Fastest way to cycle a tank?

[teeneythebetta]

Okay. Your tank looks nice BTW. beautiful fish. Thanks.

[teeneythebetta]

I actually already purchased ammonia on our way home. We went to a water park kinda far away and there was an ace hardware there!!

I put some in and just measured ammonia. It's at around 4 ppm. Yay! It's nice to know it is going to Start to cycle :D

How much ammonia should I add daily? Should I try to maintain the 4 ppm.. A drip or two per day??

[MSG]

I have an idea how you can speed it up. I use transfer pipet which looks like mini baster, but these are typically used in laboratories for experiments. I have a couple dozen of these I use this for removing the yuckies.

If you do that with a turkey baster, and deposit it directly into the filter chamber, that will help boost your ammonia NATURALLY.

I'm not sure if adding fish flakes to the filter would do the same.


Anyone reading this know the answer?

Wasn't planning to get another betta, but they were nice enough to swap out the blue with clear water so can see the actual colors & I decided to get the little one.

After she calmed down, she displayed purple scales but the camera wouldn't pick up that color. Overall her coloration reminds me of rainbow sherbet.

[MSG]

I'm not sure, but I think 5-6 ppm is good. That's what my guppy tank was reading for at least 3-4 days. I did 50% changes when I noticed the readings that high. Used the siphoned water to feed the trees/etc.... It was HOT that week, in the high 90's with no rain.

I've NEVER seen the ammonia results that high EVER. But the guppies didn't seem that stressed.

Check out those 2 links, it's pretty thorough.

BTW, what brand test kit are you using for checking the progress of the cycle?

[teeneythebetta]

I use the API master kit.

[RainbowSocks]

Originally Posted by teeneythebetta

I actually already purchased ammonia on our way home. We went to a water park kinda far away and there was an ace hardware there!!

I put some in and just measured ammonia. It's at around 4 ppm. Yay! It's nice to know it is going to Start to cycle :D

How much ammonia should I add daily? Should I try to maintain the 4 ppm.. A drip or two per day??

When I used Ace's janitorial strength ammonia to cycle my 10 gallon, 7 big drops (I was using the end of a pencil at the time--cheap, I know lol) increased the ammonia by 2ppm. You want to maintain the 4-5ppm of ammonia to feed your bacteria. The amount you'll need to add daily depends on how much your BB has grown, just test the ammonia level and add as much as you need to.

[teeneythebetta]

Forgot to mention, yes I have a heater in the 10 an I cranked the temp up to 86.

@rainbowsocks

Thanks so much!

[xShainax]

I used nite out II microbe lift

[teeneythebetta]

Originally Posted by xShainax

I used nite out II microbe lift

I put some tetra safe start in (before removing Teeney I was attempting this fish-in)
Does it have the same concept?

[xShainax]

I have no idea, all I know is it saved my tank after I started to get an ammonia spike