Too much ammonia?

[roghib]

Attempting to fishless cycle my 90 gallon...I poured ammonia in and am thinking I have too much...I am using a good testing kit but notice that the card kind of stops at 4ppm and next color is 8ppm....mine is in between....thinking I could even be as high as 6 or 7....is this too high to get nitrites to form. Been like 10 days and little change in ammonia level.

[echoofformless]

It's actually fine. It will take time to be nitrified like any other amount of ammonia, and then will come nitrite and then nitrate just like you would expect. Only the amount of nitrate will be extremely high, so expect to do some big water changes.

[Tommy Gun]

5 ppm seems to be the 'magic number' as far as a good ammonia level to start a cycle and keep it going without fish. The amount to put in should be 5 drops of ammonia per every 10 gallons of water. Once you cannot keep the ammonia level at 5 ppm for much longer than a couple of hours, then drop down to 3 to 4 drops to keep the nitrifying bacteria fed until you have 0 ammonia and nitrites and low nitrates and can put fish into the tank.

[TKOS]

As long as you have no fish int he tank then you could in theory have 20 ppm of ammonia. But the bacteria grown will only be able to be eventually sustained by the fish load you have. So 5 ppm seems to be a nice max that will take care of even highly stocked tanks. 20 ppm or 8 ppm would just mean your eventual bacterial load will die back to the available food source.

[roghib]

Thnx for answers and even more for the suggested drops per gallon. I am now considered a total idiot at the moment with my wife....I wont say how much ammonia was actually in the tank but lets just say the card that shows amount of ammonia in tank doesnt even come near the actual level....One should ALWAYS read the instructions before assuming ANYTHING. When it says wait 5 minutes for color to develop it generally is a good idea to do so. I could tell the whole story but I would hate to create any medical conditions due to uncontrollable laughter on a holiday. After Thanksgiving dinner I suppose it is time to drain tank AGAIN and AGAIN wash all substrate.

At least no fish were hurt just my time ....it all good :)))))))

[Rbishop]

Just do 50% water changes until you get your desired ppm in range.