Keeping bio load active.

[Dennis The Mennis]

I am going to make a bunch of last minute changes to my tank before my fish arrive. I want to keep my bio load up while this happens. Can I just run my canisters in a small little ten gallon tub with a bunch of fish food? Will the food be enough to keep my bio load going for a week or two until my new fish arrive? Any ideas on how to keep my bio load cycled and still make my changes?

[MPETERS]

Hi,

I think you can keep your filters in the tank with a pinch or two of fish food and that will be enough to keep the Bio Up even with the water changes.

Mike

[DerekFF]

Fish food, ammonia, chunk of lunch meat. Whatever makes you feel lucky

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[jimg]

I use ace hardware ammonia at 1ppm each day.

[Dennis The Mennis]

I use ace hardware ammonia at 1ppm each day.Can you help me out with the 1ppm? How much would that be per gallon?

[jimg]

Can you help me out with the 1ppm? How much would that be per gallon?

Honestly i don't know!
I just trickle by eye, maybe less than a 1/4 tsp per 30 gallons until the vial with api ammonia liquid test shows light green.
just add a few drops at time until you get 1ppm max. the test kit will tell you how many ppm you have according to color. not a precise thing, some people do 4-5ppm I found less does the same with shorter nitrite to nitrate span.
If you want I can measure tomorrow I have a tank cycling now.

i add ammonia at night then next night there should be no reading. then I re-dose, if you see ammonia on the test after 24 hrs then add less. usually it's gone in 24 hrs

[Jhhnn]

Just using some fish food is the safe answer. Too much ammonia will kill the filter. With a well seasoned filter, you probably don't even need to do anything. Some of the bacteria will die off, provide food for the others, maintaining the cycle at a slowly decreasing level. It's a situation where you don't want to clean the filter- leave it dirty so the bacteria have something to eat.

[Sean Buehrle]

Get a ammo test kit and put a tablespoon of ammo in the tank.

Test for ammo and add more ammo till you get 1 ppm.

Add 1 ppm once a week, it's plenty to keep a filter seeded.

[afriend]

Can you help me out with the 1ppm? How much would that be per gallon?

Dennis,

I had the same question you have about 3 years ago, so I performed a test and recorded the results in my notebook. One teaspoon per 12 gallon raised my ammonia level to 1 ppm. The method I used is the same as Sean, add ammonia and measure until I got 1 ppm. I also determined that ammonia levels up to 5 ppm did not harm the biofilter, it will just take longer for the existing bacteria to process it.

Having said that, your results may vary depending on the strength of the ammonia that you obtain.

As far as using fish food or anything else, I would suggest using the ammonia because fish food will add contaminates other than ammonia to the water. Ammonia levels are easy to measure and control whereas the other contaminates are not. Another advantage of using the ammonia method is that you can tell how well your biofilter is working by measuring the ammonia level. The biofilter that I cycled using this method processed 1 ppm per day before I placed 6 adult discus in a 75 gallon tank. (By processed here, I mean that after 24 hours the ammonia and nitrite level were zero.) After introducing the fish I measured ammonia and nitrite levels and found that they remained at zero.

Hope this is helpful.

Paul

[jimg]

Dennis,

I had the same question you have about 3 years ago, so I performed a test and recorded the results in my notebook. One teaspoon per 12 gallon raised my ammonia level to 1 ppm. The method I used is the same as Sean, add ammonia and measure until I got 1 ppm. I also determined that ammonia levels up to 5 ppm did not harm the biofilter, it will just take longer for the existing bacteria to process it.

Having said that, your results may vary depending on the strength of the ammonia that you obtain.

As far as using fish food or anything else, I would suggest using the ammonia because fish food will add contaminates other than ammonia to the water. Ammonia levels are easy to measure and control whereas the other contaminates are not. Another advantage of using the ammonia method is that you can tell how well your biofilter is working by measuring the ammonia level. The biofilter that I cycled using this method processed 1 ppm per day before I placed 6 adult discus in a 75 gallon tank. (By processed here, I mean that after 24 hours the ammonia and nitrite level were zero.) After introducing the fish I measured ammonia and nitrite levels and found that they remained at zero.

Hope this is helpful.

Paul+1
food will pollute the water. big bacterial die offs can neg effect the living bio. ammonia is easy to monitor. all you want to do is feed it lightly to keep it alive. the ammonia I use a tsp in 12 would be way too much. a little at a time until you see what you want with your tank/filter size and water.

[afriend]

Jim,

The amount of ammonia added to get to 1ppm will depend on the strength of what is in the bottle that you buy. I looked at the stuff I got and it does not tell me the percentage of ammonia in the bottle. I agree with your approach, add until you get to the level you want.

Also, I really don't know if 1 ppm is too much or too little. Maybe 0.25 ppm will establish a biofilter that will support 6 adult discus in a 75 gallon tank, I really don't know. What I do know is that my biofilter would process 1 ppm per 24 hours and that amount of processing allowed me to place 6 adult discus in it without any ammonia or nitrite spike.

I think that the best reason for using ammonia is that it allows for a quanitive measurement of the ability of the biofilter to process ammonia and nitrite before the fish are introduced.

[jimg]

Jim,

The amount of ammonia added to get to 1ppm will depend on the strength of what is in the bottle that you buy. I looked at the stuff I got and it does not tell me the percentage of ammonia in the bottle. I agree with your approach, add until you get to the level you want.

Also, I really don't know if 1 ppm is too much or too little. Maybe 0.25 ppm will establish a biofilter that will support 6 adult discus in a 75 gallon tank, I really don't know. What I do know is that my biofilter would process 1 ppm per 24 hours and that amount of processing allowed me to place 6 adult discus in it without any ammonia or nitrite spike.

I think that the best reason for using ammonia is that it allows for a quanitive measurement of the ability of the biofilter to process ammonia and nitrite before the fish are introduced.

I have done it that way( 1ppm sometimes .5) either fish less cycle or keeping filters active many times with good results so if it works I keep doing it! I use the industrial strength ace hardware don't know %

[Stag]

For the record Peeing in your tank will not work :D

[pcsb23]

Using pure ammonia is by far the safest method.