Ammonia

[BJC787]

where do you buy the ammonia to add to the tank to start the cycle.

 

[jmiller]

If you are in the US or Canada you can get it at Ace Hardware stores. It's the Ace brand, janitor strength.

 

[Dan-CR4]

if you are in the UK, you can get it at larger boots stores or homebase. I got mine from boots, but the first smaller store i went to did not stock it but the larger store did.

 

[BJC787]

im in australia

 

[waterdrop]

Australia is very difficult. We don't have a single reliable store/brand to recommend that I know of. We do have several fishless cycling cases that have been done here by Australian members but the ammonia came from various odd sources. One that I remember had a contact at some sort of lab. Another may have had a pharmacy that helped.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[raptorrex]

im in australia

aha, well then, just pee in your tank! cant get much cheaper, nor easy to get. lol, the last few cycles i have done were using the "outback special" method. no prizes for where that originated.

a hand full of "good" quality garden soil, plus a full bladder. its a time honoured method. apparently started, and still used, by Koi farmers in east Asia.

Honestly, if you are having trouble sourcing Ammonia, this is a safe, and sure way of fishless cycling.

most people have a few questions here, so.

1, its totally safe? your pee is sterile.
2, no it does not smell, no more than any other fishless cycle.
3, will it work? emphatically yes. perhaps no better than any other method. but just as well.
4, how do i check the amount of ammonia? same as any other cycle "water test kits". but you will need to keep an eye on the first few, ERR, doses. to check the amount of ammonia, each pee adds.
5, how long will it take? well, in my limited experience, 14 -18 days. but, as with any other cycle. times varied. (see 6)
6, what temperature? the higher, within reason, the better. 80-84f is where i, try, to aim. the higher the temp, the faster it will go.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Lol, or you can use fishfood apparently!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, if you can't find a source of ammonia then check out the other current thread by airbend3r going on currently. There you will see posts by myself, Neale and OM47 discussing fishfood fishless cycling. The most significant thing from the fishes point of view is that the cycle be fishless (so they won't sustain gill and nerve damage that's hard for us to detect) regardless of -how- that fishless gets accomplished. Each of the different fishless methods has its own problems. OM47 and I tend to think of household ammonia fishless as the easiest because you have maximum control over measurements, but there are still plenty of unpredictable things and unknowns. Fishfood fishless can feel like less control to a beginner because the amount of fishfood you feed is something you learn by feel, rather than measure, but the overall process will be similar and you don't have the trouble of finding the right ammonia. A small percentage of members have frustration with either method, but the majority get their tanks cycled and move on to their first stocking of fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Twinklecaz]

WD, can you help me with something. On the calculator it says that to get my ammonia in my 60 Litre tank to 5 ppm then I need to add 3.16 ml.....well, I don't know how i'd even begin to measure that (not gooa with maths either). Are there things you can buy to measure Ml or maybe if I round it down to an even 3ml that will take it up to about 4ppm and that's still ok isn't it?

 

[chrisbassist]

as for fishless cycling with fish food, we have a tank now starting to cycle (fishless) which we're doing with ish food, since we have a load, and can't be bothered to go out and buy an ammonia. since it's only going to house a single fish, and I've read that they eat about the size of their eyeball everyday, I'm using my small cichlid food, which is little balls roughly the right size (but probably a bit bigger) so a single ball a day is easy to measure and manage when I'm feeding the other tank... so you can look arounf for dif foods and find one like this: http/www.amazon.com/Cichlid-Gold-Pellets-Mini-8-8/dp/B00025Z6G6

so easy to measure these are the mini pellets but you can get bigger pellets too. they're also high protein foods, and the protien is where the ammonia source is (something like 16% of the protien is nitrogen).

I hope no one minds this as a suggestion, and it's not the cheapest fish food, but it's far easier to get a consistent result with this than flakes, much easier to measure

 

[karin]

WD, can you help me with something. On the calculator it says that to get my ammonia in my 60 Litre tank to 5 ppm then I need to add 3.16 ml.....well, I don't know how i'd even begin to measure that (not gooa with maths either). Are there things you can buy to measure Ml or maybe if I round it down to an even 3ml that will take it up to about 4ppm and that's still ok isn't it?

Twinklecaz,
I got a medicine measuring spoon from the local pharmacy that has milliliters (ML) on it. It was a $1. Has come in soo handy for fish and winemaking.

karin

 

[chrisbassist]

or you can get those baby feeding syringes too.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Lol what a good mix. Thanks, I'll have a look

 

[raptorrex]

if you dont want the "outback special". dont use food, its very inaccurate. its, probably fine, for those with experience. but, that's just, what you don't have.

 

[chrisbassist]

if you dont want the "outback special". dont use food, its very inaccurate. its, probably fine, for those with experience. but, that's just, what you don't have.

its also the closest representation of the ammonia which will likely be in the tank... the hard part is getting the food amounts right, but if you get something like pellets instead of flakes, that becomes a lot easier. then it's just a case of waiting til you can feed the right amount everyday without having ammonia/nitrite buildup...

slightly different to pure ammonia methods, but I would imagine no harder, just less people around with experience of it to help you.