Help! Added "Surfactant ammonia" to cycle!

V

vitesse

AC Members
Oct 7, 2005
38
0
6
Woodbridge, VA
Wife and I set our new 50 gal bowfront and stand and filled it up. The next day I left on business and gave her the instructions for buying ammonia and adding it to bring the levels up for cycling...

...She did a great job but used "Clear Ammonia" that bubbled when shaken and had surfactants in it. Apparently she only added it 4 times but I have no idea what effect the surfactants will have.

Can anyone help with info? I'd hate to have to change my filter media (Eheim 2015 bio/mech) and scrub my substrate and tank because of a surfactant issue.

Please help!
 
Rinsing my equipment

Should I replace the filter media for my Eheim '15?

Also, when you say rinse, do you mean that I should rinse each item and each handful of gravel for 5-15 seconds under cold tap water or are we talking something more intense?

In case I didn't mention, I don't have any fish yet and I am not using a porous gravel. I think the worst part is going to be rinsing my gravel and my filter stuff (hoses too??).

This is gonna take a full afternoon isn't it?
:sad:
 
i'm using "clear ammonia" to cycle, but it was literally the ONLY thing available. i checked everywhere and couldn't find anything else. it doesnt foam when i shake it though. its just got purified water, ammonia, and chelating agent in it. i was worried about the chelating agent, but i dont know what it is.....anyone else know? this is my only option though. i went to every pet store in the city looking for the things i needed to start this tank, and NOBODY had pure ammonia for doing a fishless cycle. i had to go to walmart and just get this.
 
Celeste makes a good point. Here in DC there was no pure ammonia option for my wife, so she did the best she could after going to Home Depot, Walmart, Safeway, Giant Food, and 2 local hardware stores.

I think that once I'm done rinsing my life and time away this weekend that I will just invest in some Bio-Spira (sp?).

My buddy has 4 (a 4-inch Oscar, an Albino Cichlid, a 3-inch Pleco, and 2-inch oscar) fish that he is about to in-humanely flush/euthenize if a home is not offered for them in 5-7 days.

Before I flush my friend, my wife and I are going to try to stage a rescue before we stock our tank until we can find a home for these 4 guys.

In the meantime, I gotta get my tank up and going.
 
For what it's worth, I had the same "ammonia-search" problem, and finally found it at Ace Hardware - janitor strength (or something like that), 10% Ammonium Hydroxide. No foam when shaken.

Another option (though a bit wierd), is to look in the phone book under chemicals and call around asking if they would sell you a little bit of Ammonium Chloride (it's a granular thing). Then you make your own solution. There's a web site out there with directions on how much to use. I could find it if you want.

NOTE: Newbie talking here.

Liz
 
so do i need to start over? what is chelating agent?
 
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