Where To Buy Suitable Ammonia?

[Aquascaper]

So you would rather put "organic solutes including urea, creatinine, uric acid, and trace amounts of enzymes, carbohydrates, hormones, fatty acids, pigments, and mucins, and inorganic ions such as sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), chloride (Cl-), magnesium (Mg2+), calcium (Ca2+), ammonium (NH4+), sulfates (SO42-), and phosphates (e.g., PO43-)", all in varying quantities, into your tank than pure ammonia?

Think I'll stick to putting what I know in thanks

 

[cornclose]

So you would rather put "organic solutes including urea, creatinine, uric acid, and trace amounts of enzymes, carbohydrates, hormones, fatty acids, pigments, and mucins, and inorganic ions such as sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), chloride (Cl-), magnesium (Mg2+), calcium (Ca2+), ammonium (NH4+), sulfates (SO42-), and phosphates (e.g., PO43-)", all in varying quantities, into your tank than pure ammonia?

No, my pee doesn't contain all that stuff. But I wouldn't put the stuff mentioned above in without knowing what the other 90.5% is.

Think I'll stick to putting what I know in thanks

Ooo, what is the other 90.5% then ?

 

[Aquascaper]

Unfortunately if your pee doesn't contain that 'stuff' then you're either not human or you have kidney failure.

As for the other 90.5% in the bottle.....it's pure water, that's why it's called ammonia solution.

 

[cornclose]

As for the other 90.5% in the bottle.....it's pure water, that's why it's called ammonia solution.

A solution can be made of anything - it doesn't have to be something with water. A solution can be any smaller quantity (the solvent) along with any larger quantity (the solute). Granted, in this case it probably is water, but 'pure' water is what I have issue with, because it probably isn't.

Anyhow, here's an interesting thing from a well respected blogger;

Sources of ammonia. Household "ammonia" is a fairly dilute solution of ammonium hydroxide with some "quality control" agents. To avoid the perfumes, sudsing agents, surfactants and dyes in consumer-type ammonia cleaning products, some of which are lethal to fishes, look for a generic brand from a hardware store, such as Ace Hardware's Janitorial Strength Ammonia, a 10% solution of ammonium hydroxide in water.

And it goes on to say...

I raised some eyebrows when I revealed in a web forum that I hadn't been ransacking my neighborhood in a search for a pure non-sudsing ammonia with no added dyes and perfumes, when I could always produce at least a few drops of a completely natural, though more personal, source of ammonia. The truth is, long before the nitrating cycle was community knowledge, I have always begun new planted aquaria by adding a few tablespoons of my urine. Good grief! The uproar at AquariaCentral sent me back to the books. I soon found out that urine actually has a very small NH3 content. Urine has a specific gravity of about 1.017-1.020, owing to its dissolved solids, about 60% of which are organic substances. Besides ammonia, those organics include urea, uric acid, and creatine, which are all bacterially decomposed to form carbon dioxide— and more ammonia. The other 40% of the dissolved solids in urine are inorganic NaCl, (the "salt" content), K, PO4 and SO4. Frankly, it all sounds to me like stuff you'd be adding anyway. There are no bacteria in healthy urine.

So it would seem that one can actually pee in the tank to aid the cycle process. I haven't actually done it, but certainly wouldn't necessarily trust just any old ammonia solution you can pick up in the shops!

 

[Aquascaper]

I could continue to point out the inherent issues and pitfalls but you're obviously just wanting an argument so go ahead and pi$$ in your tank if you're happy to.

I'll continue to use a source of ammonia that myself and many others have researched and verified and will continue to advocate its use over something that has so many variables and pollutants.

 

[cornclose]

so go ahead and pi$$ in your tank if you're happy to

No need! My tank cycled about 5 years ago.

 

[Aquascaper]

Which pretty much proves you're just out to flame and provoke an argument on other peoples posts

 

[cornclose]

Erm, no... It doesn't prove anything of the sort!