Fishless Cycle and ammonia?

Question

I am about to start my fishless cycle and I got some ammonium. It is clear ammonia with ammonia hydroxide and surfactant. What is surfactant? Is it okay to use this ammonia for the cycle, or will surfactant be harmful?

Answer 1

Surfactant is sort of like a harmless soap. It breaks the surface tension of the water and allows for easy mixing, it shouldn't harm your tank. Ignore the people who said to add food. It is much easier to use ammonia in a bottle. It isn't as messy or costly and you don't have to be as patient. Put in about 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons, maybe more if the ammonia level doesn't get to 4-5ppm. Just wait for the level to drop to 1ppm(test water every day), and add some more ammonia to get it back up to 4-5. repeat this until the bacteria can get the level from 5-0 in 24 hours or less. After this keep the level up to 1-2 steadily and wait for the nitrites to drop to 0. Good luck with this.

Answer 2

As Lindsay said, pure ammonia from the cleaning aisle (even slightly diluted ammonia) is best, and MUCH cheaper and cleaner than using fish food. By adding ammonia directly, you don't have to wait for it to decay, you don't have to clean up bits of food, and you can easily measure how much you add each week. Surfactants are just added to lessen the surface tension (oils do not mix with water, but adding surfactants would allow them to mix more easily), it is fine to have surfactants in your ammonia. Ammonium hydroxide (NH4HO) is just dilute ammonia, and is PERFECT for your cycle. Add about 5milliliters per 10 gallons, wait a few days, measure the ammonia, and wait. Each week, add an additional ml to the tank. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Soop Nazi

Answer 3

I'm not sure what surfactant is, but you want pure pure ammonia, nothing else, so unfortunately I wouldn't recommend that.

However, the easiest, simplest and cheapest way to fishless cycle is by adding a pinch of food, and leaving it to cycle.

You may need to put a small pinch in a few times a week, but keep looking at parameters all the time.

People who are recommending to put a fish in after a week obviously don't see the fishLESS cycle bit...

Answer 4

No, adding ammonia is not a good way to cycle a tank and surfactant isn't what you want. Either put in some fish food everyday, a piece of small shrimp for a bit or after about a week of running the tank empty put in a couple small fish such as guppies to get the tank cycled.

If you know anyone with a tank already, ask for some of their water, gravel, old filter media or fake plants. You'll get lots of good bacteria from that and it will kick start your cycling process. There's a lot more to cycling a tank than just ammonia.

Answer 5

i used the fishless cycle w/ammonia with TERRIBLE results; the store bought ammonia isnt want you want. I ended up draining the tank and starting over. Get 2-3 Zebra Danios and cycle it that way, they are very hardy....i still have mine from my original tank cycle - that was a year and a half ago. just feed them a SMALL amount of food, once a day. monitor your levels daily.

on a side note, be careful if you choose to put food into the tank to do a fishless cycle. if you put to much in, you will get fungus in your tank (white fungus balls on the bottom of your tank).

Good luck!

Answer 6

Despite what the first person said,ammonia is ALL you need to cycle a fish tank.The ammonia you have is fine,and adding liquid ammonia is also the cleanest way.

Answer 7

Did you get it from the cleaning solutions aisle in the shop? Personally, I used the fishfood method, but I have heard of people using household ammonia. I believe they get it from the cleaning aisle. If so, then yes, it's safe to use.