added ammonia???

[@rtemis]

Hi, I've managed to encourage my 8 year old to wait to buy fish until the cycle is complete. I did buy a fake plant and an ornament so that she has something to look at

I've added some clear ammonia to tank and I've got a reading of NH=1.0
Nitrite=0. Is it now a waiting game to watch for the nitrite increase?

Thanks.

 

[Zagz]

You can increase the ammonia to 3-4 ppm to sepped up the cycle. It is a waiting game. Congrats at getting an 8 year old to be patient.

 

[@rtemis]

Thanks for the reply. I was worried to add anymore because I felt I already added too much. I am using a small eye dropper to add the drops but I have already added 60 drops. I've read that you should add 5-10 drops for a 10 gallon tank. What's going on?

@rt

 

[Zagz]

How soon after adding the drops are you testing?

 

[Purrbox]

Could be that the Ammonia hasn't been fully distributed through the tank if your testing too soon as Anne has indicated with her question. You may also be using a much more dilute concentration than that was used in the other posts.

 

[Zagz]

That is exactly where I was going with my question. Joy nailed it. I suspect that you are testing too soon, should be at least 4 hours after dosing. The longer the better.

 

[@rtemis]

Last night I tested after an hour it tested 1.0
Tonight I retested after 24 and it was the same.
I added 20 more drops and waited an hour. It's reading
~2.0 to 3.0

If I need to get to to 3.0 to 4.0 I guess I need to keep going???

 

[@rtemis]

Here's a picture of the reading after an hour. Perhaps as Purrbox said, it's a diluted ammonia. I will recheck in 3 hours. 80 drops so far !!! I love chemistry....NOT --->Picture not dial up friendly.

 

[Zagz]

I'm with you on chemistry. The good folks here at AA helped me tremendously when starting out. Now they get my dosing q's for my plants. . Keep the ammonia at that level or closer to 4 ppm, don't stress you are doing just fine with your cycle. Do you know anyone who has a tank you could "steal" some media from?

 

[@rtemis]

Yah, it's great to have a forum with friendly people that are willing to give advice. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who has a cycled tank. Would a product like Biospira help?

 

[Zagz]

Biospira is recommended by many on this board. I have no access to it so I have no personal experience.

 

[An t-iasg]

Bio-spira would help. It's rather expensive, though, and I wouldn't buy it unless you know it's been properly refrigerated at the lfs. If you add Bio-spira (or media from a cycled tank) you still have to add the ammonia. The ammonia will feed the bacteria, as the fish waste will do when the fish come.

If you trust your lfs and they have clean, disease-free tanks, you could see if they will squeeze some filter sponges into a plastic bag for you. My lfs did this for me once. I went home with a bag of brown water! I squeezed my own filter sponge in the brown water, full of good bacteria and some of the lfs fish waste (which is why you'll want to be picky about which lfs you choose to ask). I then put this filter sponge in my filter and by the next morning, my cycle had completed (I had fish in my tank). You could do this too but if you don't have fish yet you'll need to keep feeding the bacteria with the ammonia.