re establishing 120gal tank

[Cichlidsid]

I am in the long drawn out process of setting up my tank from the very beginning. My original tank had a seal go bad & yes it made a terrible mess.
Would I be wise to not thoroughly clean all of my gravel to help maintain some bacteria. Everything else going in the tank has been bleach/rinse/dried at this point.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Newman]

rinse your gravel well. you'll be establishing new bacteria anyway. try using someone's used filter media to speed it up. otherwise do a fishless cycle.

 

[Cichlidsid]

Guess that means at this point in the game I will be needing to do te fishless cycle. What are the best ways to accomplish that step. It's simply been ages since I've had to start from ground zero.
Again thanks for any input.

 

[Newman]

read online. i believe the best method is to just go buy a bottle of ammonia (with no additives). you can get them at hardware stores but make sure there are no soaps or other chemicals which would actually just kill your fish or your entire tank.

then add a bunch of ammonia until your tank gets a reading of 5ppm or slightly less and let the games begin.
test each week until ammonia starts to decrease. at that point add more ammonia to bump it up around 3,4,or5ppm.
nitrites should increase so be testing those. every 3 days add ammonia if it goes down and your goal is to get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites while you are still adding a little ammonia daily.

at that point check nitrates, do a large water change to reduce them, add a little more ammonia that day. next day test and see if its 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and less than 40ppm nitrates. if so then go get your fish that day. start with fish proportional to how much ammonia you are adding each day.
See how those do. if they all die then something went wrong. make sure to start with hardy fish hey recommend for cycling tanks first. those shouldn't die and should be your foundation for building the biological filter (the ammonia at the start was the real foundation though.)

 

[FreshyFresh]

Having been through the fishless cycle by adding household ammonia process, I would only do it again if I had absolutely NO access to healthy, established bio filter media, gravel or decor.

It's just so darn simple and painless to start the process again with seeded media/decor.

FWIW, when I started my brand-new 55g with all new filtration and decor, all I did was put a few pieces of seeded sponge and a handful of established gravel in the canister filter, added 4 zebra danios and a few more fish week after week. I never saw a single parts per million of ammonia or nitrites.

Fishless cycle by adding household ammonia is much more labor intensive and unstable IMO. I went that route with my 29g and 10g.

 

[Thyra]

I would also like to add that it is not that simple to find absolutely pure ammonia. Home Depot didn't carry any ammonia at all and all the others I found had some type of surfactant in it - when you shake it, it has suds. Then there are the perfumes. I live in the Olympia area and finally just plain gave up. Daily partial water changes (about 25%)and monitoring the ammonia and nitrite daily until I saw nitrates worked well.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Yep, just plain ammonia is indeed difficult to find! I went to a good 6 stores before I finally found it at the dollar store of all places. Austin's brand ammonia. Most grocery store ammonia will have dye and scents added at a minimum.

 

[FishDad]

Did you get a new tank or re seal the old one?

 

[Newman]

i found ammonia pretty easily. you will not find it at grocery stores. look at ingredients always. you want ammonia with no additives. i found it at the local hardware store, they will have some there. probably not at a big chain store like home depot. it doesnt come in small bottles - it's usually in a big 3L or more jug. industrial stuff lol.

 

[FreshyFresh]

i found ammonia pretty easily.... i found it at the local hardware store, they will have some there.

Local hardware store? Those are about as rare as hen's teeth for the majority.

I'm lucky to have a smallish local chain in my area (Valu Home Center). Other than that, every small mom/pop place is affiliated with Ace or Servistar anymore. I guess you can thank BLowes and HomeCheapo for that.

FWIW, I had read online Ace carried "pure" ammonia. They didn't in my area, nor did my other local place.

 

[Newman]

it's not actually pure ammonia, maybe that's why people miss it. it's an ammonium compound. let me go check my bottle (I still have it from 4 years ago when i used it lol)

EDIT: nevermind, I am full of it lol. It's Ammonium hydroxide but has no additives. no ingredients on the bottle though. mine is called Elite Professional Ammonia. idk if they still make it.

 

[FreshyFresh]

it's not actually pure ammonia, maybe that's why people miss it. it's an ammonium compound. let me go check my bottle (I still have it from 4 years ago when i used it lol)

EDIT: nevermind, I am full of it lol. It's Ammonium hydroxide but has no additives. no ingredients on the bottle though. mine is called Elite Professional Ammonia. idk if they still make it.

Oh I hear you! I don't think you'd get 100% from a bottle to the tank without wiping out the whole house. Pretty sure household ammonia is mostly water w/ a splash of ammonium hydroxide.

 

[Cichlidsid]

Did you get a new tank or re seal the old one?

Attempted to reseal but don't feel confident enough to go through the loss and mess all over. A new tank was purchased.

 

[Cichlidsid]

New tank also comes with lifetime warranty.

 

[OrangeCones]

Pretty sure household ammonia is mostly water w/ a splash of ammonium hydroxide.

"Household ammonia" IS ammonium hydroxide. The liquid household ammonia is some % (usually 3-10%) of ammonia gas (NH3) dissolved in water (H20).

NH3 + H20 = NH4OH (the ammonia steals one of the hydrogen atoms from water). Man! Who ever thought middle school chemistry class would come in handy?

 

[FreshyFresh]

You're the one with the good head OC.

I don't even remember who my teachers were in middle school. *SLEEPING*