# Where to get pure ammonia?



## konstargirl

My question is, where I could find pure ammonia. I want to set up one of the 2.5 gallon tanks and used them for either putting my apple snail in there once it's done cycling or to put a betta in( Yeah I'm also interested on keeping bettas. One betta cannot stop stare at me at the pet store today.). My local family dollar and Walgreens sells ammonia, but it have the perfume nd things and I don't know if the dollar store near me sells pure ammonia. Any other place I can go to find pure ammonia like a home depot or something?

Thanks. I'm getting paid in 2 weeks. I just got paid Friday and it's not a really big check.


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## Corwin

why do you want ammonia? If you put that into any of your tanks it will wipe out the tank.


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## emc7

To do fishless cycling. But if its tank #2 and tank #1 has no disease, its easier to just seed the filter from the old tank and move things over one at a time. Really, for just one betta, you can start uncycled with lots of water changes and dial them down as it cycles. Its not that much of a fish load.


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## JimW/Oscar

emc7 said:


> To do fishless cycling. But if its tank #2 and tank #1 has no disease, its easier to just seed the filter from the old tank and move things over one at a time. Really, for just one betta, you can start uncycled with lots of water changes and dial them down as it cycles. Its not that much of a fish load.


Yes, especially since bettas can breath air.

It's difficult to find appropriate proofs of ammonia for fishless cycling. Sometimes lfs will sell it but not often. It's risky at best to buy industrial ammonia. In any event you wouldn't want "pure" ammonia, any chemistry student knows that stuff is nothing to mess with. I'm sure you meant ammonia without other additives like cleaners have, etc.


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## pinetree

Ace Hardware sells a janitorial strength ammonia that doesn't contain anything unwanted for cycling a tank. I believe it contains only ammonia and water.


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## Mikaila31

pinetree said:


> Ace Hardware sells a janitorial strength ammonia that doesn't contain anything unwanted for cycling a tank. I believe it contains only ammonia and water.


Yep thats what I got too. 

I agree that seeding the filter is the quickest way to go. If you take somewhere under 1/3 of the mature media from a cycled tank and put it in a uncycled tank you can stock and be cycled pretty much instantly. You just need to make sure you don't over tax the new tank. It can support fish, but the amount depends on how you cloned the tank. If properly done, neither tank will minicycle. I've done it alot, but only with tanks and species I am familiar with. It hinges alot on properly estimating the bioloads of tanks and of individual fish.


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## PuterChickFL

i got my bottle of pure ammonia from walmart


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## Corwin

Interesting I didn't know ammonia could be used in that way.


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## pinetree

PuterChickFL said:


> i got my bottle of pure ammonia from walmart


Be careful with Walmart "Great Value" brand ammonia. At my local Walmarts, it contains surfactants which is not acceptable for cycling a tank. It may be regional and in other areas they don't add that. In fact, every place I checked - Target, Lowes, Home Depot, Walmarts, all of my local grocery stores - the ammonia all contained surfactants. Only Ace Hardware had the right kind. 

If no ingredients are listed, you can check by shaking the bottle. If it foams and stays foamy for a bit, then it contains surfactants. If it's pure, you'll see a few bubbles, but no foam.


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## emc7

Fishless cycling is neat, but kind of tedious. You can fishless cycle with ammonia and "helpers" like Stability also. There's a sticky. Its good to "know" your tank is capable of processing ammonia before you add fish. The only real drawback I see is that I haven't found a # of fish to ammonia production chart. So you end up adding fish slowly and carefully anyway. Ideally, you'd use exactly the amount of ammonia that your fish will make and then you could fully stock after a big (maybe even 100%) water change. There's a thread on using fishless cycling to test cycling products.


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