Egg Yolk?

[Peter McFarlane]

Hey People,

I've been cycling my new tank and as a noob, obviously I'm talking to as many people who keep fish as possible, to learn as much as I can. Obviously you hear some things that sound like great idea's, and then of course some that seem a bit whacky...

So this guy tell's me when cycling, forget all you read about this product of that product, he said... boil up a regular egg, get the egg yolk, take like a quarter of the yolk and crumble it into your tank.

He said leave it for 3-4 days, and your tank is ready for fish.... Now call me a cynic of whatever, but seriously can this be so?

I been reading up online about this (or trying to) and I see lots of people feed egg yolks to their fish, so I'm guessing it can't do any harm... But can it really help the cycle that much?

 

[ziggy2]

You need ammonia to build your BB. I have never heard that one, but who knows.

 

[Mr Cracker2u]

Can't see how that would speed up cycling. Any beneficial bacteria an egg might have in it would be killed by boiling it. They would break down and creat amonia as would any other organic material you put in. Only pluss I can think of using egg yolks would be $ after all you can get a dozen for under a buck.

 

[Alistriwen]

I think it would work fine as a cycling element but 4 days is a bit extreme.

 

[Blaker]

Egg yolk would work as would anything organic rotting in the water creating ammonia. But would take several weeks to cycle like anything organic would.

I used melon peels to cycle my big tank.

 

[guppy]

This could work, just like the people who use dead shrimp as an ammonia source.
The egg yolk is an excellent media for initial bacterial growth, the first bacteria that will feed on it are not ammonia reducers, they actually produce ammonia as a by product of feeding, this feeds the BB. Give it more than 3 days though, use your test kit.

 

[jd300]

you hear all sorts of weird advice, thats a first for me