waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Great!
You're starting to get the general picture.
Using an ammonia surrogate like a shrimp or fish food is only a last-ditch thing for people who for some reason can't find the right ammonia or have some other special problem. It makes a big difference to use the correct household ammonia to do fishless cycling. You have much more control and control is important. When you use fish food or shrimp, there is a long lag time while the heterotrophic bacteria break it down into ammonia, which finally gets you to the starting point you would be at anyway with measured ammonia. Then the amount itself is uncontrolled and you don't know if you have too much or too little.
One example of a problem with this is that it turns out that if your fishless cycling ammonia level is at 8ppm or higher, you will promote a different species of autotrophic bacteria altogether and this will cause a time setback to the eventual growth of the correct species that you need.
The correct household ammonia is a clear ammonia that has no extra dyes or fragrances. It also should not have surfactants (surface-active substances used in soaps) and if you can find it in a clear bottle, you can shake it and it should not foam. It should just form bubbles briefly just like plain water would.
Pure ammonia of course is a dangerous gas, whereas the household ammonia we are talking about is also called aqueous ammonia and is usually a 9.5% solution or less of ammonia in water. Yet another name for aqueous ammonia is ammonium hydroxide, this same solution of ammonia in water. In the early days of fishless cycling (early 80's I believe) it was thought that ammonia solutions created from ammonium chloride, a type of ammonia salt found naturally near volcanos, or produced as crystals, was better to use, but that theory has been debunked long ago and plain old household ammonium hydroxide is well established as the way to go.
Depending on your location in this big world, you can often receive feedback from others in your local about what brands they've found to be appropriate, sometimes even pictures of the bottle.
~~waterdrop~~
You're starting to get the general picture.
Using an ammonia surrogate like a shrimp or fish food is only a last-ditch thing for people who for some reason can't find the right ammonia or have some other special problem. It makes a big difference to use the correct household ammonia to do fishless cycling. You have much more control and control is important. When you use fish food or shrimp, there is a long lag time while the heterotrophic bacteria break it down into ammonia, which finally gets you to the starting point you would be at anyway with measured ammonia. Then the amount itself is uncontrolled and you don't know if you have too much or too little.
One example of a problem with this is that it turns out that if your fishless cycling ammonia level is at 8ppm or higher, you will promote a different species of autotrophic bacteria altogether and this will cause a time setback to the eventual growth of the correct species that you need.
The correct household ammonia is a clear ammonia that has no extra dyes or fragrances. It also should not have surfactants (surface-active substances used in soaps) and if you can find it in a clear bottle, you can shake it and it should not foam. It should just form bubbles briefly just like plain water would.
Pure ammonia of course is a dangerous gas, whereas the household ammonia we are talking about is also called aqueous ammonia and is usually a 9.5% solution or less of ammonia in water. Yet another name for aqueous ammonia is ammonium hydroxide, this same solution of ammonia in water. In the early days of fishless cycling (early 80's I believe) it was thought that ammonia solutions created from ammonium chloride, a type of ammonia salt found naturally near volcanos, or produced as crystals, was better to use, but that theory has been debunked long ago and plain old household ammonium hydroxide is well established as the way to go.
Depending on your location in this big world, you can often receive feedback from others in your local about what brands they've found to be appropriate, sometimes even pictures of the bottle.
~~waterdrop~~
