API Ammonia remover??

[Machinist]

Was helping my mother-in-law setup her 35g tank last night and she bought the Api zeolite ammonia remover. I have never used this product so i said sure lets try it. After reading the instructions which say to rinse and place in filter which i did, and when i turned the filter on it made the tank very cloudy so i quickly turned off the filter and re-rinsed the ammonia bag for even longer and stuck back in and it dis the same thing again more cloudy water pouring out of the filter. My question is, is this normal and if anyone else has tried this product what are your thoughts. Or should i have not even used it at all?

 

[Machinist]

This is a FW tank btw.

 

[foster53]

Just out of curiousity, why are you using an ammonia remover? The bacteria in the tank will take care of ammonia. If too much is removed by the Zeolite, the nitrifying bacteria will begin to decrease.

 

[Machinist]

It was a new setup. She thought it would help so we tried it, the tank is all clear and seems to be doing good so far.

 

[Machinist]

And the package said you could use it for new setups.

 

[foster53]

There is normally no ammonia in a brand new set up, unless your water supply has some in it. Are you planning to do a fishless cycle, or a fish in cycle. Fishless in my opinion is the best. No fish are harmed or caused to suffer that way.

 

[Machinist]

She is doing fishless

 

[foster53]

Doing fishless requires ammonia in the tank, so using the ammonia remover is kinda defeating the purpose. Probably should remove the Zeolite, and keep the ammonia level at around 4 PPM. Do you have an ammonia, and nitrite test kit? You will need them to keep track of the cycle advances.

 

[Machinist]

Ok thanks i will relay the message to remove it. She bought all the test stuff and when she opened the ammonia test package the only thing in there was the instructions so she will have to go get some more, kind of a bummer!!