Fishless cycling whilst away

1550 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Mcdaphnia, Jun 6, 2008

dougie175

Discussion Starter · Jun 6, 2008

I have just finished setting up my new 500 litre aquarium with ocean rock and such.

As I am setting up another male on tank I want to fishless cycle the tank so I can then add all the fish at the same time.

The problem is Im going away now for 5 weeks and no one can get to the tank to add ammonia each day.

Is there another process that will work just as well and cycle the tank for me whilst I am not present, I read about using prawns in a stocking?

Basically I need a method to let the tank cycle itself ready for a heavy load, please can someone explain the best way to go about doing this?

I have quite a few other tanks to be able to take some established media from to help kick start the process, but I need the tank capable of taking alot of fish once the cycle is complete.

Cheers

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remarkosmoc

· #2 · Jun 6, 2008

This isn't politically correct for the animal rights folks but you could put some feeders in there with an auto feeder (set way low). You will likely have a few die and become ammonia themselves. Please don't flame me I know this isn't optimal, its just one way to do it.

There are some devices that can be used to add a few drops of anything on a daily basis, but probably not worth the cost.

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travis2k

· #3 · Jun 6, 2008

Food rots and produces amonnia right?
Couldn' you add amonia to start(maybe a small amount of food)
and have an auto feed add food, which will rot over time, releasing amonnia.

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Mcdaphnia

· #4 · Jun 6, 2008

travis2k said:
Food rots and produces amonnia right?
Couldn' you add amonia to start(maybe a small amount of food)
and have an auto feed add food, which will rot over time, releasing amonnia.

How about adding a turtle, which will periodically and dependably contribute ammonia to the tank water? If the tank contains decorations or equipment the turtle can destroy or use to climb out of the tank, go back to Plan A the automatic fish food feeder. There are also dosers popular with reef people for adding trace elements that you could use to dose ammonia at any rate you desire. In fact some can be tied in with electronic test devices that can monitor the ammonia and the doser will maintain it at the level you choose. Some can even call you and let you know what is happening and ask for new instructions.

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