First Time Cycling, Please Help

[tokyo]

Ok, I have my tank all set up and ready to be cycled(I plan on doing a fishless cycle), but I can't, for the life of me, find any pure ammonia. I've checked every grocery store, pharmacy, hardware store and gas station in a 20mile radius(a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point). All I can find is ammonia with dye, purfume, or surfactant in it. So what do I do now? I would really prefer not to cycle with fish, but it's looking like I'm going to have to... Unless anyone here has any suggestions.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[erk628]

There are other methods that you can do to do a fishless cycle besides using pure ammonia. You can add fish flakes or other types of fish food I think frozing food like bloodworms or shrimp you buy at the grocery store would work faster. With the ammonia you have found if you shake it and it doesnt fiz up then its fine to use a few air bubbles are fine. You could prob order some pure ammonia on the internet but you'd have to wait. The cheapest way you could do it is to pee in your tank sounds nasty but it would work.

 

[soccermatt]

I had the same problem as you, tokyo. I wasn't able to find pure ammonia so i resorted to fish food flakes. I just added 4-5 flakes every 12 hours.

The only set backs to using this method is that it will take a couple of days to start getting ammonia readings because the fish food has to take time to break down. It is also messy, however once my tank finished cycling i did a good water change with a decent gravel vac, and it seemed to mostly clear it up, the rest will go over time. It is also less precise than ammonia, but it worked well for me and is IMO definatly better than fish in cycle.

Good luck.

 

[OldMan47]

The first alternate, if you can't find any ammonia is what we call shrimp in the US or prawns in most of the rest of the world. A couple of small prawns in a piece of netting to contain it will produce plenty of ammonia for quite a long time as it decays in the tank water. Where are you located? Maybe we can suggest where to try looking.

 

[tokyo]

The first alternate, if you can't find any ammonia is what we call shrimp in the US or prawns in most of the rest of the world. A couple of small prawns in a piece of netting to contain it will produce plenty of ammonia for quite a long time as it decays in the tank water. Where are you located? Maybe we can suggest where to try looking.

I am located in Hampton, New Hampshire, usa

 

[waterdrop]

In the USA there is often pure ammonia to be found at the Ace or True Value hardware store chains. Sometimes people can find the odd connection among friends of a school lab supply or other odd things. I always like to encourage people to keep up the search, even if they've made a start with organics like shrimp or fishfood because the organics are so much less controlled.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

In New Hampshire, try looking in the cleaning products area of an Ace / True Value hardware store.