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Fishless Cycling

I have a quick question. For fishless cycling we're instructed to add ammonia to the tank a little at a time until you obtain a reading from your ammonia kit of 2-4 ppm.

How much are we talking...a drop, a teaspoon, a cup? I know it all depends on the size of the tank of course.

I have 175 gallons of water. That's 22,400 oz. (44,800 tablespoons, 134,400 teaspoons, 537,600 1/4 teaspoons, 1,075,200 1/8th teaspoons) So am I looking at adding 1/4 teaspoon of ammonia. That would give me a little more than 2ppm correct?

"A little at a time"......does this mean a couple of drops and wait how long ?

thanks....

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair on August 25, 2012 at 11:17am

In my experience, provided you are flooding every 15 minutes It shouldn't take more than an hour for your ammonia to mix throughout the system, at which time you can add more. I used liquid ammonia and that volume of water would have probably needed about 3-5 ml/ or about one teaspoons. I'm not sure about the powdered stuff - it may be more potent. So add a little and wait, measure and add some more.

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Permalink Reply by Izzy on August 27, 2012 at 5:26pm

It depends on the concentration of the ammonia you have.

For most people it's easiest to simply add a little and then test your water in an hour and see what the ppm is at. Then, adjust from there.