need help starting aquarium cycle with pure ammonia.

[mike020689]

I was wondering if anybody can help me.I'm trying to start a new cycle in my 55 gallon tank I read online in a couple.post that I was suppose to use 8ml of ammonia a day to get the cycle started but my ammonia is off the chart now so I was wondering if anybody can give.me advice I started the tank Friday any info will help I'm using 10%ammonia with no solvent s thanks

 

[sinibotia]

Hey Mike, welcome to AA!

What's your ammonia reading? And what test kit are you using? If you're using a test strip kit you may be getting inaccurate readings; that might be the problem. Otherwise, you added too much ammonia.

Try doing a 50% water change and then see where your ammonia is. If it's still off the charts, or above 4ppm, do another 50% water change and check again. Keep doing that until your ammonia is between 2 and 4 ppm.

You shouldn't need to add 8mL of ammonia per day. The goal is to add as much ammonia as you need to in order to keep it between 2 and 4 ppm. If the ammonia is already in that range, you don't need to add anything. When the bacteria starts to grow and the ammonia starts to drop, that's when you need to add some more, and then you just keep adding it until around 2ppm of ammonia is completely converted to nitrate in 24 hours. At that point, do a water change to get your nitrate into acceptable levels and then you're all set!

 

[mike020689]

Hey Mike, welcome to AA!

What's your ammonia reading? And what test kit are you using? If you're using a test strip kit you may be getting inaccurate readings; that might be the problem. Otherwise, you added too much ammonia.

Try doing a 50% water change and then see where your ammonia is. If it's still off the charts, or above 4ppm, do another 50% water change and check again. Keep doing that until your ammonia is between 2 and 4 ppm.

You shouldn't need to add 8mL of ammonia per day. The goal is to add as much ammonia as you need to in order to keep it between 2 and 4 ppm. If the ammonia is already in that range, you don't need to add anything. When the bacteria starts to grow and the ammonia starts to drop, that's when you need to add some more, and then you just keep adding it until around 2ppm of ammonia is completely converted to nitrate in 24 hours. At that point, do a water change to get your nitrate into acceptable levels and then you're all set!

My ammonia now is way past 8ppm an I'm using api liquid test kit an thanks for the info. The one website I found obviously was wrong. I'll try doing the 50% water change tomorrow after work an see if I can get it down between 2-4 ppm. After I do 50% percent water change how long should I wait to test the water? About an hour ? Thank s for replying an trying to help me get this figured out.

 

[sinibotia]

My ammonia now is way past 8ppm an I'm using api liquid test kit an thanks for the info. The one website I found obviously was wrong. I'll try doing the 50% water change tomorrow after work an see if I can get it down between 2-4 ppm. After I do 50% percent water change how long should I wait to test the water? About an hour ? Thank s for replying an trying to help me get this figured out.

Yeah, an hour sounds good. If you've added ammonia every day since friday you may want to just do a 90% water change to start with and the go from there.

 

[mike020689]

Okay I'll try that thanks. Also if I do 90% and its still reading high after a hour. Would you recommend to do a 50% after or how much if the 90% doesn't get it down enough? Also I found a ammonia calculator for how much ammonia to add to get desired level off ppm I'll send the link can you tell me if it sounds correct for 3ppm it says I believe 6.57 ml of ammonia to get 3ppm of ammonia thanks

http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

 

[sinibotia]

Okay I'll try that thanks. Also if I do 90% and its still reading high after a hour. Would you recommend to do a 50% after or how much if the 90% doesn't get it down enough? Also I found a ammonia calculator for how much ammonia to add to get desired level off ppm I'll send the link can you tell me if it sounds correct for 3ppm it says I believe 6.57 ml of ammonia to get 3ppm of ammonia thanks

Calculator

If it's still reading high just keep doing big water changes. With no fish in the tank there's no harm in it. If you end up getting too low you can just add some more. 6-7 mL sounds perfect.

 

[mike020689]

Okay thanks a lot for all your help I'll give that a try an keep you posted.