How much ammonia?

[Whisker Wrangle]

Hey I am about to start a cycle on my brand new 36 gallon. I have no idea how much ammonia to add to get it to 5ppm. Would 1/4 cup be about right?

 

[patrick.paul]

That's probably waaay too much!

What ammonia did you choose? That'll be the determining factor. With a 29g and 10% ammonia (ACE Hardware brand) I found that 1ml = 1ppm so I dosed about 4-5ml.

Best Regards,
Patrick

 

[jpappy789]

You can always add and test.

 

[Whisker Wrangle]

You can always add and test.

Well ya of course.. but I just wanted to see if I could get as close as possible the first shot.

 

[Whisker Wrangle]

That's probably waaay too much!

What ammonia did you choose? That'll be the determining factor. With a 29g and 10% ammonia (ACE Hardware brand) I found that 1ml = 1ppm so I dosed about 4-5ml.

Best Regards,
Patrick

Ya that is what I got.. ACE brand.

OK So I will start of with 4mL and test.. How long should I wait to test? Would 30 minutes be enough time?

 

[patrick.paul]

I usually only waited about 5-10 minutes. My filtration was cycling the water through about 10 times/hour.

 

[andyjs]

If you have decent flow in the tank, 5 minutes should be enough time for it to disperse pretty well. 30 minutes is plenty of time

 

[Optimus]

You need exactly 7.17ml of ammonia to raise your count to 5ppm

 

[rainbowcharmer]

In my 75 gal it took about 2 Tablespoons to get it up to 3-4ppm ammonia, if I recall correctly. It's definitely not a lot.

 

[Jannika]

There's an online ammonia calculator too...

http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm