Keep a tank cyled

[LxHowler]

I started cycling a tank about 5 weeks ago, before the lockdown. The tank has nearly finished cycling now and is almost ready for livestock. I was wondering if since my lfs is only doing essentials and not allowing the sale of livestock could I use my bottled ammonia to keep the tank cycled.
I feel like it needs a constant ammonia source to maintain bacteria in the tank but without livestock is there another way?
If I do use my bottled bacteria is there an ideal level of ammonia to add to the tank a day? 2ppm maybe

 

[GaryE]

You can just feed it fish food.. that will break down and feed your bacteria.

 

[sde1500]

I wouldn't bother feeding anything. The bacteria will outlive this lockdown easily.

 

[piranhaman00]

When I have QT tanks that are empty, I put a drop of ammonia in like twice a week, do not maintain a 2.0ppm lol your nitrates will be in the 1000ppm by the time you add fish!

It shouldnt even register on a test kit, just a drop or two a few times a week. Or like mentioned, ghost feeding works but that adds detritus, adding liquid leaves no trace.

 

[brandon429]

agreed SDE is right

for once we can consider not doubting bac that were feeding long before humans were on scene at all.

no need to keep algae feed in the water, simply keep water swirling and even after 5 years, no feed, it will pass a 2 ppm oxidation test if you have sand and rocks. (we actually have a 3 year fallow test on file from sitting live rocks, and a 2 yr one from nano-reef.com)

here are hard fast rules for cycles:


can never be starved out (they get feed via non human means by design)


can never be undone by full water changes

can never be sterilized by harsh tank cleaning.

what it takes to uncycle a reef: sustained calculated med doses. freezing, boiling, and true drying. thats about it.

Dr Reef was able to demonstrate actual starving of filter bac by dosing a test tank, capping off the lid from hardly any contamination exchange, and feeding them nothing for 14 mos. thats the opposite of trying to starve already fed, and performing filter bac in an open-topped setup.

in the direction you're heading, they can't be starved. To keep a tank cycled, we only must keep it wet.