Ammonium Hydroxide

[Snooks1!]

Whilst I was recovering from motion sickness... I had my mum run into wal-mart to grab me some ammonia to cycle my tank...

She came back with a product called "Clear AMMONIA"
Ingredients: Ammonium Hydroxide and Surfactant.

Will this work for cycling my tank, or no... I'm leaning towards no...

 

[rdd1952]

Generally, you don't want anything with surfactants.

 

[jdyer]

'Fraid you're right to lean towards no...the surfactant is the problem

 

[OldMan47]

The surfactant is soap. Its fine for washing windows and the like. You do not want that additive in anything you use in your aquarium. Sorry but you want clear ammonia with only the ammonium hyroxide. Ammonium hydroxide is what you get when you dissolve ammonia gas in water. that is all you want in the stuff you buy for cycling. I ended up buying a gallon at a hardware store when I could only find the wrong stuff at places like Walmart.

 

[rdd1952]

The only thing other than ammonia and water that is ok is chelating agents. That is basically a bonding agent.

 

[Snooks1!]

That's what I was afraid of...


Damn I don't have enough ammonia to cycle my tank then... ( less than a cup of the stuff left )

 

[rdd1952]

What size tank is it? I cycled a 29 gallon with way less than a cup. It only takes about 5ml to raise a 30 gallon tank to 4 to 5 ppm and there are 236 ml in a cup so that's enough to add ammonia 47 times. Hopefully, it won't take that long. Of course if the tank is larger, you may need more but even with a 60 gallon, you could add it about 23 times.

 

[Snooks1!]

80 gal

 

[rdd1952]

You would be close, especially, if you just raised it to around 3ppm. That would mean you would need about 10ml ach time you added ammonia giving you 20+ times or about 3 weeks worth.