Ammonia, Hard to Find -- Poss Solution?

NeonJulie said:
I got burned this month about this. I thought I’d done everything right. "Clear Ammonia." No perfumes. Sounded good.

It may be possible to take a few days and test the ammonia source, in a bucket far far away from the tank.
What it did to me was:

a) foam slightly,
b) cloud the water,
c) disappear and water clarifies,
d) turn into a slimy coat on things like air tubes you can feel,
e) eventually you will see it: It collects into white slime that coats around suction cups, etc.
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What kind of ammonia did you use? The ammonia isn't suppose to foam, but I think your cloudy water may have been contributed by something else, doesn't that happen when there's a bacteria boom or because of something in the tap water? I thought the slimy stuff is normal too, but I'm new so people can correct me.
 
Just checked my local Wallyworld, (Ofallon Mo, USA)and all they had was "clear ammonia" which had a surfactant in it. The shake test showed it was clear, but foamed up. Guess I'll check Target and maybe the grocery stores. You would think LFS would carry a good ammonia to use... :(
 
Time to resurrect this thread....I'm a noob here but am in the process of doing a fisless cycle using Bio Spira and ammonia.

The ammonia I used was/is from Ace Hardware stores. I have a 35G "tower" tank and the water's cloudy after approximately 36 hours. I brought the ammonia level to 5ppm before dumping the Bio Spira in the tank.

We'll see what happens....

Interesting thread....
 
hahaha, my source of ammonia for my tank was about a 1/4 tbsp of cichlid flakes i don't use(got the container free at a convention) within 2 days i had a reading of 5ppm ammonia. hard to get more simple than that.
 
PRSKILLER said:
Ace Janitors Pure Ammonia - Worked good on my tank:headbang2:
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Yep, that's the stuff I'm using. I checked my tank this morning and my nitrites are going up so I guess it's on its way.......

One thing that tripped me up though is when I introduced the ammonia to the tank I was using Jungle strips to measure the ammonia. It's very hard to distinguish from one color to the next on the strips and so I went out and bought a Tetra Kit (reagent) for both Nitrite and Ammonia.

Sure enough, I put in more ammonia (more than 5ppm) and the indication was off the scale on the Tetra color chart.

I did a partial water change this morning to try and bring the ammonia down a bit.

But the good news is that the tank's cycling and the Bio Spira worked, albeit a bit pricey at $30 + 20 shipping!
 
This thread has been dead a while- but for someone searching like me...

Food Lion grocery stores has "Clear Ammonia" with no ingredients but does say no phosphates- no scent (at least none that I can detect other than the awful smell of ammonia) and doesn't foam when I shake it.

I assume this means it is safe?

Didn't know the shake test- thank god it passed after I've been putting this in my tank the last 3 days!

I have cloudy water on day 3- but I think that's my fault for not cleaning my sand thoroughly enough before putting it in- it's been cloudy since day 1. Will be doing major water change to clear the sediment (understanding it may slow my cycle down a bit).
 
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