Ahh, wrong ammonia

[pikashy]

I was trying to cycle my filter so I went to the hardware store to get some ammonia. I bought Sudzy Ammonia and when I asked the clerk, she said it was pure ammonia. I took it home and added enough to have an ammonia spike. Then as I was reading the forums, I realized that Sudzy Ammonia was the wrong type and that it foams. Now I have bubbles foaming in my tank.

The ingredients are:
Water, Ammonium Hydroxide, Deceth-4 Phosphate.

What should I do? Should I remove all my water from my 40 gallon tank and replace it with new water? I need to get some pure ammonia, does Safeway or Albertson's carry it?

[Carol_Roberts]

Yep, rinse the tank, rinse the filters and start over. :P

I bought my clear ammonia from Walmart

[Valik]

Walmarts around here don't sell pure ammonia. The only place so far in the whole of seattle I have found is the dollar store. However just about every dollar store I have been to has it. Got to be careful though, The ammonia that I got took several times less then in recommended. If I used a cap per 10 gallons I would of had several hundred nitrates. I ended up using about a 1/4 of a cap for a 46 gal tank and it took my ammonia off the chart.
Matt

[kaceyo]

Bummer Dude! I Also had a hard time finding clear ammonia. The trick is it will say CLEAR on the label. I finaly found it at Safeway. Good luck, Kaceyo

[Wolf_Mek]

I can get mine at the grocery store, you may also want to check them out.

[Valik]

You have to be careful with clear ammonia. I bought some labelled clear ammonia, and I thought it was the right stuff but then when I got home I noticed that it still had surficants in it, which I believe you want to avoid. I think you need pure ammonia, not just clear ammonia. Any of the "elders" know if I am right on this?
Matt

[Discus_Newbie19]

The first time I used the wrong ammonia aswell... pain in the *** to clean everthing again!

[pikashy]

Took me forever to clean the tank. I had to bring it outside and rinse it. It's now filled with clean aged tap water. I'm going to get ammonia soon. The only ingredients that can be in pure ammonia is:

water
ammonia or ammonium hydroxide

right? and nothing else?

[Howie_W]

The only ingredients that can be in pure ammonia is:

water
ammonia or ammonium hydroxide

right? and nothing else?


Correct...it will be clear...no perfumes, coloring or other additives etc...if you shake it up and it bubbles like a detergent it's no good.

Howie

[pikashy]

I finally got the ammonia from Longs, 2 bucks. I shook it and it didn't foam, hopefully, when I get up tomorrow, the tank won't be foaming.

I added some hagen cycle. Will that help speed the cycling process? If I see foam tomorrow, it might be because of the cycle or the ammonia.

I have a question about the fishless cycle, do I keep on adding ammonia every single day to keep it at 4-5 ppm or should I reduce the amount by half when I see a nItrite reading and continue adding that amount until my fish and nitrate spike.

Or I could just add the same amount everyday and have an overload of bacteria, no harm in that right?

[Carol_Roberts]

Add ammonia to make 3 - 5 ppm. Test every couple of days or so. When level gets down to 1 ppm add more ammonia. When you start showing nitrItes continue to feed a bit of ammonia every day or two. Don't overdo the ammonia.

[Valik]

No you can't just keep adding more everyday. I'm not sure why this is but every fishless cycle article I have read says that if you add too much ammonia(several times the recommended amount) it will create problems, though I have never read what the exact problem is. Once you put in the intial amount of ammonia just let it sit until you show nitrites. I'm not sure how others do it from here but Once I show nitrites I do a 50% WC and then add a little more ammonia to keep the ammonia bacteria going. Repeat every 2 to 4 days until cycle is complete. Also I have read that the more air you have going through your tank(having your filter splash or adding airstones) will increase the cycle time because the bacterial intially gets into the water through the air.
Matt

[pikashy]

I put some ammonia in yesterday to the tank to register 4 ppm. Today when I tested it, ammonia was around 2-3 and nitrItes were 5 ppm. Is this normal because I added in Hagen Cycle. It might contain some nitrItes. I should've tested for nitrItes yesterday also to see if my tank already contained some or not.

[Carol_Roberts]

Keep a chart to see how the numbers change over time. If ammonia gets down to 1 add some more.

[pikashy]

It's been a week and I've been adding enough ammonia to register from 1-3 ppm. It takes exactly 1 cap to raise the ammonia level 1 ppm. However, my nitrites are not falling. I added more Hagen cycle today and hopefully it will come down. The nitrites have been at 5.0+ for 6-7 days.

After the cycling is complete, how much ammonia do you think 6 juvenile discus fish will produce in a 40 gallon tank a day? Around how much ppm? I want to make sure my tank can handle the load of ammonia before going out to get my discus.

[Anonapersona]

It could take 38 days total (+/-) to cycle the tank. The nitrite phase is about twice as long as the ammonia phase, it seems to go on forever, then suddenly nitrites fall to zero in just a few days.

be patient!