Suggestions for proprietary cycle starter

[Paul Sabucchi]

If local stores fail...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kleen-Off-5...ews/B00755MEMA

[MickO'S]

Ok well that’s a a difficulty 😂

No pure ammonia to be got in little Ireland ! Even the pharmacy does not have a listing for it with any of his suppliers! Rang the local hardware store and a few of the larger ones and none had it!
Even one or two very suspicious sales people 😂 can it be used for anything else I don’t know about??😂😂😱
Mick

[MickO'S]

Paul as always you are way ahead of me solving my problems before I even knew I had them 😂😂
Mick

[MickO'S]

[QUOTE=JamesW;1296226]I can second the API master test kit and if you are messing with RO/Tap mixtures you probably want to pay attention to GH/KH so the API GH/KH test kit is useful as well as a TDS meter.

I have an in line tds meter on my ro unit so will use that as a Td’s check, great idea 💡 thanks mate.

I’ll get the api test kit and go with that so

Mick

[Paul Sabucchi]

Been there, done it and all the rest...

[MickO'S]

I got that ammonia from Amazon, should be here by Monday and I can start dosing!

I assume I still go with the cycle starter ??

Mick

[Paul Sabucchi]

Absolutely, adding bacteria should shorten the time it takes to cycle. You may have some milkyness developing as the bacteria initially multiply. I normally dose the ammonia quite heavy aiming for about 4 mg/l, keep it there untill nitrites start to climb steadily then I dial it back to about 2 mg/l untill the nitrites too disappear overnight, I may then bump it up again and finally do a next to complete water change one or two days before the fish go in

[Paul Sabucchi]

Forgot to say, if you are going to have plants in the sump you might as well go for really fast growing plants, either floating (like water lettuce -Pistia- or water hyacinth -Eichhornia- if you can still get them with the new EU ban on potentially invasive plants) or emergent (I only have the outdoor ones for my tub-ponds, water mint grows prodigiously, smells as advertised and goes well with Sunday lamb roast, I also have bogbean and marsh marigold). The faster they grow the quicker they are removing waste substances from the water, making the most of the CO2 and light that are more abundant above the surface. Just give them a good haircut as they grow. All the above emergent plants will do well planted in a basket with no soil, just plain media like alfagrog or similar (so you are actually putting more biomedia in)