mandi29221
Active Member
How do you cycle your tank. Apparently I'm doing it wrong help please. I used this bottle. And I need to buy ammonia chloride. Will my bacteria I already added in be dead in 2 days?
Cycling
- Thread starter mandi29221
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Brew12
Electrical Gru
Nah, those bacteria can survive in the bottle for over a year. A few months in the tank without food won't hurt them at all, they just won't reproduce.How do you cycle your tank. Apparently I'm doing it wrong help please. I used this bottle. And I need to buy ammonia chloride. Will my bacteria I already added in be dead in 2 days?
I put this together awhile ago about cycling aquariums. Hopefully you will find it useful.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/cycling-an-aquarium.303/
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mandi29221
Active Member
So I don't need to add ammonia chloride?
Brew12
Electrical Gru
I like to add the ammonia chloride to make sure that the bacteria I added was healthy in the bottle. It is a very good verification step to make sure you didn't get a bad batch of bacteria. It will also act as food to start getting the bacteria reproducing as an added benefit.
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mandi29221
Active Member
Good thing I ordered it
Brew12
Electrical Gru
Yup! Its a nice thing to have. Do you have an API ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kit?
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mandi29221
Active Member
Yes I do plus the reef test kit. I know it's the cheapest of the tests but it was my budget
Brew12
Electrical Gru
I know API gets a bad rap, but I like their test kits for cycling a tank. Cheap and easy.
What I recommend is to dose enough ammonia chloride to get your tank up to 2ppm. Test ammonia after you add it to make sure you know what the level actually is. Most people overdose the ammonia because they overestimate their tank volume. For instance, my 187g tank actually holds under 170g of water so keep that in mind.
24 hours after you add the ammonia chloride test ammonia again. If it has gone down but still not 0ppm go ahead and test nitrites. If it hasn't gone down just wait a day and test ammonia again. Its really an easy process but even with Biospira can still take patience.
And keep asking questions!
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mandi29221
Active Member
I appreciate your advice I truly do. I had a 55g in 2011 till 2014 but my uncle set up my entire tank n did everything til I learned. I had a very basic tank canister filter etc. So I'm basically a beginner
Brew12
Electrical Gru
Everyone starts as a beginner!
I'm not very experienced myself, I'm just a book nerd. You've had aquariums longer than I have!
I also use both when cycling a tank. I just test once a week to save on test kit supplies. I wait until I see brown diatoms starting and then add a few snails. I never cycle with fish. Good luck, Mandi, with your new tank! Be patient. It will cycle.
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