Going fishless...

[gm72]

...and strangely nervous about the whole process. Ridiculous, yes. I have read all of the information I can find and am finding that I have to add a LOT more ammonia to the water to hit 5ppm (the sticky on this website suggests 5 drops per 20 gallons of water), but I am having to add more like 20 to my 40 gallon tank. Brand new test kit (jungle brand strips), plain old clear ammonia from the store. Heavily seeded the tank also, temp running at about 82 to encourage bacteria growth. Day 2. Am I doing something wrong?

[Chrona]

...and strangely nervous about the whole process. Ridiculous, yes. I have read all of the information I can find and am finding that I have to add a LOT more ammonia to the water to hit 5ppm (the sticky on this website suggests 5 drops per 20 gallons of water), but I am having to add more like 20 to my 40 gallon tank. Brand new test kit (jungle brand strips), plain old clear ammonia from the store. Heavily seeded the tank also, temp running at about 82 to encourage bacteria growth. Day 2. Am I doing something wrong?

Don't worry about it, the 5 ppm is a very rough guideline. Bacteria will grow fine unless your a ridiculous amount of it in there, in which case you'll know something is wrong from the next room over ;) Besides, there appears to be varying concentrations of ammonia sold, and personally I think 5 drops (1/4 mL) for a 20g tank is unrealistic.

[gm72]

(sighs of relief) Thanks!

[jessie]

I used about a teaspoon a day of pure ammonia until I saw a drastic nitrite spike. Then I dropped it down to half a teaspoon a day. I used some media from my filter in my other aquarium. The whole process took about 2 weeks.

[gm72]

I ended up using 20-25 drops for the 40 gallon. Will continue onward!

[kimmers318]

Since you said you seeded your tank you already have live bacteria in there to eat up the ammonia you are adding. Until you get to a point where you are adding way more than what the current bacteria cultures can handle you won't see ammonia readings. What all did you use to seed the tank? How long ago did you seed it? If you are adding large amounts of ammonia and it is quickly being used up you may not need to really cycle, but doing it with the ammonia and the boost of bacteria from your seeding will ensure that you have a nice large bacterial colony that should be able to handle a fully stocked load when you are done.

[gm72]

Seeded at the time I first added water and, subsequently, the first round of ammonia. I used two sponge prefilters from my canisters, media (ehfisubstrat pro) from one of the canisters, and a few ornaments from well established tanks.

[kimmers318]

Are you seeing nitrite readings yet? I would have to say if you add a load of ammonia and then see a nitrite reading quite soon, you probably have plenty of bacteria. Since you already started with the ammonia and fishless cycling continue on as you are. I am going to guess that you will see nitrites quite quickly and you can cut the ammonia in half and when you see no nitrites and high nitrates be ready for your water change and fish!!!

[gm72]

I'll keep monitoring the situation. Thanks for all of the input!