Ammonia

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nealmakh95

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hello people i am new to this website and the hobby as you will probably discover in due course due to my lack of knowledge :p i am about to purchase my first tank and have been reading the site and decided to do a fishless cycle. my question regarding this is about ammonia; does anyone know of any highstreet shops i can purchase this from? also is there a tool you use to apply the ammonia e.g a dripper? is there also a way to calculate how much ammonia needs to be added and when in relation to the tank size? thanks in anticipation people :)
 
Honestly I would go for a natural accumulation of ammonia by adding small amounts of fish food to the water and then letting it run its course. IMO it helps build the bacteria colony a tad more naturally, assuming you have bio materials for the colony to attach itself to. Granted I have never had an issue with needing to ADD ammonia since my problem tends to be getting it to cycle back to 0ppm.
 
Like Luna has said, you dont need to add ammonia.
 
I have added ammonia personally just because I had it around and didnt have fish food etc.

If you do wish to add ammonia then you can use this calculator.

You will will notice that no matter if you add ammonia or use a natural source it still takes the same amount of time :)
 
What?  This is not good advice, you cannot control how much ammonia you are adding to your tank with fish food.  Fish food is generally only advised if pure ammonia is not available.  See our cycling guide and you will see that it advises against using fish food:
 
 
Fish food or shrimp allowed to rot in a tank will produce ammonia. They will also produce some other nasty looking stuff there is no reason to have fouling a tank. This method does not allow one to have any control over how much ammonia is introduced or when. And rotting food can cause a bacterial bloom (not the bacteria we want) which turns the water very cloudy.  We advise against using this to create ammonia in your tank.
 
Neal, you can look for ammonia in Homebase or somebody said they got some from the Range.  Otherwise you can order Kleenoff from Amazon.
 
The calculator that Typoon linked is a good idea but replace the recommended 5ppm with 3ppm as per our cycling guide.  5ppm is no longer recommended but the calculator hasn't been updated.
 
I agree with Daize - don't use fish food. Use pure ammonia.
Echo the reasons above - theres no way of telling how much ammonia there is from fish food - and that method will cause clouding most probably..
 
As daize said, Homebase sell it and also kleen off can be bought on ebay - search household ammonia and you will see one called Kleenoff - says in title suitable for fish tank cycling.
 
Use a 5ml dropper also from ebay - think i paid 99p for 10 droppers. plastic ones.
 
Please, I stress do not use fish food. It's not as accurate and very dirty.
 
I had no help from other media/tanks and cycled in 4 weeks following TwoTankAmins steps on this website.
 
I got my Ammonia from Homebase!
 
I got my ammonia from the range...  its £1 for a 500ml bottle...

Its only 5% but if you adjust the calculator it will give you the amount you need to put in.

Good luck with it all :D
 
Adding dead fish or fish food is not a particularly good way of adding ammonia, true, these will eventually give off ammonia but there is no way you will know how much ammonia you are adding.
 
As per the Cycling A Tank article it states 
 
"If at any time you test and ammonia is under .75 ppm and nitrite is clearly over 2 ppm, it is time to add more ammonia. Add the same full amount as you did the first time."
 
The full amount being 3ppm, how are you going to know from using fish food is going to give exactly 3ppm? You simply cannot, at least not without testing many times.
 
A much easier solution is to get a bottle of ammonia as the previous posts have said, Kleenoff, Dr Tim's One and Only Ammonium Chloride etc all can be bought online for a few pounds.
 
​Homebase hardware shop do still sell a household cleaner with ammonia, its an own brand, white bottle with blue lid if remember correctly and only about £2.50 or something like that. However, have heard these are becoming scarce to find now.
 
Or you can go via eBay and buy this bottle or similar, I used this one and is good ammonia, at 35% strength so be careful with dosages using the calculator as Typhoon221 linked to.
 
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Using any of the above suggestions of ammonia, this is by far, the best and easiest way of adding ammonia to your cycling tank.
 
Absolutely no excuse for using fish food when there are products of ammonia you can easily get access to buying since you are UK based.
(NZ & AUS have difficulty getting ammonia due to strict importing laws)
 
As for measuring tools for dosages, there are quite a few things you can get, again easiest via online website and you can get the most commonly used methods which tends to be droppers and syringes. 
 
I personally used a 1ml syringe which i bought from ebay for literally pennies. I keep this syringe just purely for ammonia. There are various sized syringes up to 5ml would be the biggest I'd suggest for ammonia dosages, whatever you feel best with really.
 
Fishless cycling typically takes between 4 to 8 weeks. Mine took about 5 weeks in all, very satisfying way of doing a cycle compared to doing hard work with daily water changes with fish in cycles which is pretty stressful for both keeper and fishes.
 
By the way, if you have not already got one, you will need a test kit for testing ph, ammonia, nitrite and for later nitrates, a must have item for beginners.
Recommend API Freshwater Master Test Kit, can be bought from most chain LFS for between £25 to £35.
Online is cheaper, got mine from eBay for £17.99 if remember right.
 
Good luck and keep us posted 
smile2.gif
 
The 3 must have API kits are pH, Ammonia and Nitrite. The last one to buy is the nitrate kit as its the least accurate and least necessary.
 
If you must use something organic, fish flakes are a very poor choice. they do not contain sifficient organic matter. Use a piece of raw shrimp or fish if you must. Beter to use what has been suggested above and for the reasons.
 
Not sure how much the tests cost over your side of the pond TTA but here in the UK it's cheaper to buy the API master test kit and thus get all the test kits at the same time.  The API ammonia kit alone will cost around £10 off the shelf whereas we can get a master kit for £20 online.  It's more cost effective to get the master kit, whether you need all the tests or no.
 

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