whats the deal with ammonia?

[LestWeForget13]

ok first when i stared out, i thought ammonia was bad, so now it seems that u need ammonia? whats the deal? is that with fish? or is that some other chemical i need?

[hisc1ay]

sustained ammonia is bad. Your fish produce ammonia in their waste. There are bacteria that convert the ammonia into nitrite, which is also bad in sustained high amounts. Fortunately there are bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate, which is ok.

Ammonia is necessary to start the cycle of growing these bacteria colonies to regulate the levels in your tank. So in that sense, it's good. Too much of it for too long is bad. Search for posts about cycling to get more in depth understandings. There may even be a sticky in the "Getting Started" forum.

-j

[AtodaJ]

Based on that question, I don't think you've been introduced to the Nitrogen Cycle. Give this article a careful read and you'll see where Ammonia fits into the mix.

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

[LestWeForget13]

ok i got the nitrogen cycle but where does the bacteria that breks down the ammonia come from? how is that process started

[TankGirl]

The bacteria reside everywhere, so you don't have to worry about whether or not the process will begin. It will start in the presence of ammonia, and there are factors that promote and inhibit their growth, but a tank will, one way or the other, eventually cycle if the bacteria are fed.

You can also purchase this special bacteria in the form of Marineland's Bio-Spira, but currently it is out of stock nationwide, and it should become available sometime next month.

[LestWeForget13]

so how would i introduce ammonia to the bacteria and how can i tell if the bacteria is in there?

[TankGirl]

You introduce ammonia with pure household ammonia, found in the cleaning section of the grocery store. You also can cycle a tank with fish (though I prefer not to) or you can use fish food, or a thawed, frozen shrimp that will decay and produce ammonia.

Using the pure ammonia method you will add ammonia to the tank every day, the same amount (to produce 5ppm ammonia on a test kit) and you will know you have bacteria because in a week or 10 days you will start to be able to measure nitrIte in the tank. Keep on adding ammonia and in another couple of weeks (or a month) you will see nitrAte, then very soon you won't be able to measure ammonia or nitrIte (even though you continue to add ammonia to the tank). This is when the cycle is over and your bacteria are thriving in the tank.

This process goes on when you set up a new tank and put fish in it, and you have to keep doing partial water changes to keep the toxic ammonia and nitrite down until the cycle is over. Some fish can tolerate this process better than others.

[LestWeForget13]

okay ill probly go with the frozen shrimp or the fish food, now with the fush food what will i have to do? just add food without fish?

[TankGirl]

Yep, just toss it in there every day as if there were fish there. Might be stinky but it will do the job.

[LestWeForget13]

ok and thats it? it seems to simple, hopefully i wont screw it up like i tend to do things,


and if i were to buy some slate from like a gardening store would it be ok to put it in there or what would be a good way to clean it?