brianp;3768732; said:
what about just using carbon? i have a few socks full of carbon kicking around in my stand .. any good to use them and if so where? in sthe w/d?
Cycling questions
- Thread starter Acura_RSX
- Start date
what about just using carbon? i have a few socks full of carbon kicking around in my stand .. any good to use them and if so where? in sthe w/d?
If you use pure carbon in the form of activated charcoal (from what i presume) that can help take out chemical impurities out of the water, but will not help seed your tank. Using Ethanol or cane sugar will feed the bacteria directly as it can be free to disperse in the water and can be sucked through the filter to feed the bacteria in there. The carbon you describe, is generally used just for chemical filtration.
Jake
Jake
Jaketownsend36;3768960; said:
makes sence. by ethonol you mean alcohal? would it have to be like moonshine straight or is say 40% liqour .. like lambs. is that bad to use?
Well, i've used Vodka with a percentage of 40%. That is what many people in England use. Try 5ml of Vodka per gallon of tankwater. Obviously sugar can dissolve into the water, so the molecules of sugar can be digested easily by the bacteria. This is why alcohol is also used. Try the vodka and reply with your results.
Jaketownsend36;3772106; said:
okay. as of right now the tank has been set up and running for 3 days .. i added my 10 inch oscar again yesterday .. and did a 50% water change right away when he got added. he seems happy. he ate etc. (hes going to pet store when i pick up my stock list though) anyways .. whats my next step now. already doing a fish cycle apparently so .. should i add the vodka now and take back the second oscar to start it all faster or??
You said you could borrow some Oscars to cycle your tank.Rather than doing that,just borrow some filter media from whoever has the fish.Put that media in your filter,and start stocking your tank.Just do not add all the fish at once,and keep a eye on the parameters. Using borrowed media is the fastest and easiest way to cycle.
Fishbum is right. Using borrowed media will work. Also, remember not to was media under tap water, as the chlorine and heavy metals WILL kill filter bacteria, rendering it useless. I do not like people doing fish cycles, as i explained earlier. Take the fish back. You dont need to use it. You can seed tanks just as fast without fish, leaving out unneccessary stress and death. Use vodka when ever you want; it will be too dilute to harm the fish.
thanks guys .. and the fish isn't borrowed it was my fish .. both oscars were mine for the past year and a half. i gave them away to two different friends who both just got new tanks for xmas and are going with different set-ups so didnt want the oscars anymore .. i took them back for this. they are both already in the tank. so using them anyways. main reason is because between 5 courses at school working around temporarily running a company for another 2 weeks .. theres no way i could go about adding ammonia and doing tests that often .. every second day i probably wont be home. or for a few days in a row. if oscar will take care of it for me then thats much easier for me. number one has been in there for over a day now .. hes swimming content. already eaten twice .. so this is the situation im in. im doing it with the oscars just need to know where to go next .. just simply wait .. keep feeding them and let them do everything themselves besides w/c's?
If you don't have time to add liquid ammonia,how are you going to do what will probably be daily water changes to keep the Oscars alive until the tank cycles?
