Final result of Al's fishless cycling idea

[Disgirl]

Sounds good Joan! Glad to hear your fish are doing well, mine too!
Barb

[joanr]

Sounds good Joan! Glad to hear your fish are doing well, mine too!
Barb

That's great Barb, let us know when you try the fish emulsion. I've run into a few threads on some other tropical forums where folks are using the Rid-X stuff to cycle. I was only joking about that! I'll search some more and see if I can find some more convincing data. Right now it's just a few snips about " I know a guy that cycles with Rid-X", but no hard data or methodology. I guess the first thing would be to read the list of ingredients. I don't think it would have the ammo, but maybe it would be useful to speed the nitrite part of the cycle.

[Disgirl]

Joan, is Rid-X the stuff people pour down the drain when they have a septic tank to "grow good bacteria" to get things going in the septic tank?
Barb

[joanr]

Yes it is! Also a brand called Septic-X. All bacteria that munch waste. I'm going to follow up when I learn more about using this stuff for cycling tanks. Sounds like another experiment is in the works...lol.

[Disgirl]

OK you do Rid-x and I will do the fish emulsion fert! I am up for yet another experiment! I start it tomorrow, 20 gal tank and large sponge, water, nothing else except a tsp of the FE, as it is called by gardeners.
Barb

[joanr]

OK you do Rid-x and I will do the fish emulsion fert! I am up for yet another experiment! I start it tomorrow, 20 gal tank and large sponge, water, nothing else except a tsp of the FE, as it is called by gardeners.
Barb

There's just something icky about using Rid-X, can't imagine why....lol. But it would be far cheaper than the bottles of Safestart, but don't know yet if it has the right type of bacteria for our purposes. If anything it would be a cycle booster, not a cycle starter like the MG or pure ammo.

[Matt in Houston]

24-8-16 miracle grow dosed last night...2 heaping tbl spoons in a 210 gallon tank gave me ~3 ppm ammonia this morning.

Filtration is an Eheim 2180 @ 85 degrees f. May hook up the cpr cr3000 wet/dry tonight as well.

I also added a few floating plants from an established tank. I will update as things progress!

[Disgirl]

Good luck Matt. Just be sure to keep an eye on the nitrates when they start to go way up. When mine got over 100, before a big wc, my plants melted. That was the cabomba. Java moss, the only other plant I had was fine though. Keep posting about your results!
Barb

[joanr]

24-8-16 miracle grow dosed last night...2 heaping tablespoons in a 210 gallon tank gave me ~3 ppm ammonia this morning.

Filtration is an Eheim 2180 @ 85 degrees f. May hook up the cpr cr3000 wet/dry tonight as well.

I also added a few floating plants from an established tank. I will update as things progress!

Matt, that's the formula mix I used, and it did take longer than the 15-30-15 mix. Just don't add any more MG or you will get a real long Nitrite stage. I think that when the Nitrites show up instead of waiting out the cycle a bottle of Turbo 700 or SafeStart could be added at that point to speed things along. Are you the Matt that did the Watermelon paint job on your tank? If so, did you post pics of that color yet?

[joanr]

Good luck Matt. Just be sure to keep an eye on the nitrates when they start to go way up. When mine got over 100, before a big wc, my plants melted. That was the cabomba. Java moss, the only other plant I had was fine though. Keep posting about your results!
Barb

Barb, I don't think he will see as much Nitrate as you did, different phosphate amount in the mixes, after dumping way too much of the 24-8-16 into my 50 gal, Nitrates were still always at a minimum and now after completion they are hanging in there at about 5-7 ppm.

[Disgirl]

Yes, I see what you mean Joan, about the Nitrates. Thanks for the info.
Barb

[Matt in Houston]

Matt, that's the formula mix I used, and it did take longer than the 15-30-15 mix. Just don't add any more MG or you will get a real long Nitrite stage. I think that when the Nitrites show up instead of waiting out the cycle a bottle of Turbo 700 or SafeStart could be added at that point to speed things along. Are you the Matt that did the Watermelon paint job on your tank? If so, did you post pics of that color yet?

Sounds good thanks for the info...


Yes my tank is watermelon now....I love it. I have been busy plumbing in filters but when I get home from work tonight I will take the time to post some pics.

[joanr]

Thanks, looking forward to seeing that color, haven't decided what color to use on my 55gal yet, depends on what strains I end up ordering next month.

[Eddie]

Well, thought the cycle might have been complete but instead, the ammonia is reading zero and the nitrites are reading OFF the charts high. I did a water change so we'll see in a few days. It will be interesting to see how the cycled filters handle the load I put on them in the long run.

Eddie

[joanr]

Well, thought the cycle might have been complete but instead, the ammonia is reading zero and the nitrites are reading OFF the charts high. I did a water change so we'll see in a few days. It will be interesting to see how the cycled filters handle the load I put on them in the long run.

Eddie

W/C's didn't help much with my 50 gal, Nitrites would go down for a day or so and then spike back up. I threw in a bottle of Stability over a week's time and the tank finally cycled, all params holding steady for 5 days now, no high Nitrates, got about 15 various tetras in there now. I think we just added too much MG formula. But you've got wrigglers! How cool is that! Any luck with the Blue pair yet?

All, still can't find much about using the Rid-X. Only one post that says to put a cup of the stuff in 1 gal of de-clorinated water, mix well, let the solids drop to bottom and pour the liquid into tank. I'm going to try it one of these days, just not on the tank I'm going to cycle for my future Discus.