# Is This 100% Pure Ammonia?



## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

Ingredients:

Soft Water, Ammonium Hydroxide, Quality Agent. 

Contains no phosphorus.


If so, how much should I add each day until my 10g tank is cycled?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

None. 
Ammonium Chloride is the stuff you want, not hydroxide.
You can also just use Parson's ammonia, unscented, and that works.

You add enough to make the ammonia level .05 to .1

Of course, you could just add Stability or SafeStart and cycle your tank pretty much instantly


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## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

TheOldSalt said:


> None.
> Ammonium Chloride is the stuff you want, not hydroxide.
> You can also just use Parson's ammonia, unscented, and that works.
> 
> ...



Well, butt. Now I have to go out and buy some more.

I dunno.. I heard that stuff doesn't really work?


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

Ammonium hydroxide (ammonia + water)/Typical clear/unscented household (non-sudsy) ammonia will work. You can cycle a tank with it.

But since it's mixed with water it's not 100% ammonia. (100% ammonia is a gas).


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Hydroxide is actually preferred IMO, I've never heard of using ammonium chloride before. Ammonium hydroxide is just Ammonium and water, ammonium chloride is ammonium and chlorine. For every 1ppm of NH4 you and you will also get 1ppm of chlorine. Your dechlorinator will deal with the chlorine if you make sure to add enough to neutralize it. Still seems like a riskier way though IMO.

If you have a Ace hardware store local to you they have a great ammonia cleaner that works for fishless cycling. 

BTW I'm pretty sure you can't buy 100% pure ammonia, its illegal unless you are running a science lab or something and have all the right licenses. Its pretty nasty stuff.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

save your money...either use urine or just add a couple of small hardy fish..


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## e048 (Dec 23, 2010)

add some zebra danios, cheap, strong, and super fish. Those things can survive changes in aquarium parameters like nothing else, and they will do fine with your guppy and your goldfish


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## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

lohachata said:


> save your money...either use urine or just add a couple of small hardy fish..



1. Yuck.
2. The whole point of adding pure ammonia is to do a fish_less_ cycle.



e048 said:


> add some zebra danios, cheap, strong, and super fish. Those things can survive changes in aquarium parameters like nothing else, and they will do fine with your guppy and your goldfish


I dunno.. I really wanted to go the cruelty free route. How long would it take to cycle with a single zebra danio- just out of curiosity?


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

a lot longer and will take many waterchanges. You can't fully stock at the end either.... 

Urine is a bad idea too since it contains a lot of waste. It actually doesn't contain ammonia either it contains urea. This adds another step to the cycle and that is degrading urea to ammonia. On top of the fact that concentration wise it is very irregular. 

As I stated in chat the fastest way is to clone the tank then do a fishless cycle, this should shave a week off cycling if I remember you tanks and stocking correctly. I'm kinda amazed at this boards willingness to suggest fish-in cycling.... man things have gone downhill here =/


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

The cycling products I mentioned DO work, and work fabulously well. The vast majority of all the other supposedly similar products almost don't work at call, but those two really do do the job.
I guess this old salt can learn a new trick every now and then. Hydroxide, eh? Well, why not?


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

The last time that I started from scratch I used Bio-Spira, which I understand may have been pulled off the market. Supposedly there is Tetra additive that has similar live bacteria but is shelf-stable. I haven't tried it but I would if starting again from scratch.


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