How much ammonia?

[adeian]

I've just gotten my 90g set up to the point of being ready to cycle. I'm going to do a fishless cycle using ammonia from ACE hardware.

I don't really want to just start dumping ammonia in the tank though. Is there any calculation or does anyone know how much ammonia it takes to bring the level up to 4 ppm in a 90g tank? Any educated guesses?

Thanks.

Adeain

 

[Purevil21]

Why not just use a shrimp to cycle? Put a piece of cocktail shrimp into a dress sock or pantyhose leg and let it decay. Then you don't have to worry about dosing the system.

 

[Gti_Leo]

you don't have to worry about dosing, but you also have to wait for it to decompose and can't controll how much ammonia is actually in there

 

[Purevil21]

To each his own, both methods work well. I just prefer the shrimp method, quick and painless, toss it in and wait. lol

 

[Gti_Leo]

lol no doub. when i cycled my lace rock i just used the moss that was on it as an ammonia source. the ammonia never spiked above 4ppm and quickly turned into nitrite 10 days later where it stalled for a few weeks because the moss kept decomposing and turning into nitrites. i had to do three 50% waterchanges to bring the nitrite to under 5PPM and down to 80ppm nitrates. three days ater i had no nitrites and 20ppm nitrates. yeah i know a drop in nitrates to end the cycle .

the rock is still sitting in the 7 gallon bucket i was using to cure it

 

[adeian]

I had thought about using a shrimp but the idea of being able to know the exact levels and times appealed to the engineer in me more. That and every time I get shrimp they end up getting grilled.