| Coming from the old school of aquarium keeping I | | | | days the second time for ammonia to fall to zero, |
| had never tried cycling a tnk with ammonia so a | | | | so it looked as though my bacteria were busy |
| new tank gave me agreat opportunity to try this | | | | multiplying. I Repeated the process on day eleven |
| out with great results | | | | only to find that on day twelve the ammonia |
| It seemed quite logical to me. Rather than putting | | | | levels were back to zero and now I had a Nitrite |
| fish food or a frozen prawn into the water as I | | | | spike. This time I simply fed my new colony of |
| had done in teh past why not short circuit the | | | | ammonia loving bacteria with six drops of |
| first step by just adding Ammonia rather than | | | | ammonia and added some more starter bacteria. |
| waiting for things to start decomposing. The main | | | | The next day both ammonia and nitrite levels |
| question was how much household ammonia to | | | | were back to zero. My nitrates were now high so |
| add. Back to the internet and it was suggested | | | | I did a forty percent water change to bring them |
| that 4 ppm was sufficient to replicate the amount | | | | down. Now I was almost ready for the fish. I put |
| of waste that a tank full of fish would produce in | | | | a carbon filter in my filter just to remove any |
| a day | | | | chemicals from the water and let it run overnight |
| So I added a teaspoon of ammonia to my forty | | | | Day fourteen I was ready for my fish and no |
| gallon tank, checked the ammonia levels and then | | | | messing about with adding a few at a time. Within |
| added about another half teaspoon to bring it up | | | | four days I had added twenty six fish, probably |
| to 4 ppm. To my way of thinking, now that the | | | | about thirty inches of fish. No ammonia or nitrite |
| ammonia was present it was ok to add some | | | | spikes followed and my nitrates are staying low |
| starter bacteria. They would have plenty to eat | | | | Do note that my tank is a heavily planted tank |
| and could start colonising the bio-filter | | | | which does have some bearing on nitrate levels |
| Seven days later my ammonia levels were back | | | | but by setting ammonia levels at 4 ppm you can |
| to zero, so I repeated the whole process adding | | | | quickly establish a bio filter that can cope with the |
| more ammonia and starter bacteria. It took four | | | | equivalent of a fully populated tank in two weeks. |