Ammonium chloride as a cycle starter
- Thread starter coralnerd
- Start date
Theoretically I don't see any problem either. I ahven't heard of anyone tryong it, but it should work. I'm quickly learning to dislike chloride in planted tanks, but as you said a water change will cure that at the end of the cycle period.
Dave
Dave
It just happens to be a source of ammonia that I can easily get for free. Regarding the chloride though . . . I'm new to planted tanks, and still learning and reading a lot before I get serious about planting my 200L tank. It will be mostly planted with vallasnerias (its an Australian biotope), which I gather are pretty hardy anyway, but I hadn't heard about chloride causing problems. What's the story there?
Ammonium Chloride? I'm not sure. This is a very toxic blend. You can make it by mixing household ammonia with common bleach, as is occasionally noted in the obituarys of people who thought that combining these ingredients would create a "super cleaner".
Then again II wonder: If your water company (like mine) uses chloramine, a mixture of chlorine and ammonia, why wouldn't this be adequate to start a fishless cycle. Chlorine dissipates on exposure to air, ammonia does not. Thus we add "Prime" or "AmQuel" or such-whatever to our tank water. Interesting notion.
Then again II wonder: If your water company (like mine) uses chloramine, a mixture of chlorine and ammonia, why wouldn't this be adequate to start a fishless cycle. Chlorine dissipates on exposure to air, ammonia does not. Thus we add "Prime" or "AmQuel" or such-whatever to our tank water. Interesting notion.
There usually isn't enough ammonia in chloramine tap water to cycle with. Most people fishless cycle with 5ppm. I haven't checked as to what the regulations say, but that would be an awful lot of chloramine in a tap. Mines at 1ppm.
Roan
Roan
Ammonium Chloride is FINE for a fishless and PLANTLESS cycle. The excess of Chloride is horrible for plants, so make sur eyou change out as much water as possible before introducing plants and fish.
BTW, Ammonium Chloride can be had cheaply on Ebay.
BTW, Ammonium Chloride can be had cheaply on Ebay.
As to Chloride and Plant Growth, He is a link to an ongoing discussion on the subject. We have found little or no actual Scientific data on the issue, but some experimentation is leading toward at least a strong Hypothesis. Either way it's interesting reading, and one of the plants I simply could not get to Grow was Val.
Chloride and plant Growth
Dave
Chloride and plant Growth
Dave
daveedka said:
That's interesting. But listen to this story and tell me what you think.
A long time ago, when I was probably about 13 years old.I was curious to see how much salt my gambusias could handle, so I was gradually adding salt to the tank each day. I didn't have any means to measure the salinity, but it was pretty high. On a taste scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being distilled water and 10 being seawater I reckon it would have been about a 6 (Yes I actually tasted my aquarium water. I was a nerd then and I'm still a nerd now). The gambusias were fine, and the vals I had (which I collected from a freshwater stream about 500 km from the sea) were growing faster than ever. The point is that the chloride concentration in that tank would have been huge. Its possible that the plants I had were resistant to salt, as some of the inland river systems in Australia actually get quite saline.
I've been trying to think of possible ways that Cl- could interact with other species that might be in your water in the water and form something toxic, but I haven't come up with anything. Cl- is an important ion for maintaining charge potentials across cell membranes, and for regulation of internal osmotic pressure in cells. Its probably likely that too much Cl- could interfere with osmotic processes in the plants.
Anyway, enough theorising. I'm using the NH4Cl. Everything is going swimmingly so far, except for my new overflow setup making way to much noise.
It's interesting that you mentioned vals. They were the one plant that could handle my brackish tank.
At the price of a jug of household ammonia @ Walmart (under a buck) I'd just buy that and be done with it. I'm all about saving money, but it's just a dollar. 