# ammonia for fishless cycling



## Dragonbeards (Dec 14, 2008)

I am getting a 75g soon (tax return), and so I was looking around my house to see if we had any ammonia for fishless cycling. I found some Top Job Ammonia Multi-Purpose Cleaner Lemon Scent. Is this stuff safe to use, or does the ammonia have to be pure, unscented?


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

100% pure, no additives, no scents, nada. Don't use what you found at home. 

If you can't find that any food source will do. I used a jumbo prawn to cycle my 10 gallon. Took me about 4 weeks.


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## Dragonbeards (Dec 14, 2008)

So I can get 100% pure ammonia at any grocery store, right? And if so, what isle would it be in? The cleaners? If I can't find ammonia (which I will try my hardest to find), I assume goldfish flakes will work fine. Am I right?


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I could not find pure ammonia anywhere in my area. I went to grocery stores, hardware stores, and Home Depot. All had some form of cleaning agent in them. I know others who have found pure at their hardware stores and grocery stores. 

Any flake food will work. You have to continue to feed the tank over the time that it is cycling. If you use flake food then you will need to vacuum occasionally as you won't want moldy flakes in the tank when you introduce fish. If you go with something like the shrimp prawn you can put it in a pantyhose stocking (never used of course) and just pull it when you want to switch it out for a new one. That keeps things clean


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

you can put the fish food in a small nylon bag-eg a ladies nylon- and replace the food in it every week so it doesn't get too moldy. This way the food will not be all over the tank.


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## Dragonbeards (Dec 14, 2008)

OK, thanks. I am so exited to get my 75.


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

1- You can get pure, unscented ammonia at Home Depot or Lowe's in the cleaning products aisle.

2- Why bother with a fishless cycle? If you have an existing tank, just borrow some dirty filter media. If not, just buy a product for instant cycling and save yourself the headache.


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## Dragonbeards (Dec 14, 2008)

I assume Petco and Petsmart carry it... does it work well?


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

If you want ammonia you won't find that at any pet store.

As for commercially available bacteria, I have personally used a product called BioSpira that was / is marketed by Marineland. There is a new product called Tetra SafeStart that is supposed to be similar, although I have not used it.

The last time I was in a PetSmart was in November, Petco maybe October, so I don't know if they have started selling SafeStart. But you could probably call and find out.

A good local store will probably have it, check your phone book.


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## Dragonbeards (Dec 14, 2008)

OK, cool messagemustbe10charecters.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

If you have any used filter media with plenty of fish excrement/food stuck in it and place it in your filter your tank will cycle in about a week versus 4-6 weeks.


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## paavn (Jan 15, 2009)

if you go to tetras website and look at the list of LFS that sell their products, they have a list that they certify, in my experience those were the only stores that carry SafeStart and most of then will refrigerate it. petsmart and petco dont carry it yet.
and if you want ammonia walmart carries it for 97 cents a gallon, i just used it to cycle my tank along with safestart. 
just to help you out the concentration to make it 5ppm is 1ml per gallon (for walmart and stater brothers brand ONLY - cause they are actually the same with different colored labels) if you do buy the one from either make sure its the clear one and not the one with the lemon scent


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