you have to put your hands into there every week for water changes, not to mention what could happen to the fish in the tank.

[desertgoldhound]

WHAT DON'T USE IT :(

I already did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sueing aquaria central they gave me miss leading information!! To all you that stopped by for a drain thanks for nothing. Should I get my fish out of the tank!!!!! Also I cant get ahold of the outhouse company I called to purchase there recyclable liquids.


I CANT BELEIVE YOU ALL SUGGESTED THIS.

hey wat is that smell in my tank it smells like (USE YOUR EMAGINATION)

Oh and is my tank spoced to be yellow in color?


SUE SUE SUE

What the heck I also spilled coffie in my lap when I read that you wernt spoced to use urin and burnt myself. I am sueing.




Here is the futcher headlines.

Man **** in fish tank. Fish get mad and man sues bord on net!!!!!!!

or

New toilit invention instead of flushing just top it off!!!!

or

Yellow water fish tanks the new trend in fashon homes.

ROFLMFAO

[chunkoblue]

dont use urine thats the worst thing you could do. you'd inrtoduce bacteria like E.coli to your tanks and you have to put your hands into there every week for water changes, not to mention what could happen to the fish in the tank.


Actually, urine is remarkably sterile! There are only a few known viruses that are transmitted through urine. Not that I would want to drink it or anything... E. coli lives in our digestive systems and doesn't enter the urinary system... As for using urine for cycling..... I suppose it could break down into ammonia to start the cycle. But I think your best bet is some filter material from an established tank, or a little fish food if not available

[Reddog80p]

you could bottle it and sell it on ebay "Bio-pee" "cycling your tank is a wizz".

[CaitxSith]

you could bottle it and sell it on ebay "Bio-pee" "cycling your tank is a wizz".
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: