Cycling with ammonia question

[TokiHacker]

The lady brought home ammonia today but it says in the ingredients ammonia hydroxide and sulfcant. Is that ok?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dublo8]

absolutely not OK.
Typically there are two types. You need the other type. Pure ammonia. The one you have has a cleaning agent in it. DO NOT USE IT.

 

[LX20000]

Do you have ACE hardware near you? They sell 10% ammonia, with no surfactants.

 

[TokiHacker]

That's what I thought.... I don't have an ace hardware and there wasn't any at Lowe's...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jwheld]

Or true value hardware? I used blue ribbon ammonia.

 

[TokiHacker]

Nope... sad to say


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dublo8]

Then don't worry about it and throw some fish food or a table shrimp in there. Save the Ammonia for cleaning your kitchen and bathrooms.

 

[TokiHacker]

The only issue with that I have read people with large tanks (this one has 235g of water) with the ghost feeding not working


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dublo8]

ghost feeding is when you feed over a period of time, just like feeding your tank on a daily basis except only the ghosts are eating it..... I'm talking about throwing a shrimp or two in the tank and letting it rot to kick start the cycle. Ghost feeding on a tank that size isn't going to do much.

Home depot sometimes carries the other ammonia if you have one nearby. Read the label carefully though.

Did you use live rock or clean dry rock?

 

[TokiHacker]

Dry rock dry sand. Put bottle bacteria in there (don't really trust it) but we will see. I put a couple of silver slides I had to rot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dublo8]

it should be fine. Keep an eye on the ammonia levels, pull the silversides in a couple days when the ammonia spikes and test every other day to see what happens. Some of those "bacteria in a bottle" additives are surprisingly good. However, they can create a mono culture of one type of bacteria only. Ask a friend or trade with an LFS for a bit of live rock from another tank to help create some diversity.