Ammonia Question...fishless Cycling

[jacblades]

so i have never done a fishless cycle before...i have just always borrowed media from my other tanks but i am going to try it on my newest tank.

so i cant find 1OO% ammonia anywhere. i bought some walmart [great value] brand clear ammonia. ingredients are softened water, ammonia and a chelating agent.

is there any chance that this would be safe to use? any ideas on what the chelating agent might be?

thanks in advance
+jac+

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

I can't answer your question about the ammonia, but I did a fishless cycle using fish food. I placed about a 1/2 teaspoon of pellets in my 20g(US) tank, every other day. I don't know how long you would have to do this because I used "Biozyme", lab produced bacteria, and my cycle was completed within 6 days.

I have read some places where aquarists argue over wether pure chemical ammonia should be used, or organiz matter such as food. Supposedly there are bacteria that first need to break the waste down before nitrifying bacteria can go to work. So by their account, using the store bought 100% ammonia leaves the tank lacking in these bacteria that break down the waste, meaning, once the fish are in, their organic waste will float around waiting for these other bacteria to colonize the tank. Wethere this is true or not I do not know, perhaps someone could verify this.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Never noticed any problems with pure ammonia, Boxcar; my bacteria have always seemed up to the job on it.

As for chelating agent, that was on a thread a long time ago, I'm sure, haven't got time to search now (schoolrun!) but am sure you could do a search on old threads.

 

[modernhamlet]

so i have never done a fishless cycle before...i have just always borrowed media from my other tanks but i am going to try it on my newest tank.

so i cant find 1OO% ammonia anywhere. i bought some walmart [great value] brand clear ammonia. ingredients are softened water, ammonia and a chelating agent.

is there any chance that this would be safe to use? any ideas on what the chelating agent might be?

thanks in advance
+jac+

That should work just fine.

Out of curiosity, are you just fishless cycling as an experiment?

 

[jacblades]

i am doing a fishless cycle because i would like to add a l arge bumber [if not all] of my fish at oncr.
usually i just gradually add.

thanks

 

[modernhamlet]

i am doing a fishless cycle because i would like to add a l arge bumber [if not all] of my fish at oncr.
usually i just gradually add.

thanks

Gotcha. Sounds like a good plan. Definitely use the filter media transfer though. That'll speed things up substantially.

 

[jacblades]

thanks. i dont really have enough extra media to share though...i guess i can give up a few bioglass rings from my other tanks... i did a search and i see that my question has been answered quite a few times. ) (i could not do a search when i posted the topic because i was using the internet on my phone, which, for some reason will not let me use the search function) :

 

[rdd1952]

A chelating agent is nothing more that a bonding agent that keeps the ammonia and water "mixed". It is fine for a fishless cycle. The ingredients you don't want are fragrance, dyes or surfactants. Those are bad.