Couldn't I just pee in my tank?

[terraincognita]

What would a scientist do?
Maybe just cycling an old rock collection in a barrel in the garage, actually for months. Get drinking heavy for 3 or 12 days? The memory is kind of fuzzy about this story. The barrel had been growing chaeto under a light to remove phosphates for more that a year and the whole system was fairly clean and very stable. After reading the previously mentioned wee little thread, my little nephew emptied into the bucket as the beginning of a highly unscientific enquiry into the impacts of beer whiz into a stable, low nutrient system.

Within a week the stable system was blown up with (what looked like dino's) but no one wanted to dip a slide into the bucket to slap under a scope, so we only know it looked like a dino outbreak for a couple of weeks. Then the hair algae over took parts of the chaeto, followed by slime algae and all that interaction caused a population explosion of tiny starfish that had hitchhiked on the chaeto, and those were mostly replaced by tiny limpets and the hair algae slowly dies and the chaeto never really recovered.

Now the bucket doesn't look pristine as it once did, and it needs to be drained to restart the water quality minus human metabolites before the rock goes anywhere near a reef tank.

Number one observation in a limited reef bucket turned symple pristine system into a toilet. Unpublished data, pers com.

Wow, Great info actually hahaha

 

[Tankkeepers]

Every knows you don't pee in your tank. You pee in the tank of the guy that have you aptasia.

Ahhh thats a good one right there

 

[PicassoClown04]

I mean I guess peeing would work but I’d be a little hesitant to stick my hand in there knowing there’s a bunch of pee!

 

[jda]

Don't you need urease break down urea into ammonia? How would a new tank have this?

 

[PicassoClown04]

Don't you need urease break down urea into ammonia? How would a new tank have this?

I believe that’s caused by exposure to air? I know it decays into ammonia naturally. Like if my dog pees on the sidewalk and I were to go smell it the next day (which I wouldn’t do cause that’s gross) it would smell like ammonia cause it’d‘ve broken down over the 24 hours

 

[JumboShrimp]

“I wanted to cycle my aquarium fast, so I drank a Martini, then peed in the tank. Now it’s growing olives!”

 

[KrisReef]

[]

“No, really, if you are going to pee in your tank, I think it's a fabulous idea to get the cycle started properly. It's Natural. But please, if you are going to do this I'd like to come over and watch, you know, just too make sure everything works out ok?!”

 

[oldbob50]

Yes. Have done it with both freshwater and saltwater. Do it once with about 1/2 cup for a 50 to 100 gal. system will have no adverse effects on your system. Remeber, this is done to start a tank. There will be no animals in the tank until the cycling is complete and you have done the necessary post cycling water changes. The long and short of this is, if you are healthy and not on BC or other medications, there is nothing in human urine that is any more toxic than what comes out of your fish, corals and CUC. If you are a Vulcan, do not do this because copper is toxic to most inverts. Putting in one rock from the ocean with a coral on it could introduce more toxins.

 

[schwa6970]

Im pretty sure urine is sterile so It would have to break down some first . Maybe put it in a glass and dump it in after it starts to stink. I dont think I’d add more than a 1/4 cup or so or you may end up taking 6 months for it to all break down in to Nitrates. As a reminder Nitrite is more toxic than the ammonia it comes from.
But yes absolutely would work but If your on a ton of meds or something I wouldn’t do it. Antibiotics for instance would actually kill any bacteria in your tank just like they doin our bodies.