Help Tank won't Cycle

[printerrob]

And I agree that there is prob more than enough bacteria in the tank it's just over loaded with ammonia

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Ammonia can be of any source.
Pure ammonia is very common way and the most accurate to control.

I've done all my tanks with pure ammonia.

Especially if using bottle bacteria.

+1. I used pure ammonia to cycle my tank. The only problem was getting nitrates down once it cycled. Took 7 water changes but did the job

 

[Pete polyp]

+1. I used pure ammonia to cycle my tank. The only problem was getting nitrates down once it cycled. Took 7 water changes but did the job

That's because it hasn't started processing nitrate. Tanks actually go through 4 cycles.... protein to ammonia, ammonia to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate and finally nitrate into nitrogen and oxygen where it is expelled into the atmosphere.

When we refer to "cycling" we generally refer to the first step of the process which is breaking down ammonia. It takes more time for the entire process to cycle, sometimes several months.

 

[saltyphish]

Definitely do some water changes.

 

[Pimentinha1987]

The myth of using water from other tanks came simply as an extra source of revenue to people doing maintenance and LFS IMO.

It's very easy to fool someone and make them spend some extra $$$ to buy "cycled" water as most of the new people entering the hobby have no clue whatsoever about tank chemistry and how things actually work.
I'm sure the majority of us would have dropped the extra $40 or $50 when we started the hobby just to avoid those ****** weeks of waiting around to drop our nemos in the tank.
And what's the best way to do a big water change in one's tanks with free water and free salt? You know it, just sell the water you were going to throw out regardless and make a few bucks out of it...

 

[printerrob]

The myth of using water from other tanks came simply as an extra source of revenue to people doing maintenance and LFS IMO.

It's very easy to fool someone and make them spend some extra $$$ to buy "cycled" water as most of the new people entering the hobby have no clue whatsoever about tank chemistry and how things actually work.
I'm sure the majority of us would have dropped the extra $40 or $50 when we started the hobby just to avoid those ****** weeks of waiting around to drop our nemos in the tank.
And what's the best way to do a big water change in one's tanks with free water and free salt? You know it, just sell the water you were going to throw out regardless and make a few bucks out of it...

Never heard of LFS selling so called "Cycled water" Id kill myself before ever thinking about buying "cycled water" from the LFS here. Every week i go in just to look at the fish and they all have white spots on them and one time the fish looked like they had marine velvet. I tried telling them they need to stop selling the fish and treat them but they don't. and this is at 4 stores.

 

[Pimentinha1987]

Maybe not so much LFS but around here it's very common for maintenance guys to sell their water.
And when I tell them the water won't do much of anything they just don't care because they are offsetting the cost of water changes in their systems with newbies cash...