Ammonia Killer? What To Do.

[mrtiddles]

My tap water comes out at about .5ppm of ammonia. I'm trying to cycle my tank right now, and It's been sitting at about 2.0ppm, and I've been giving daily water changes to try to bring it down, but obviously having .5 ppm in my tap water is a problem. So, here's my question:

If I buy ammonia killer and treat my tap water during water changes, will that adversely affect my cycle process? Will the ammonia killer kill all the ammonia in the tank as soon as I add water and keep my tank from cycling?

 

[Corleone]

Liquid ammonia killers like ammo-lock usually convert ammonia to ammonium, which is its less toxic form. Bacteria will use ammonium just the same. Ammonia removing filter media like zeolite is a different matter, but if you "pre-filter" the water with that first it won't affect your bacteria growth.

Are you cycling with or without fish? In a fishless cycle, ammonia from the tapwater only means you have to add less ammonia the first time.

 

[mrtiddles]

Cycling with fish, since I didn't find these forums until after I started /

I'll try to find some ammo-lock or some similar stuff then. My ammonia started dropping on its own for the first time this week, so I think it's almost time to see nitrite start coming up.

 

[LauraFrog]

The stuff you want to get rid of ammonia is hydroxymethanesulfonate which binds to ammonia or ammonium to form aminomethanesulfonate which is utterly non toxic. Unfortunately I have no idea where to get it or which products use it... but you can google it.

 

[5teady_2012]

The stuff you want to get rid of ammonia is hydroxymethanesulfonate which binds to ammonia or ammonium to form aminomethanesulfonate which is utterly non toxic. Unfortunately I have no idea where to get it or which products use it... but you can google it.

what?

imagine asking for that in lfs, i cant even say it

 

[Tolak]

Hydromethane sufonate is the component in Ammo-Lock, and most any other water treatment or dechlorinator that claims to remove or neutralize ammonia.

 

[flash22]

After a filter crash (treated for nasty leeches with interpet No.12 ) i used sera toxivec and it stabilised
ammo and nitrite enough so i didnt lose anymore fish

fish in cycling is hard work = fishless cycling all the way

 

[LauraFrog]

Thanks Tolak - it's a mouthful alright. Ammo-Lock huh? Don't think you can get it in Australia, surprise, surprise.

 

[Corleone]

You can't? There's a couple companies that make products under the name. I think they're all the same stuff, but the one I was thinking of is an API product.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

The stuff you want to get rid of ammonia is hydroxymethanesulfonate which binds to ammonia or ammonium to form aminomethanesulfonate which is utterly non toxic. Unfortunately I have no idea where to get it or which products use it... but you can google it.

what?

imagine asking for that in lfs, i cant even say it

just write it down though and look on the active ingredients of everything in the lfs until you find something with it in!!

 

[LauraFrog]

I've tried, they dont' write it on the label. They don't write anything much on the label, I think scientific terms turn most people off. I can't blame them on those particular scientific terms, they are a bit ridiculous. Prefer not to see the chemical formula since I'll probably run out of ink if I try to print that off. I hope I can track some down, it sounds very useful. I found it on the Kordon site reading about those breathing fish bags... very interesting reading.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I've tried, they dont' write it on the label. They don't write anything much on the label, I think scientific terms turn most people off. I can't blame them on those particular scientific terms, they are a bit ridiculous. Prefer not to see the chemical formula since I'll probably run out of ink if I try to print that off. I hope I can track some down, it sounds very useful. I found it on the Kordon site reading about those breathing fish bags... very interesting reading.

hmmm regulations must be different over there, in the UK if you're selling any chemicals then you have to list the active ingredients on the packaging.

 

[mrtiddles]

Thanks for your help guys/girls, I picked up some AmmoLock, we'll see how that works.