What Effects Does Cloudy Ammonia Have?

[Blondielovesfish]

Hi all,
I posted this comment on another thread awhile ago and thought that I should get it checked out to see what faults you can find with using this guide to cycle with cloudy ammonia:
 
The other day, after I went to my nearest supermarket to see if they had any pure/clear ammonia, I started researching about using cloudy ammonia (since thats all my supermarket had), and I found out that you can use it but.....
Various people recommended that you don't have anything in the tank except the filter and heater, so you cycle you tank and then about 3 days before you get fish, you give your tank a really good clean out, scrubbing every single bit of surface and then performing several 100% water changes (using dechlorinated water) over that day and the next, then, when your pretty sure that there is little to no "nasty stuff" left, you can perform your final waterchange and when your the water is up to temperature, you can add fish. (If there is any "nasty stuff" left, then it will be diluted so much, that it will be almost untracable and therefore safe for the fish, though they do recommend adding the hardiest fish first).
 
I haven't been able to find any pure/clear ammonia so that is why I'm asking if you think that guide would work. I know that the cloudy ammonia has some detergents etc. in it because although there isn't a ingredient list on it, it bubbled when I shook it a little bit.
What effects could the detergents etc. have on the bacteria?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

If you can find a list of the ingredients of the cloudy ammonia, that could help the investigation.
 
Detergent will behave like detergent and kill bacteria, so keeping detergent out of a cycling tank is a good idea.  The active ingredient in chlorine-based detergents is sodium hypochlorite.
 
I'm pretty sure an ammonia source won't have sodium hypochlorite in it.  Mixing sodium hypochlorite and ammonia forms chlorine gas, which is very dangerous.
 
Small amounts of sodium hypochlorite (bleach/detergent) can be treated with your dechlorinator.  In fact, that is exactly what they're designed to do since some places treat tap water using sodium hypochlorite.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

So...could I like dechlorinate the cloudy ammonia?
I looked all over the bottle but could not find a ingredient list except for it saying that ammonia was the active ingredient. It bubbled when I shook it.

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

 
Does your cloudy ammonia look like this?  A little sniffing around has led me to believe there may be soap in this.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

This is the stuff at my supermarket:
http/m.countdown.co.nz/ProductDetails/18229

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

Sorry, the link isn't working for me.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

I'll relink it in the morning when I'm on my laptop.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Under no circumstances use Cloudy Ammonia. That label indicates that the ammonia contains some amount of soap.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

is there any other form of ammonia I could use then? I think I've seen like ammonium nitrite or something like that but I'm pretty sure it's in powdered form.
I'll keep looking around because apparently you can find it at chemist so I'll look there.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

This is the stuff, hopefully the link will work:
http/shop.countdown.co.nz/Content/ProductImages/big/9414742037902.jpg

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Ammonium Chloride-
 
http/store.drtimsaquatics.com/Ammonium-Chloride-Solution-for-Fishless-Cycling_p_190.html
 
You would have to get the powder in NZ and mix your own:
 

 
Stock solution: Dissolve 3.819 g of anhydrous ammonium chloride, NH4Cl CASRN 12125-02-9), dried at 105°C, in reagent water, and dilute to 1 L.
1.0 mL = 1.0 mg NH3-N.

Standard Solution A: Dilute 10.0 mL of stock solution (Section 7.11) to 1 L with reagent water. 1.0 mL = 0.01 mg NH3-N.

Standard Solution B: Dilute 10.0 mL of standard solution A (Section 7.12) to 100.0 mL with reagent water. 1.0 mL = 0.001 mg NH3-N.

Reagent water is basically deionized - your can probably get away using distilled.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Thanks for that. I'll see if I can go down to the chemist tomorrow or sometime this week and see if they have anything. Otherwise I'll try a hardware shop or some different supermarkets. If I can't find anything then I suppose I'll just have to cycle with fish.

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

I could always send you bottles of my tap water here.  It's got 0.25 ppm ammonia consistently, courtesy of the water department.  Just kidding, I see you're in New Zealand!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Haha, yeah I wish!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

If I can't find pure/clear ammonia, would it just be better to use fish food?