Please Answer A Question About Ammonia!

[KingKenny]

I've read various guides to fishless cycling and am ready to go out and buy some pure ammonia. However due to my tank being 150 or so gallons I really don't know how much I'll need.

I know I have to get the level up to 5ppm which is fine, but can anyone tell me how much in millilitres I will need over the period of a cycle. I don't want to go buy a small bottle and end up having to use it all up and make a second trip!

Help!

 

[Jenll]

I've never heard of actually putting ammonia into a cycling tank before - I've always been under the impression that it needs to be kept out? or made non toxic so it doesn't kill or harm the fish? I'm aware you need to add some bacteria to the water (stress zyme a good one) as well as some water conditioner but never pure ammonia...

The best way I have found to cycle a tank (and mine are mainly tropical) is to actually use a couple of fish... I have done this with my 120gal and the fish i started with are fine and the tank is nice and cycled too...

I'd be interested to hear about the ammonia thing tho...

 

[KingKenny]

I've never heard of actually putting ammonia into a cycling tank before - I've always been under the impression that it needs to be kept out? or made non toxic so it doesn't kill or harm the fish? I'm aware you need to add some bacteria to the water (stress zyme a good one) as well as some water conditioner but never pure ammonia...

The best way I have found to cycle a tank (and mine are mainly tropical) is to actually use a couple of fish... I have done this with my 120gal and the fish i started with are fine and the tank is nice and cycled too...

I'd be interested to hear about the ammonia thing tho...

I'm cycling without fish, manually adding the ammonia. I would never add it with fish!

The basic idea is to add ammonia which builds up nitrifying bacteria, turning the ammonia into Nitrite. Eventually the nitrite turns into nitrate which is less harmful. A large water change is then done and you are ready to add 1/3 to 1/2 of your tanks full stocking amount. Read the link below.

http/www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=60022

 

[Squid]

You could test this in a bucket, then multiply the amount of buckets of water you have in your tank.. i.e. a ten litre bucket x 18 for a 180 litre tank.

I used the following calculation to work out how much to put in. (depends on the % solution of your ammonia)

so.. 5ppm

if 1 litre is 1000 ml, then 1000 litres is 1 million ml...

then 5ml of pure ammonia is 5 ppm in that soltion..

so

100,000 would require 0.5 ml

10,000 (ten litres) would require 0.05ml of ammonia

the solution is only about 10% ammonia, so that would need 0.5ml of my solution

so i tested this in a bucket and it went green (somewhere over 4ppm, but not entirely sure as the kit is not that clear over 4ppm)

so..

my 180 litre tank would require 18 * 0.5 =9ml of my solution..

EDIT:.. its unlikely you will find "PURE" ammonia.. and my god would that stuff stink.. phew.. i used about 1/2 a bottle of the household ammonia from homebase, and that was a fairly long cycle.

Squid

 

[Jenll]

I'm cycling without fish, manually adding the ammonia. I would never add it with fish!

The basic idea is to add ammonia which builds up nitrifying bacteria, turning the ammonia into Nitrite. Eventually the nitrite turns into nitrate which is less harmful. A large water change is then done and you are ready to add 1/3 to 1/2 of your tanks full stocking amount. Read the link below.

http/www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=60022

Interesting... thanks for that... Like i say, i've never heard of it before... the old site i was on would've gone mental about this - it just refreshing to hear other options about cycling...


Good luck with working out the amounts!!!

 

[Nim]

Squid has done some great calculations except:

my 180 litre tank would require 18 * 0.5 =9ml of my solution..

It should read: my 180 litre tank would require 18 * 0.05 =0.9ml of my solution..

The ammonia solution usually available is 15% wv so Squid will have to use 6ml of the 15%wv solution in a 180 L tank to start with. Wait untill it starts going down and keep topping up each PPM that goes down untill nitrite spikes. Once Nitrite goes down, do a 100% water change and you are ready for fish

I however prefer the method of feeding the filter fishfood along with enzymes (like bactozyme or stresszyme or cycle). Its a more natural method and also develops non nitrogenous bacteria that actually break down waste into ammonia rather then just Ammonia. It may be a slightly longer process but considering you already have some mature filter media to start with, I would go with this option.

Nim

I'm cycling without fish, manually adding the ammonia. I would never add it with fish!

The basic idea is to add ammonia which builds up nitrifying bacteria, turning the ammonia into Nitrite. Eventually the nitrite turns into nitrate which is less harmful. A large water change is then done and you are ready to add 1/3 to 1/2 of your tanks full stocking amount. Read the link below.

http/www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=60022

Interesting... thanks for that... Like i say, i've never heard of it before... the old site i was on would've gone mental about this - it just refreshing to hear other options about cycling...


Good luck with working out the amounts!!!

What site Jen?

 

[Squid]

Squid has done some great calculations except:

my 180 litre tank would require 18 * 0.5 =9ml of my solution..

It should read: my 180 litre tank would require 18 * 0.05 =0.9ml of my solution..

The ammonia solution usually available is 15% wv so Squid will have to use 6ml of the 15%wv solution in a 180 L tank to start with.

Why was i wrong.. its 18 * 0.05 = 0.9ml for a PURE ammonia.. hence I would need 10 x that for a 10% solution..(as stated)

Cheers
Squid

 

[Nim]

Sorry I misunderstood it to be pure ammonia and not 10% My Bad.. but Nice calculations m8

Nim

 

[Squid]

Sorry I misunderstood it to be pure ammonia and not 10% My Bad.. but Nice calculations m8

Nim

No problem.. was just checking we were not misleading KingKenny...

And cheers ;-)
Squid

 

[KingKenny]

[/quote]

Why was i wrong.. its 18 * 0.05 = 0.9ml for a PURE ammonia.. hence I would need 10 x that for a 10% solution..(as stated)

Cheers
Squid
[/quote]

So, as I've now bought the same boots brand of ammonia 9.5% it is about right to do the sum for my 640 litre (useful volume) tank as follows:

64x0.05 = 3.2
3.2x9.5 = 30.4 (say 31)ml of ammonia for my tank?

Can someone confirm this as it's all confusing!

 

[Squid]

well.. it wouldnt be * 9.5.. but its near to it with 32 mils

 

[KingKenny]

well.. it wouldnt be * 9.5.. but its near to it with 32 mils

I thought as people were calculating at a (roughly) 10% solution, with mine being 9.5% I would multiply by 9.5?

Is it also fair to say that if I am looking to attain 5ppm, if it slips to 4ppm then I should be looking to add ammonia at the level of 1ppm within the tank as follows:

32ml for 5ppm therefore
32/5 = 6.4ml?

Am I close!

 

[Squid]

No. it was a bit of a fluke that it turned out times by ten, as it is a 10th of the strenght.. 9.5 would need to be times by about 10.5 as 10.5 x 9.5% = 100%..

but my solution was similar to yours.. so doing it as 10% was close enough..

Oh.. i think you have it the wrong way round though.. its when it gets down to 1ppm that you top it up.. but at least you can multiply 6.4 by the amount of mils that you need to help you with the calculation.. ie.. if you need to add 3 mils, then 3 x 6.4 would do it.. (check the fishless cycle thread for how much to add when.. )


Cheers
Squid

 

[KingKenny]

No. it was a bit of a fluke that it turned out times by ten, as it is a 10th of the strenght.. 9.5 would need to be times by about 10.5 as 10.5 x 9.5% = 100%..

but my solution was similar to yours.. so doing it as 10% was close enough..

Oh.. i think you have it the wrong way round though.. its when it gets down to 1ppm that you top it up.. but at least you can multiply 6.4 by the amount of mils that you need to help you with the calculation.. ie.. if you need to add 3 mils, then 3 x 6.4 would do it.. (check the fishless cycle thread for how much to add when.. )


Cheers
Squid

Thanks mate. Which forum is the fishless cycling thread in though???

 

[ajbettle]

clever.....