How much ammonia to get started? Tankgirl?

[cginflorida]

Tankgirl, you mentioned in another post that you know from experience about how much ammonia to use daily to start cycling.

Can you give me a ballpark figure for a 75 gal and a 10 gal? I set up my new tanks yesterday and got my clear ammonia today. If I could get an idea how much to add to each tank without doing a gazillion tests, that would be great.

Anybody else that can help me out, too, please chime in. Thanks!

 

[TankGirl]

For a 10gal we are talking maybe 12 drops (?) or so, for a 75 you are looking at a little over a tablespoon. I really think it is important to go ahead and do the test, starting with maybe 5 drops of ammonia in the 10, for example, test, and then add a couple more drops each time until you get to 5ppm. After that you just put that many drops into a spoon or something and see how full to fill it for next time. I know it is a pain but you just have to do it once, then after that you know how much to put in every day without testing.

You can certainly do it any way you want, of course, but there may be some variability on how long/short the cycle lasts - that is the only downside.

 

[cginflorida]

Thanks TG. I'm definitely going to test, I just wanted an estimate to get me started so I wouldn't be adding a couple drops, testing, adding a couple more drops, testing, and so on.