Great value clear ammonia

Clear ammonia usually means nothing added. However, since there is no ingredient list, I would pass. I tried to find out what was in it and all I found was their filing a change of formulation which listed an ingredient I don;t want to see. Or have a read here http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...to-use-avoid-for-fishless-cycling-156038.html

If you do not want to get the Ammonium Chloride, Amazon has real pure ammonia and it has a label.
https://www.amazon.com/JAMES-AUSTIN...o+pure+ammonia+32+ounce&qid=1578684808&sr=8-2

I needed to buy a couple of dozen heat packs, so I visited a site for folks who breed fish and/or have fish rooms and I discovered they sell ammonium chloride in powder form. It was $8.95 for 500 grams with the basic description "Pure ammonia for “Fishless Tank Cycling” method of setting up new aquariums. 1 tsp will provide approximately 4 ppm ammonia in 100 gallons of tank water." I wlll be dead before I can use that much. I will mix my own liquid from there using my pure ro/di water. That way I can dose it in ml :-)
(I normally dose to between 2 and 3 ppm for a tank but much more for a bio-farm with a bunch of filters.)

Just a quick explanation about ammonia in water. Pure ammonia is a gas. It cannot exist in solid form unless it freezes which requires a temp. of -107.9F. When ammonia is dissolved in water it turns mostly into ammonium. How much of the ammonia in water is in the form of ammonia and ammonium depends on the pH and temp. of the water. If one could add 100% ammonia into water, it would very rapidly convert into mostly ammonium. If one adds 100% ammonium to a tank, some quickly turns into ammonia. The bacteria want ammonia while live plants want ammonium. Most test kits in the hobby measure Total Ammonia which includes both forms. One can remove aamonia from water either by neutralizing/removing only ammonia or ammonium since the total ammonia will rebalance as one or the other is removed. This is why one can cycle a tank by adding either ammonia or ammonium chloride.
 
If bacteria prefers ammonia over ammonium wouldnt prime be less useful for fishless cycles since it converts to ammonium ?

I have always used prime
 
Also given that i have alot of plants in my tank im not sure how neceasary a fishless cycle even is, assuming i stock slowly and test frequently with my api liquid kit... i do appreciate the respones... mainly just trying to avoid making this all come crashing down
 
So i had called all of the local ace hardwares in the area and looked online they only had the clean scent version, so i decided id go check myself in store and found the janitor strength plain stuff i had used before years ago ! But now my problem is I have 104 oz of ammonia i have no use for lol
 
What the bacteria can process depends upon the specific strain. Some bacteria have receptors for ammonium. You will find them in acid water tanks. The can use ammonium but thse strains do not process ammonia at the same rate as those in higher pH which are using ammonia.

What SeaChem says sometimes must be taken with a grain of salt. They are a good company, but they exist to make money. Here is what you will read on Dr. Hovanec's site re fishless cycling. Bear in mind he was the person who first identified the bacteria in tanks which handle ammonia as well as those that handle nitrite.
Tips and Troubleshooting:
  • IMPORTANT - Do not let the ammonia OR nitrite concentration get above 5 ppm.
  • NOTE - As of November 2016 DrTim's changed their ammonium chloride solution and you use 4 drops per gallon instead of 1 drop per gallon. Read the label on the bottle you have and follow the directions on the bottle.
  • If either ammonia or nitrite concentration get above 5 ppm, do water changes to lower the concentration.
  • Do not let the pH drop below 7. If it does, do a partial water change to bring the pH back up.
  • Do not add ammonia removers to bind the ammonia - overdosing with these products will just increase the cycling time.
  • You do not have to add ammonia everyday - the bacteria do not have to be fed every day. Adding ammonia everyday will results in a sky-high nitrite reading and slow the cycling process.
  • Is your tank bare-bottom? - if your tank does not have substrate (gravel or crushed coral) on the bottom this is called a bare-bottom tank and they take longer to cycle because there is not very much substrate for the bacteria to adhere to. If you are setting-up a quarantine tank and do not want to use a traditional substrate consider adding some inert glass rock or marbles or some other non-calcium-based media to the tank bottom. This will help cycle the tank faster.
Click to expand...
(red is done by me) from http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling

Anything that works to slow a cycle, such as water changes, should be avoided unless really needed. In a fishless cyle the one thing to avoid is dosing too much ammonia and/or dosing too often. The reason is that this creates too much nitrite and this is what actually stalls the cycle. There is a bit more to this explanation that has to do with exactly what a test kit is measuring.

During a fishless cycle there is really no need to bind ammonia. If one's water has chloramine and this is broken down so that the chlorine is neutralized but the ammonia is not, it becomes a part of the ammonia load which will get the bacteria reproducing. Since there are no fish that can be harmed, all one must do is make sure ammonia levels do not exceed 5 ppm as nitrogen (on an API kit this would be a reading of about 6.3 ppm).

I am not a believer in using chemicals to deal with the nitrogen complex. Water changes and other methods are a better option. Also how one deals with a fish in cycle is not the same as a fishless one. But that is a topic for another thread.
 
Interesting stuff, i am in favor of a fish free cycle, also i am in favor of planted tanks, they do battle each other during the cyle though so it is an interesting process
 
FreshyFresh said:
^ That looks good to me. It's clear, not foaming and as as long as it's not scented, you should be good to go. I just remembered the one I bought from the dollar store was Austin's brand. This was years ago so I'm sure brands have changed. It's too bad you're 300+ miles away from me. I'd give you a bag of bio media and you'd be good to stock.
Click to expand...

Austins is still around I got a jug about a year ago to cycle tanks and it works well
 
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