Cycling Problem

[ac700wildcat]

As some of you know I have been fishless cycling my tank for a while and all was going good. I ran out of ammonia after dosing for the day on Thursday morning. While out of town I found some ammonia that said clear ammonia and when I shook it, it didn't make any foam, so I bought it. This morning I dosed my tank after figuring out how much of this new ammonia to use. This afternoon I checked nitrite levels and they had seemingly dropped to zero, so I figured it would be time to dose ammonia again. I didn't test ammonia at this time, because it has been going rather fast lately.

A couple hours later I decided to test nitrites to see how high they were and to keep track of how long it was taking them to drop to zero (they were down to zero in around 16 hours previously). When I had no nitrites I decided to test ammonia and it tested to be higher that I thought I had dosed a few hours before. I let the tank cycle for at least another six hours and still got the same ammonia result. Now I look at the bottle more closely and way down on the bottom on the back label the ingredients listed are ammonium hydroxide and surfactant. Have I basically killed my bacteria and need to start from scratch again?

On a side note I had purchased this same bottle of ammonia in my local walmart, but it foamed, so I never did use it. Today in my walmart I checked their ammonia again some bottles foamed and some didn't even tho they were labeled the same.

I also have had a drop in ph from 7.2 down to 6, so I did a small water change to try bump the ph back up some.

 

[Amunet]

A low pH might have stalled the cycling process. So maybe do a few more water changes to get the pH lvls back up.

I'm really not sure if what you used is ok since I'm not sure what surfactants are :\

I would find a local hardware store or an Ace Hardware. We got a large bottle of ammonia from Ace and it worked perfectly.

 

[ac700wildcat]

I did enough of a water change to bump the ph back up to 6.8. Now I just need to find a different source of ammonia. The original ammonia I was using was Top Crest brand name. It worked very well, but was so diluted I used the whole bottle up. I had found it at my gf's moms place and have no idea where it was purchased, as she has recently passed away. I'll be on the search tomorrow to find some other type of ammonia. Either that or it looks like I might be making a quick trip to find some Bio Spira, so I can get this tank going and get my fish into it.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

do a great big water change to remove all the ammonia in there, feed the bacteria with fish food for a few days until you cna find some proper ammonia.

 

[OldMan47]

Surfactant is a fancy word for soap. Don't put any more of that stuff in your tank. Like MW said, you can keep your bacteria alive with rotting fish food until you find ammonia that is OK to use.

 

[ac700wildcat]

I ran some carbon for 12 hours, then did a 95% water change, then added some flake food in a little mesh bag and put that in the tank. I searched the town I live in and went to every store that would have any sort of cleaning supplies (3 grocery stores, 3 hardware stores, walmart, and kmart), every store had ammonia, but of course nothing useful. I'm taking a trip out of town tomorrow and will find some.

Thanks for the help.

 

[OldMan47]

If you live in the US try Ace hardware. I got a gallon there for about $3.

 

[ac700wildcat]

Thanks for the head up OldMan47. Thats where I found it. I also picked up some bio spira, so I'll see how that stuff works.