Cycling a tank with household ammonia

[i have no clue]

I was told that you can use household ammonia to
cycle your tank instead of using fish or live rock. This way you don't end up with fish you don't want and you don't end up killing your live rock. So I tried it but I haven't seen any results. It's been 10 days since I added the ammonia but I haven't seen any nitrite yet. I test for it daily. I have an empty tank except for the saltwater and I have my two filters running (magnum 350 and millennium 3000). Shouldn't I have some bacteria in my filters yet? Has anyone else tried this method?

 

[klh]

There is no way I would add household anything to my tank! I wish you the best!
Kathy

 

[ebeckels]

I have certainly heard of this method, although I have never tried it. I doubt I ever would try it either. Anyways, how much amonia did you add? How big is the tank? are you sure that your test kit works?

 

[blackdog]

On the upside, I'll bet the inside of your glass is very clean!

 

[fshhub]

i am with eric here(i have heard of it but), my major concern is household ammonia, many of them have detergents in them, you have to make sure to use pure ammonia, and you also have to be careful ho wyou do it with ammonia, what did you use for ammonia?? post back with this, i have to be worried about putting household cleaners in my tank
IMO, shrimp and or lr/ls is the best method to use, lr will regrwo, and if it is cured lr, the die off will be minimal, if it is uncured, the die off is going to heppen in the curing anyhow, and in either case,most of it does re grow

 

[nasotang00]

In my opinion, that sounds "effin" crazy!! <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" /> I have heard of using store bought shrimp like the kind that you would get for peel and eat or shrimp cocktail.
only my opinion though.

 

[broomer5]

I've heard of this practice - but thought people used ammonium chloride - I may be mistaken.
I don't consider this as a practical method to cycle a tank - but to each his own.
Here's an article by Chris Cow Ph.D. Organic Chemistry that you may find helpful.
I wish you luck too.
<a href="http://www.aaquaria.com/aquamag/cycle2.html" target="_blank">http://www.aaquaria.com/aquamag/cycle2.html</a>

 

[lordofthereef]

thats nuts!!! <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" /> i would never ever put anything like that in my tank either!! should have just used live rock. don't you want live rock anyway? just say your tank is ok, and it cycles now with what you did, now, when you add the live rock, it's just gonna cyle all over again!! i don't care if the rock is cured or what!!! it'll cycle again!! BTW, i like the one about taking a wiz in the tank! now that's creative!

 

[jester]

Step one. Remove all water.
Step two. Add new water.
Step Three. Get a piece of shrimp(raw, uncooked)
Step Four. Add shrimp to tank.
Step Five. Wait 3-5 days and remove.
We want natural forming amonia to form from a biological source. Were not looking just to have amonia in the tank. Having it is just by product of the cycle. Without the bio activity, you just have a tank of amonia. It's like oil to your gas tank. You want gas, not oil. Gas is a product from oil, just like amonia is a product of bio activity. Make sense.
DO A FULL WATRER CHANGE
If you dont, it will haunt you for a long time.

 

[bbreaux1]

ive heard of this meathod i cant remember exactly how it works but i know the amonia you use has to be pure amonia with nothing added to it like the cheapest amonia you can find is usuall it i think and i believe you have to add bacteria to the tanke either from sand or somethign from an established tank or the bottled stuff. i think i found the article that explained how to do it at saltaquarium.about.com do a search there you might be able to find it. if i remember right it doesnt sound liek a bad idea because the amount of ammonia your adding to the tank is alot more than the bioload youll have of any amount of fish youll resonably have in the tank so once your done with the cycle you can funnly stock your fish although i think id still take it slow with the fish just to be on the safe side and just make sure your using the right kinda of amonia not the lemon scent or aything like that im sure

 

[fossilcrab]

Originally posted by golfish:
<strong>why waste $$ on buying ammonia, just pee in the tank...............</strong><hr></blockquote>
yup, and don't eat the yellow snow. LOL
Ray.

 

[javajoe]

Hey- you mean I shouldn't have used the pine scented Mr. Clean! OH NO! But i wanted my tank to smell winter fresh!

 

[drew_tt]

I know many many many people who use PURE NH3 to cycle FRESHWATER tanks... I dont know if it would be the same for sw...
its not a crazy idea, a lot of people do it, but Ive never known someone to use it for sw... you can be the first
but, if it is pure, I dont see why not... all I can think of is other toxins are released with the shrimp/lr/ls or other methods that other bacterium grow off of that pure ammonia wouldnt have... and diversity is key in sw...
Drew

 

[i have no clue]

The only reason I tried this is because I read it in two salt water aquarium books that I got from the library. I then searched the internet for it and I found some more info on it. It sounded like a good alternitive to buying fish that I had no intention of keeping. I also wanted my tank to have a decent supply of bacteria before I added my live rock. I don't want to have any die off on my live rock. I know that it's suppose to grow back but I don't want to end up killing something cool. The brand of ammonia I put in was "FAME CLEAR AMMONIA". The ingredients list contains "AMMONIUM HYDROXIDE SOLUTION AND QUALITY CONTROL AGENTS". I tried to find one that was ammonia cloride but I couldn't. The books and web sites I found just said regular household ammonia. I have a 125 gallon tank and I put in ammonia until I had 3 to 4 PPM. After reading several of your posts I'm starting to regret not doing it the old fashion way. But you know what's really funny? The thought of peeing in it also crossed my mind. LOL.

 

[von_rahvin]

not a good idea to add household stuff to the tank. why rush the cycle? use the shrimp meathod, of buy a sacrfical fish or 3.

 

[zipperfish]

had a friend that went to a seminar given by a "professional" reef keeper and he was discussing the cycling of a tank. his advice was to pee in the tank. been a year since then and his tank is fine. here is one way to look at the whole thing, you wouldn't go to the ocean and pour bleach or ammonia in it so don't do it to your tank.

 

[jakob4001]

well there's A LOT of things we do that are not done in nature...anyways, sounds like your concern was your LR...LR is very very hardy...there will alays be some sort of die off whether you buy it locally or order by phone/mail/online...

 

[krusk]

I'm new to this hoppy, but I would not use any chemical to cycle the tank
This is what I do
Live Rocks & Live Sands + Power head
more live rocks and live sands will increase the cycle

 

[k.lee]

Originally posted by golfish:
<strong>why waste $$ on buying ammonia, just pee in the tank...............</strong><hr></blockquote>
LOL

 

[k.lee]

Originally posted by Javajoe:
<strong>Hey- you mean I shouldn't have used the pine scented Mr. Clean! OH NO! But i wanted my tank to smell winter fresh! </strong><hr></blockquote>
PUKES