How much ammonia to add for cycle?

[colesjensen]

How much ammonia do I add to my tank for the cycle?

220 gallon with a 75 gallon sump

 

[Jason mack]

Well I think I used 125 ml on my 90g tank , so I would add 50 ml test and add again and test till you can see how much it rises each time till you hit 1 ppm ammonia..

 

[Leaellynasaura]

I used this calculator (bottom of page) to target a reading of 5 ppm ammonia.

http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

When it starts to drop after 10 days or so you should add more to get back to 5. Maybe a total of 3 or 4 times of adding it.

 

[PatW]

I would add enough to get 1 ppm. Wait until the ammonia and nitrite hits 0 and repeat. You repeat until the ammonia goes to zero in 24 hours. After that, you will need to do massive water changes to get the nitrates down. You could dump your rock into a big Brute trash can with salt water and powerheads and cycle there. When done just put the rock in your tank. You will not need to do bunches of water changes.

If you quarantine your fish, you will not be adding much bioload at a time. Your initial cycle only needs to be good enough for your starting bioload.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

No, you want to keep it at 3/4ppm. no more than 5ppm and no less than 2ppm.