Urine trouble now

[Flame Angel]

*insert drum roll here*

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Anyway, has anyone ever tried using urine to cycle a tank? It's obviously an excellent source of ammonia.

-Flame

 

[Phischy]

Are you kidding? Why not try an Arby's Roast Beef sandwhich!

 

[Flame Angel]

No, I'm dead serious. I've seen it mentioned it several books...mainly older ones. You don't add it with anything live in the tank, like fish, etc...it's similar to the old technique of throwing pieces of shrimp in the tank to cycle it.

-Flame

 

[Dollarz81]

one of those things that make you say "WTF"

 

[Phischy]

I just don't know, peeing in my tank just sounds like a bad idea. How old are these books you reference? There are alot of things which were once done that are considered obsolete idea's today.

Plus all the waste from my cellular metabolism is just that, waste. And while I know fish do the same thing, consider volume. I'm sure I pee a considerable larger amount than a blenny so the idea strikes me just as absurd as using an Arby's sandwhich.

 

[djconn]

I am seriously considering adding a 'Funniest Post' section to the forum now...that post made me smile for the first time today. :mrgreen:

 

[sdbeazley]

Would you want your fish swimming in your urine?















I wouldn`t

 

[Flame Angel]

You're all missing the point here. You don't stand there and piss in the tank after a long day of drinking. You add a very small amount that directly correlates to the size of your tank, ie, if you have a 55 gallon, half a cup or so. Urine is urine, and ammonia is ammonia...assuming you have no diseases, and your diet is sound, I see no problem with applying this technique.

The books I refer to were all approx. circa 1995 or so, give or take a few years. I remember one encouraging the use of live rock and a protein skimmer over a wet-dry filter, so it wasn't really all that old.

-Flame

 

[djconn]

This is awesome. I say do it Flame! =P~

 

[Karita]

I may be new at this hobby.... but i do know quite a bit about urine, believe it or not! Urine doesn't have free ammonia floating around.... ammonia is converted to urea by a complicated process in the body, and is filtered out of the blood by the kidney to make urine - along with a hell of a lot of stuff that's in your blood like water, salt, bicarbonate, vitamins, enzymes, minerals, antibodies, uric acid and other things the body doesn't need at the time. Your urine varies dramatically from day to day, and even hour to hour, as I'm sure you've noticed by the different colors & smells :shock:
Depending on what is going on in your body, your urine could be more acidic than normal, more diluted, have proteins, bacteria, etc etc etc.
Needless to say, no pee is going in my tank

 

[Flame Angel]

I may be new at this hobby.... but i do know quite a bit about urine, believe it or not! Urine doesn't have free ammonia floating around.... ammonia is converted to urea by a complicated process in the body, and is filtered out of the blood by the kidney to make urine - along with a hell of a lot of stuff that's in your blood like water, salt, bicarbonate, vitamins, enzymes, minerals, antibodies, uric acid and other things the body doesn't need at the time. Your urine varies dramatically from day to day, and even hour to hour, as I'm sure you've noticed by the different colors & smells :shock:
Depending on what is going on in your body, your urine could be more acidic than normal, more diluted, have proteins, bacteria, etc etc etc.
Needless to say, no pee is going in my tank

THANK YOU! Finally, someone with a valid reason not to, not "Ew, don't do that, it's icky!!" Thanks Karita.

-Flame

 

[Anonymous]

Well, Urine would work...it is basically the same as those people who use raw ammonia to cycle a tank...it is just adding a source of fuel for your nitrobacter and nitrosomonas to get to work on. Pee is just the nitrogenous waste products of your metabolism. Fish secrete their nitrogenous wastes out of their gills. Urine would be useful if you wanted to cycle without fish, but usually adding live rock puts your tank through a cycle anyway...so as soon as that cycle has ended, you can add fish. The only real benefit to urine would be in a tank without live rock. Just my educated guess!

 

[Karita]

I really don't think we have the same metabolic processes as fish do, and therefore our nitrogenous waste is probably not the same as fish nitrogenous waste... and like i said before, it is very different from using raw ammonia!!!
I still vote "no" for peeing in your tank...

 

[Flame Angel]

I'm afraid I'd have to concur with Karita on this matter, even though I'd started the thread. The biological processes in fish and mammals, although similar, have evolved along different paths, so it would be safe to assume that the biological makeup of fish urine as compared to human urine would be different.

-Flame

PS - I LOVE starting threads like this

 

[Karita]

flame -
thanks for the support :wink:
btw... for some reason this is the first time i've seen your avatar - LOVE it!

 

[Flame Angel]

I changed it...it's been a couple of things before. 1) My friend Sam with a bean bag over his head 2) The Cheat!!! and now it's Ernie...Super 'Fro Powers Activate!

I'm such a dork :wink:

-Flame

 

[Dollarz81]

He just changed his avatar :roll:

 

[Flame Angel]

Yeah, but I guess she couldn't see it for some reason, so it's a big deal.

-Flame

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but nitrogenous waste is nitrogenous waste, no matter which animal it comes from. Our nitrogenous wastes can be used by nitrosomonas and nitrobacter if we did pee in the tank. I'm not saying we should do it, I'm just saying it could work for a purpose...it just wouldn't be the best thing in the world for our tanks...but it wouldn't be that bad, either.

 

[Hillbilly]

Gives new meaning to the term "toilet water" !