Cycling Blunder

[aaronc]

I need some help with Ammonia Dosage

I have a 125l tank, and added 75ml of ammonia solution.

However on testing the ammonia is off the scale, which stops at 8ppm

I used the following equation to work out the dosage although I didnt account for the displacement of the substrate and plants.

125 (litres) / 1000000 x 6 (ppm) * 9.75 (% Ammonia of the solution)

Is this right, or have I ballsed it up?

Thanks
Aaron





I guessed I was wrong by a factor of ten and did a 90% water change and refilled with dechlorinated water

Am I back to square one, will this have killed the bacteria on the filter wool from my LFS?

Thanks
Aaron

 

[Aprilia997]

OK so you made a mistake, you have already taken care of that. The bacteria would not be killed by the high ammonia level although if there had been fish in there they would have. Just keep a close eye on the ammonia level from here on out.

 

[rockerBOO]

With the higher amount of ammonia, you should of not had to much of a problem. Only it would of taken a little longer to do the cycle. But in the end you should have a higher amount of bacteria.

If you left the media wet, and did not leave it without something to process (Ammonia) for over 12 hours, you should be ok. From what I read.

 

[snoopstar]

I have a 65L tank and when I was fishless cycling I used to add 5ml of ammonia. That would give me 6ppm.

 

[aaronc]

Thanks for the advice guys

I think I will pick up some more mature filter media from the LFS just in case

Aaron

 

[InaneCathode]

High ammonia levels can and do stunt the growth and even sterilize your tank if it's high enough. Nitrosomnas and nitrobacter are both sensitive to high levels of ammonia and it will kill them off.

 

[Moi_ici]

When using % in multiplication you need to watch the decimal point.
100% =1
9.75% =.0975

 

[aaronc]

Well my master test kit comes tommorrow so I will be able to test nitrite and nitrate.. only have ammonia tester at the moment.

So I will see if I have a nitrite reading. The ammonia is going down but I have a lot of plants, which could just be absorbing it

Aaron