Ghost Feeding for cycling

Marylynn11 · Mar 9, 2021

After some research I decided I'm going to try ghost feeding to cycle my tank. So far I used Dr. Tim's one and only and ran for 48 hours before putting filter media in and now I am ready to start ghost feeding to get some ammonia in there. How much should I be feeding the tank, any suggestions on what I should be using to feed? How many days do I feed? This is my first time trying this method of cycling.
Thanks!

Reef. · Mar 9, 2021

Raw shrimp, leave in until it starts to rot, if using fish food a little pinch 2 times a week....why you would go that route when buying a bottle of Dr Tim’s ammonia is so much easier, you will know exactly how much ammonia is in there, and you can also do an ammonia test after the cycle to check the bacteria is clearing the ammonia within a short space of time, with food you will find it a guessing game.

Azedenkae · Mar 9, 2021

Marylynn11 said:
After some research I decided I'm going to try ghost feeding to cycle my tank. So far I used Dr. Tim's one and only and ran for 48 hours before putting filter media in and now I am ready to start ghost feeding to get some ammonia in there. How much should I be feeding the tank, any suggestions on what I should be using to feed? How many days do I feed? This is my first time trying this method of cycling.
Thanks!

I used to do this method, until I found pure ammonia just works way better with it being much more controlled and easier to get to levels needed.

With that said, if you want to go on with the ghost feeding, the idea is to feed exactly as if there is fish in the tank. So whatever amount you plan to feed, however many times a day, and however many days a week or whatever you would end up feeding. If your beneficial microbes can handle that amount of food in the tank, then you are set.

The issues is that food may not start to decompose until a few days, and once it starts to decompose, it can also stack up with a lot of food decomposing at once and not yielding the amount of ammonia one would expect daily. You might also get food stuck in different crevices and so on, which can continuously leech out ammonia over a period of time, again impacting the numbers. Processing of food just floating or lying around in the tank is also quite different from how it could be digested by fish or other inhabitants prior to being released and ammonification occurs and so on. Just a few things you'd need to consider when ghostfeeding.

Good luck though. Despite what I said, everyone has their preferences, and if you really want to ghostfeed then yeah, go ahead.

Marylynn11 · Mar 9, 2021

Azedenkae said:
I used to do this method, until I found pure ammonia just works way better with it being much more controlled and easier to get to levels needed.

With that said, if you want to go on with the ghost feeding, the idea is to feed exactly as if there is fish in the tank. So whatever amount you plan to feed, however many times a day, and however many days a week or whatever you would end up feeding. If your beneficial microbes can handle that amount of food in the tank, then you are set.

The issues is that food may not start to decompose until a few days, and once it starts to decompose, it can also stack up with a lot of food decomposing at once and not yielding the amount of ammonia one would expect daily. You might also get food stuck in different crevices and so on, which can continuously leech out ammonia over a period of time, again impacting the numbers. Processing of food just floating or lying around in the tank is also quite different from how it could be digested by fish or other inhabitants prior to being released and ammonification occurs and so on. Just a few things you'd need to consider when ghostfeeding.

Good luck though. Despite what I said, everyone has their preferences, and if you really want to ghostfeed then yeah, go ahead.

Thanks, I think I'm gonna go ahead and order some ammonia so I can have more control.

JCTReefer · Mar 9, 2021

Agree with the above. Ammonium Chloride is much better for precise dosing. That way you know exactly what you’re putting in there. And when you’re finished with the cycle you can make sure your tank is digesting 2ppm in a 24 hour period. By dosing precisely you can also predict how much nitrate you will have at the end of your cycle.