Ammonia

[Joe Pulliam]

I was at a LFS today while I was working and I met a guy who says he's a "reef expert." He asked me a ton of questions about my tank and I told him its about a week old and some basic information. He then went into a really detailed explanation about how to rapidly cycle your tank. I have no interest in doing this as I'd like to let nature run its course but he told me to "get a dropper and introduce an ammonia solution to the tank, this will jump start the process." This sounds really fishy to me (pun intended) is this a normal thing?

 

[redfishbluefish]

You do need ammonia to "start" the cycle. You can do this by carefully adding ammonia or by doing it more naturally by adding something like a piece of shrimp or some food source. Either way, you'll get your cycle going.

 

[Joe Pulliam]

My cycle is going pretty well with the shrimp method. I just found it odd to add over the counter ammonia to a tank. It sounded like he wanted me to just toss some house hold ammonia in.

 

[brandon429]

Yes he did, but only the kind without bubbly surfactants added, and its the exact same thing the shrimp is doing without adding all the extra organics to the tank, waste proteins etc. it is literally no different than seeking a fence to be painted, and making a choice between sprayer rig or hand painting. Exact same ends

A benefit to the ammonia cleaner is you can get instant controlled amounts to measure whereas the shrimp rot varies. Both methods have no less than 5000 fully documented cycles online so feel free to choose.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Using ammonia itself is a long standing method. The LFS guy may or may not be an expert, and often they give poor advice, but it this case it was reasonable.

 

[OldDoc]

I first used ammonium chloride to cycle a tank in 1974, so this method is well established. I got the recipe from a book by Martin Moe.

 

[brandon429]

i had no idea it was around that long id have lost poker chips on that one. id have guessed 2004, nice call~ not that the chemistry changed over my lifetime just that that seems to begin the list of side cheats used in tanks aside from retail products not limited to:

driveway de icer
bug poison lol
peroxide
mr clean magic erasers
vinegar
contents of my mini bar
and a few more surely

 

[Joe Pulliam]

You learn something new every day. I had no idea, I was thinking it would poison the tank!