Cycling a tank on vacation!???

Question

Hi!

My tank is done cycling but before i get fish i have to keep putting in small amounts of ammonia everyday until i put fish in. I am going on a 5 day vacation though tomorrow and i do not want to hire anybody to come over. What is a good way to keep the ammonia going in without people coming over and doing it? Would a vacation feeder thing work even tho there is no fish?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think you are misunderstanding the concept. It is to build up ammonia and biological bacteria meaning friendly bacteria. Ammonia is the biggest problem of having a fishtank. I hope you have lots of plants, because this si the process. Fish eats and then poops and turn into ammonia. p**p is ammonia. It turns ino nitrate and plants consume. Fish eats plant and process happens over. If you let food decay you will have parasites. Ammonia is the food of algae. Please buy yourself if you do not already have one, a biological filter, friendly bacteria and lots of plants. Plants compete for ammonia against algae and plants are stronger so they do win. Please do this. Your tank may be in great danger.  

Answer 2

I'm not sure exactly what the other person is saying, but you are correct in that the beneficial bacteria needs to have a constant ammonia source, so you do need to continue to have ammonia in the tank until you get some fish.

Get yourself a frozen cocktail shrimp or two(have to buy a package), put one or two in a mesh filter media bag, or in a pair of nylons/pantyhose with the leg cut off, and knot it closed.  Toss that in, and that should work fine as an ammonia source.

Another option is to add a bunch of fish food to the tank.  I don't know how long that would take though to convert to ammona.  Think the shrimp method is quicker though.

Answer 3

A vacation feeder is just a bunch of fish food held together with gel or plast er of paris.  It relies on fish nibbling at it to release the food.  You'd be better off to just toss in an algae wafer or a cocktail shrimp or piece of frozen fish and let that rot in the tank slowly over the 5 days you are gone.  You might want to put it in the tank in a net bag or something so you can fish out the (probably gross) remains when you get back.