Adding ammonia during fishless cycle

[hampton]

I'm on day 9 of my fishless cycle. I've been reading some other topics about cycling and I noticed that alot of people add ammonia to there tank. Should I be adding ammonia are is this just something to speed up the cycling process. I also noticed on the pinned topic by Gadazobe that he/she had a Nitate level of ten on the first day and pretty much stayed the same through the 45 days. I wasn't able to test my nitrate or nitrite levels until today (my 9th day) but when I did test it I had 0 for both Nitrate and Nitrite. Does this mean anything so early on or not? Here is what has been going on so far in my tank:

55 Gallon Fishless Cycle

Starting Date: February 22, 2005


Day...........PH Level..........Ammonia........Nitrate.........Nitrite.........Water Change

1..................7.2.....................0................--................--...............None

2..................7.6.....................0................--................--...............None

3..................8.0.....................0................--................--...............None

4...........Waited

5...........Waited

6...........Waited

7...........Waited

8...................8.0....................0.................--................--..............None

9...................8.0....................0..................0.................0..............None
(Purchased Nitrate @ Nitrite Test kits) (Also added Stress Coat)

10



Thanks for any information anybody can give


Mike

 

[ozziegt]

If you add ammonia and set the temp to 83 or 84 degrees things will speed up a lot.

See the stick at the top of this forum for instructions on fishless cycling.

 

[hampton]

I forgot to add I have my temp set to 79 degrees right now and I tested my tap water for nitrates. The color card doesn't seem to be real accurate but it looks to be in between 0 and 5.0 ppm.


I also have city water if this means anything.

 

[vantgE]

You should be adding amonia, something like 10 ppm or .10 ppm, or two drops per ten gallon (actually do what guy below said) not really sure exatly then after the amonia starts droping reduce to half the original amount you had been putting in, fishless cycle can take up to a month , and before adding any fish do at least a 80 percent watter change

 

[nshockeyplaya]

Lol sorry to break it to ya but you sould have spiked the ammonia on day one. I would suggest adding ammonia until you reached around 4.0 make sure you dont go up to 8 or higher as it wont work(i know from personal experience).

The stickies are pretty clear as to what to do. Try and re-read them and see if you better understand the process.

 

[hampton]

I have reread the stickies over and over again but they really don't say if you have to add ammonia or not. I was under the impression that adding ammonia was just to hurry along the process, but I guess I was wrong. I will have to go buy some ammonia .


Thanks for all the replies


Mike

 

[laboul]

Definitely need to add ammonia. Also, some tap water can contain nitrates, so that doesn't mean your tank is cycling.

 

[Invader675]

Lol sorry to break it to ya but you sould have spiked the ammonia on day one. I would suggest adding ammonia until you reached around 4.0 make sure you dont go up to 8 or higher as it wont work(i know from personal experience).

The stickies are pretty clear as to what to do. Try and re-read them and see if you better understand the process.

Hmmmm check my siggy "Tank status" link. I have had no problem at all with my Ammonia at 8.0ppm on day 1 using Cycle. Maybe I was just lucky.

 

[hampton]

I checked all over today in my home town and I couldn't find ammonia anywhere. So now I have to drive 50 miles to a walmart to get it. Oh well it'l give something to to this weekend.

 

[hampton]

Get this everyone. I looked all over today for ammonia and couldn't find it anywhere. I went to the lfs that is 50 miles away and they said "I never heard of that before". I even went to walmart and they didn't have it. I guess I'll have to go with out.

 

[nonot8946]

If you're not adding ammonia, you're not fishless cycling, you're just wasting your time. It's like trying to grow plants out in a desert with no water, nothing will happen.

Look for Seamist brand ammonia at Walmart. Its usually hidden in the cleaning aisle in the last place you look.

 

[canarsie11]

Exactly... My question is where did you think the ammonia would come from?

 

[hampton]

I'm sorry guys I'm just gettting fed up with this thing already. I thought I had everything to start the tank up again and I don't. I don't mean to act stupid guys but there is some stuff I just don't know about aquariums yet. I will tell you this though, I wouldn't have a clue how to do all this with out everybody helping me out on here. I want to thank everyone and I'm sorry if I have any more stupid questions.





Mike

 

[MyDogIsJealousOfMyFish]

If you can find ammonia make sure there are no additives in it like detergent or perfumes. You may want to look in the phone book and try a local lab ( one that does water testing for drinking water and such) they have straight ammonia hydroxide and may be willing to sell you some or tell you where they get it. Failing that you could put in fisj food or some frozen shrimp and let it rot. This would probably take a long time though.

 

[Invader675]

Read through the fishless cycling thread again is all I can really reccomend.
Ammonia can be found in "Kleen Off" 9.5% ammonia the rest is all water. It's perfect for what you need. If you can't get any (from any highstreet shops) look for any cleaning products that are just ammonia and water.
It has been mentioned in the past that you could use a dead fish from a LFS to kickstart it however I wouldn't reccomend it.