Where to buy ammonia

[daza]

White Lion Square, Town Centre, Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

I can't remember the name, not sure it has one in fact, but it's one of those little hardware shops where most things are a pound.

There is 3 similar hardware shops and this one is on the corner opposite a chemist (not the one next to boots or the one opposite the bakery...although they are always worth a visit if you need small tools, etc too).

I bought this 500ml bottle of ammonia there for £1 and it worked fine for my fishless cycle...

 

[Def]

for the umpteenth time rolleyes.gif in the UK you cannot get ammonia in grocery stores or supermarkets

lol! Thats' why I started this thread

I bought this 500ml bottle of ammonia there

Yep, that's the same bottle that I bought. It seems to be super-concentrated though, I put some in my 10gallon quarantine yesterday, and even though it has matured filter media and gravel from a matured tank in it, ammonia and PH were both off the scale today

Did a 50% water change to try and bring it down a bit, no luck. Hrmph. I'm distinctly unimpressed with fishless cycling

 

[daza]

How much of the Jeyes did you add?

I added very small (pipette sized) drops until the test kit showed 5ppm. Then half that dosage once nitrites show...

(instructions I followed)

My nitrites and nitrates were off the scale during the cycle but they came down okay.

It seems you have overdosed on ammonia. I think you need to do water changes to get it down to ~5ppm and carry on from there. I don't know what would be affecting your pH though.

 

[Def]

Hrm. I might just empty the water out the tank and start again. Bit annoyed by that. Anyone know if bacteria in mature filter & gravel can be killed by too much ammonia?

*edit* well I changed about 90% of the water and the PH is lower (not back to normal yet, but I assume that will come naturally over the week) and ammonia is down to 4ppm, so we'll see what happens.

 

[tonydude]

I don't think it can kill them. but too much ammonia will severly slow down the growth of the bacteria that breaks down the nitrite to nitrate. hence slowing down your cycle. i managed to get hold of some 30% concentration ammonia for my 65 gallon and it was done in two and a half weeks completely from scratch with no established filter medai from another tank.

 

[Helium_Junkie]

for the umpteenth time in the UK you cannot get ammonia in grocery stores or supermarkets, it is very obscure, subject to all sorts of restrictions and often impossible to find.

You can buy Ammonia in B&Q. Have seen it myself