Dosing ammonia not working for cycling?

[windowlicker916]

Bought pure ammonia and I put 2 tsp of it into about 70g of water. Waited 15 mins and tested it....barely turned greenish if at all, talking .5ppm or less.

So I add 2 more and I test it in the morning maybe 9 hours after dosing.

Still no color change.

Am I dosing wrong?

I was told a freshwater ammonia test will work on salt water as well...was I told wrong?

Or perhaps it did but the 9 hours allowed the bacteria to clean up? Tank has live sand but no live rock as of yet and no other media. Skimmer is disabled.

 

[Sk8r]

I have never heard of this method in crom-many years of reefing, and it doesn't sound good to me. I gather you hope bacteria will arrive out of the air? I would suggest you do the standard thing, and get a pound of dry limestone rock and a pound of dry aragonite per gallon, plus 10-20% live rock, and settle down to wait 8 weeks.

 

[smtank]

No the test kit will not work. You will need a sw test kit. I am sure you have added more than enough ammonia, which is really not needed to cycle a tank.

Live sand for the most part is a gimmick unless you used sand from a running systems.

With no live cured rock there is no way you have a sufficient biological filter to process any ammonia at this point.

Good luck

 

[duncantse]

+1 on getting a SW test kit

 

[windowlicker916]

Whats the difference between the salt water and freshwater ammonia test, I am told their is 0.

Also I plan on getting live rock this week....but I still have the issue of not getting a clear test on the ammonia.

Tester chemicals work fine on my other tanks

 

[jdegrasse]

Salicylate tests for ammonia should work for FW and SW. Other tests may be disturbed by the presence (or absence) of salts.

 

[jdegrasse]

Also, +1 with Sk8r so no idea how that is supposed to work or why it isn't working.

 

[bertoni]

I agree with check whether the ammonia kit will work for saltwater. The live sand might have process the ammonia, especially if the total ppm was very small.

 

[evsalty]

I agree with check whether the ammonia kit will work for saltwater. The live sand might have process the ammonia, especially if the total ppm was very small.

+1. 70g is equal to 53,760 tsp so you have put in 2 tsp ammonia to 53,760 tsp of water.

 

[RegalAngel]

Stop wasting your time........

I use Seachem's Stability to provide the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria for my systems.

I use it in my QT anytime I wish to setup my QT for a fish(es) for QT purposes and never have any ammonia.

I also used it in my 300g system when I started it up and never any ammonia.

I highly recommend its use for providing the necessary bacteria for a fully functional biological filtration system.


http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Stability.html


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Sizes: 50 mL, 100 mL, 250 mL, 500 mL, 2 L, 4 L, 20 L

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The bacteria strains in Stability® have been in development for over a decade. The necessary conditions for growth of our bacterial strains encompass a very broad range. When other bacteria begin to die off (usually from high organic loads caused by the undetected death of an organism), Stability® simply works harder and grows faster! The strains function in fresh or saltwater. Stability® contains both nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria, a blend found in no other product. Additionally, Stability® contains facultative bacterial strains which are able to adapt to either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. The bacteria in Stability® are non-sulfur fixing, another innovation in the industry. Most other bacterial supplements will form toxic hydrogen sulfide under the proper conditions. Stability® will not, ever.

 

[madreef_7K]

How long was the water in the tank. If it was more than 2 weeks ago, you may have a ammonia digesting bacteria population already. Check your Nitrites and Nitrates. If the ammonia did get processed, then these two should be high!

By this calculation (if it is correct): 2 tsp of ammonia in 53760 tsp of water is much more than 1 ppm

(2/53760)X1000000 = 37 ppm

What is the strength of your ammonia (what %)

 

[madreef_7K]

Also, What is the make of the test you are using for testing Ammonia. I have used API and hagens and they both work for freshwater and saltwater.

 

[windowlicker916]

api test kit and the ammonia is "la totally awesome pure ammonia"

company reports only water and ammonia are in iy anx i assume its 10% ammonia.

water in tank is almost a week old or so

 

[pakarinen]

Salicylate tests for ammonia should work for FW and SW. Other tests may be disturbed by the presence (or absence) of salts.

I just bought an API kit and the chemicals (salicylic acid and whatever) and amounts used (8 drops of each) are the same for fresh and salt. The only difference is the color card - there's one for fresh and another for salt.

 

[windowlicker916]

Found the card via google.

embedding here for other peoples future reference

My test results were def like .25 or .5 PPM, will try adding more since I assumed the concentration of this ammonia i bought.

 

[madreef_7K]

Found the card via google.

embedding here for other peoples future reference

My test results were def like .25 or .5 PPM, will try adding more since I assumed the concentration of this ammonia i bought.

Your tests are fine. I think your ammonia is weaker than you think. I would take a gallon of water and add few drops at a time, mix it until you see the level rising to 2 ppm. then just multiply it with approxx gallons of water you have. That should do the trick.
I literally just finished my 90 g fish-less cycling. I used pure ammonium hydroxide from chemistry lab and I only needed 5 drops to take it to 2 ppm.

 

[madreef_7K]

oh and yes, I used the same tests as you are.

 

[john miller]

This is how I fishless cycled all of my freshwater tanks and have been doing it this way for years. I recently did this to keep some extra live rock cycled for the last several months with no ill effects. I never could understand why it wouldn't work with saltwater and the only answer that I could find was "We just don't do it that way". Maybe someone can explain it.

 

[geaux xman]

Not sure the grade of the powder ammonia you are using. Add some rock, then perhaps you could try using liquid ammonia from Wal-mart. I've used it before with success.

Its only a couple of bucks for a big bottle. Add about 15-20mls and you should get a 5+ppm ammonia reading. You should definitely wait till you have either dry or live rock in the tank for the bacteria to establish itself on.

 

[windowlicker916]

using liquid and i got home and did a nice dose...very little change.

so i tested a vial of the ammonia itself.....very low reading. i can smell the ammonia so wonder whats up.

i am going to try the ammonia Ace hardware sells that everyone recommends.