Yep, Another Question Re: Ammonia

[pauly]

I'm about to begin a fishless cycle on a new tank (Juwel Vision 180). At least I will be when I get my sand.

I was trying to work how much Ammonia (Boots Household stuff (9.5%)) to put in to get the content to 6ppm. I put five litres in a bucket and began to add the ammonia bit by bit. I had to put A LOT of ammonia in before I got a reading that looked above 0.25. I put in 20 teaspoons worth which gave me a reading of 1, so I added another 20 and the reading seemed to have gone down to less than 1

I'm guessing that's way too much anyway, but why the wierd readings? Could my test be out of date? I've had it for about year or so.

So to make my life easier, could someone tell me how much I need to put into the tank to reach the 6ppm level? I've read on one of the threads that it'll be about 9ml, can anybody confirm that please?

One last question (if you're still reading this far down), where's the best place to get white sand from in the UK (Birmingham)? My local Pets at Home doesn't have it.

Thanks in advance,

Paul.

 

[mark.w.jones]

You need to get hold of a pipette or small measuring cup to measure out your ammonia. A teaspoon is just not accurate enough. These come in the vast majority of fish meds and some plant ferts. Its worth having some basic white spot, anti fungus and bacterial meds to hand for an emergency so you might as well buy them to keep and use the pipette.

Get 10 litres of dechlorinated water in a bucket. Add ammonia a few drops at a time. Test every 10 or so drops or more, guage it by how much it's gone up each time. Obviously keep count of your drops. If it takes 20 drops to get 10 litres of water to 6ppm NH4 then you need:

20drops x 18 to raise 180 litres of water to 6ppm. If you've got loads of drops to add you really need a small measuring cup. Pharmacies and good cookery shops do them

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Pauly,

Heres how to do it

Vision 180 = 180 Litres of water

180 Litres = 180,000ml


You want ammonia to be 6ppm (parts per million) so

180,000 / 1,000,000 x 6 = 1.08ml of pure ammonia

However, your solution is only 9.5% ammonia so,

1.08ml / 9.5 x 100 = 11.4ml of Boots Household ammonia.

Hope this helps.

 

[mark.w.jones]

.

 

[rdd1952]

I put in 20 teaspoons worth which gave me a reading of 1, so I added another 20 and the reading seemed to have gone down to less than 1

Something definitely isn't right. For me, adding 1 teaspoon (about 5ml) to 5 gallon will raise my ammonia to 5 ppm. What kind of test kit are you using and how old is the ammonia? If you are usiing strips, they can become useless if they are exposed to even the humidity in the air for any length of time (most people, including me, consider them useless anyway). For most ammonia, the 1ml per 5 gallons will get you to round 4 or 5 ppm unless the mmonia is old in which case it may take more.

 

[pauly]

You need to get hold of a pipette or small measuring cup to measure out your ammonia. A teaspoon is just not accurate enough.

I started with drops from a pipette, but it took like hundreds of drops for the test to even recognise the ammonia. I counted 100 drops onto a teaspoon so started to measure with teaspoons instead.

What kind of test kit are you using and how old is the ammonia?

I'm using an API Liquid Test Kit, that I've had for a while. The ammonia is new, I bought it last week, although I dont know how long it's been sitting on the shelves at Boots.

11.4ml of Boots Household ammonia.

Thanks for that, very useful. I might just go with that unless anybody thinks it'll be worth buying a new test kit?


Paul.

 

[Jonno]

I'm cycling my trigon 190 atm with boots household ammonia also...took about 8.5mil ammonia to get to the 7/8 mark using the API test kit.i now add 5mil whenever the ammonia reaches near zero.BTW - remove the standard juwell nitrate and carbon filter before you start (or don't include them in the first place if you haven't added water yet)

Thanks for that, very useful. I might just go with that unless anybody thinks it'll be worth buying a new test kit?

i'd definately calculate it yourself - there will always be slight variations in strength i think.

 

[pauly]

remove the standard juwell nitrate and carbon filter before you start

Which ones are those? My last filter (fluval one) only had one sponge in it, this new one has about 8 different ones

 

[Jonno]

the black one (carbon) and green (nitrate). It may be a good idea to replace the Nitrate sponge with a normal course sponge to increase the size of your bacteria colony though.

 

[pauly]

So do I just put them back in once its cycled?

Also I plan to put in half of my mature fluval one sponge, is there anywhere in particular it should go?

 

[backtotropical]

11.4ml of Boots Household ammonia.

Thanks for that, very useful. I might just go with that unless anybody thinks it'll be worth buying a new test kit?

If your solution is definitely 9.5% ammonia, 11.4ml of solution will raise the levels in 180 litres of water to 6ppm.

Check it for yourself. You could actually measure how accurate your test kit is by it!

 

[Jonno]

So do I just put them back in once its cycled?

Also I plan to put in half of my mature fluval one sponge, is there anywhere in particular it should go?

the carbon filter is only needed if you add meds to the water, or if you want to remove tannin after adding bogwood to water. It is only effective for about 2 weeks where it'll basically act like a regular sponge anyway.

the nitrate sponge is useful when your tank is fully cycled, but during cycling it effects your nitrate test results making it hard to see if the nitrites are being broken down into nitrates properly. it supposodly makes it so you don't have to do water changes as frequently, but if you are like me and do them weekly/biweekly then you don't really need one so just stick with the course filter as above

 

[pauly]

Cheers Jonno, I wish they'd explain stuff in simple English like that in the instructions. Oh I forgot, the instructions came on a CD

I now understand why those two were separately sealed. Maybe I shouldn't have opened them, oops.

When I add the sand and water, I assume I leave the filter / heater off whilst it settles. A couple of days maybe, then add the first lot of ammonia and mature filter sponge at the same time?

Slowly getting there,

Paul.

 

[Jonno]

i turned both of mine on after i added water, and added ammonia the night after. i used gravel mind, sand may take longer to settle.

 

[Behold]

Hi Pauly,

Heres how to do it

Vision 180 = 180 Litres of water

180 Litres = 180,000ml


You want ammonia to be 6ppm (parts per million) so

180,000 / 1,000,000 x 6 = 1.08ml of pure ammonia

However, your solution is only 9.5% ammonia so,

1.08ml / 9.5 x 100 = 11.4ml of Boots Household ammonia.

Hope this helps.

Thats how i worked out mine with homebase 9.5%

for 110 L i use 5 ml. used to sit at near perfect 5ml

Stuff doing it drop at a time!!! too much time when math works perfectly.