Cycling tank using ammonium chloride

[SABWARNER16]

So I’m trying to do a fishless cycle on my 3.5 gallo with Fritz PRO Ammonium Chloride- 500gm. I followed the directions and added the dose, but I think I added a little too much because it said to raise the ammonia to 4ppm and I went up to 8ppm..... haha.... so I’m aware it will take a while to cycle this thing. So with that one dose, every day for a week now I’ve been adding Stability by Seachem to help promote beneficial bacteria. After a week, there are no nitrites or nitrates, just the high ammonia. I just want to make sure it’s just going to take a while and that I’m not doing anything wrong. If I’ve completely messed it up, can I just drain the whole thing and start over?
I tried doing the fish food method but it was taking a while. I don’t have any spare cycled filters to add to it. Just a moss ball from another tank that has been doing pretty good on water parameters. I’m trying to do this right because I got three small tanks at once last month and threw bettas in each and dealt with new tank syndrome with three tanks at a time and it nearly drove me insane. Everybody made it through though, and I definitely have learned a lot since then haha.

Also, when I set up the tank, I used sand and thought I rinsed it well but I guess not because it’s been up for a week and still very cloudy and looks dirty so I want to either retry or change the gravel completely. I think the best time to do this is after the tank is cycled right?

 

[Essjay]

8 ppm is too high for fishless cycling - and since most test kits only measure up to 8 ppm it could be higher. The wrong species of bacteria grow at high levels. And the second thing is that it will create so much nitrite that the cycle will stall. 1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite. Your 8 ppm will be turned into 21.6 ppm nitrite and stall point is around 15 or 16 ppm.

The best thing you can do is a water change to get the ammonia level down to 3 ppm. Then follow the cycling method on here. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ This method tells you add ammonia only when certain targets have been reached while most others tell you to add ammonia every time it drops to zero - and this makes so much nitrite the cycle stalls. The method on here was written so that nitrite can't reach the stall point.



Personally I would sort out the substrate now before the cycle starts properly.

 

[SABWARNER16]

8 ppm is too high for fishless cycling - and since most test kits only measure up to 8 ppm it could be higher. The wrong species of bacteria grow at high levels. And the second thing is that it will create so much nitrite that the cycle will stall. 1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite. Your 8 ppm will be turned into 21.6 ppm nitrite and stall point is around 15 or 16 ppm.

The best thing you can do is a water change to get the ammonia level down to 3 ppm. Then follow the cycling method on here. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ This method tells you add ammonia only when certain targets have been reached while most others tell you to add ammonia every time it drops to zero - and this makes so much nitrite the cycle stalls. The method on here was written so that nitrite can't reach the stall point.



Personally I would sort out the substrate now before the cycle starts properly.

You rock, thank you so much. I’m definitely going to going to switch the substrate and try it the way you suggested. Thanks again

 

[AbbeysDad]

As we all know, ammonia is toxic to fish, but high levels are also toxic to beneficial bacteria as well!

Contact Support

 

[SABWARNER16]

As we all know, ammonia is toxic to fish, but high levels are also toxic to beneficial bacteria as well!

Contact Support

See I didn’t know it could be toxic to bacteria. Learning something literally every day hahaha!!