Tank Cycling Weird

layna said:
No, you need to leave it in there becuase when it starts to rot it will produce ammonia, if you change it everyday, it wont go bad and add ammonia :)
Did you glance over the link i posted further up?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did, my issue is still just getting the ammonia to go up. I'm going to look for pure ammonia tomorrow after work (first chance I'll get this week), otherwise I just get to play the super long waiting game.
 
knyptozoologist said:
Yeah, I did, my issue is still just getting the ammonia to go up. I'm going to look for pure ammonia tomorrow after work (first chance I'll get this week), otherwise I just get to play the super long waiting game.
Click to expand...

Haha yeah its definalty easier with pure ammonia, you need like two drops and it goes to 4ppm! Good luck finding it :D
 
Do you have an ACE Hardware Store (can I mention that here--sorry if I can't) in your area? They sell ammonia as a cleaner. Soap/Perfume free, though, unlike the bottles at the five other stores I went to before someone told me to go there. =D

Good luck cycling!
 
The only stuff I could find nearby had the following ingredients:

Ammonium Hydroxide, Surfactant, Colorant

Thoughts?

Otherwise it looks like I may have to track down the nearest Ace....
 
Bah, okay so the nearest Ace didn't have any in and won't have any until Friday, which is basically my Monday (my work week is Fri-Tues) so I'm not super pleased with that.

I've been poking around various aquarium forums and have sort of determined that the surfactant in the ammonia I found should be okay (the ammonia doesn't 'suds' up when I shake the bottle), but I'm wondering if anyone knows why the colorant is a problem exactly?

It's quite frustrating to find the answer to be "it's just bad" without any good reasoning and at this point it's my only option without waiting another entire week to try to start really cycling this tank.
 
Well....after a week of struggling with this and still only coming up with .5 ppm of ammonia after a week of dumping 1/8 cup of food into the tank (which immediately turned my water to mud, even when contained in a net) I think I'm just going to drain the tank and start over and hope I have better luck adding shrimp pellets.

Especially since NO WHERE around here seems to sell ammonia that doesn't contain surfactant (except supposedly Ace and they didn't have any) and there's no consensus ANYWHERE online if it's safe or not.
 
I ordered mine off ebay the brand is 'kleen off'
 
knyptozoologist said:
The only stuff I could find nearby had the following ingredients:

Ammonium Hydroxide, Surfactant, Colorant

Thoughts?

Otherwise it looks like I may have to track down the nearest Ace....
Click to expand...

Surfactant will make suds so I've read online. I started to get that too. Ended up going to ace.
 
I ended up just draining the tank almost completely, there was so much gunky disgustingness on everything from the fish food I couldn't stand it anymore. The tank is full of clean, new, dechlorinated water. I also picked up Stability from the petstore and some ghost shrimp and threw some of my betta's tank water in the tank (it's not filtered so there should be some ammonia present just to start me off).

Right now my tanks looks like this:

Ph: 7.4
Ammonia: .25
NitrIte: 0
NitrAte: 0

What a change of pace! :/
 
I finally got my 10 gal up to 3.0 by adding about a qarter of a spoon of ammonia to the tank this morning. I also had to take the filter out but left the HOB running. I read on a posting board the charcoal filter will help remove ammonia. Taking it out helped a lot. Since the bacteria will attach to objects, plants and sand it shouldn't hurt anything.

Ammonia. 3.0
Nitrite .5
Nitrate. 40
Hardness 300
Alkalinity 180
PH. 8.4

So I think I'm in business now.
 
I finally got the Ace brand of ammonia....any tips on how much to add? I've heard WIDELY varying numbers so I was wondering if anyone had an adding guide specific to that brand. I'm thinking of adding 10 drops, testing in 20 minutes, then going from there....
 
You wont need 10 drops.
I use pure ammonia and use 2-4 drops and that takes it to 4ppm, its really strong stuff so id start with 4 drops then test :)
 
I had to add probably 40 drops to get 4ppm but I was cycling a 90 gallon tank at the time. But I was using a syringe and tested about once every ten drops or so after it didn't budge after 4.
 
I accidentally got about 15 in there because I didn't have anything to use as a dropper smaller than a turkey baster, but it put me around 3ppm, so I'm thinking about 5 drops/ppm at this point. I'm going to do another test today to make sure it didn't go any higher (tested after waiting about 30 minutes) and do a water change if I need to.
 
Alright, so the tank's been at 4ppm steadily for the last few days. I added the drops Saturday and still no NitrItes. Any ideas? :/
 
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