Should I Add Ammonia?

[emartin]

Clear ammonia is what you use to feed the bacteria right? I have it in my laundry room and want to be sure.

And also, what is a good small amount to add to an empty 20gal, so the bacteria stays fed until this week? A half a teaspoon maybe?

~Ed

[fischfan13]

I have never used ammonia...this is to start a new tank, right?
Either add some existing substrate from another tank or a sponge filter being used right now. Or if you are using AquaClear filters then you can swap a dirty one being used in an existing tank into a new one being used on the new tank.
Lots of options, they all work.

[Lostlilkidd]

Listen to fischfan, and def try to get some existing substrate from an established tank! otherwise it'll take forever. I'm on day 21, and im finally getting nitrite readings.

Start with a teaspoon, and then test the levels. Thats the best way.
I followed the 5 drops every 10 gallon rule, but that didnt work for me.

[emartin]

I have never used ammonia...this is to start a new tank, right?
Either add some existing substrate from another tank or a sponge filter being used right now. Or if you are using AquaClear filters then you can swap a dirty one being used in an existing tank into a new one being used on the new tank.
Lots of options, they all work.
It's for an existing tank. At the end of this week I am getting a fish shipment in and I want to keep this filter seeded until Friday.

The filter I am going to move from it's current tank (20g) to a 40g br (not yet up yet) by Friday and I want to make sure the bacteria is still alive and can handle ~10 fish.

So that's why I am thinking of adding a super small amount of ammonia to keep the bacteria fed until Friday. Or do you guys think it shouldn't be necessary? As of today though there hasn't been fish in that tank since Sunday.

[fischfan13]

I have had tanks run for weeks without fish, and then added fish.
Again, if you are worried then add something from an existing tank.

[AMBUSHPREDATOR]

Ed there have been threads devoted to how long the bed lives without any fish in the tank. Even though there are no fish now you probably have plenty of uneaten food and waste left to be broken down and removed. I wouldn't even worry about it until it was empty for over a month.

But boy -o- boy I'd go with a weak filter bed before I'd ever play chemist with something as deadly to fish as pure bleach. Take it down a notch.

[emartin]

Well the tank it's on is a bare bottom tank with just pvc pipes in it. I guess I can throw in some food in there though to help feed the bacteria then instead of dosing Pure Ammonia...

[Zippo]

Clear ammonia is what you use to feed the bacteria right? I have it in my laundry room and want to be sure.

And also, what is a good small amount to add to an empty 20gal, so the bacteria stays fed until this week? A half a teaspoon maybe?

~Ed

If you use ammonia it should say 100% pure on the bottle. Some of it isn't.:bandit:

[Lostlilkidd]

go straight to adding pure ammonia and skip the food.

[AMBUSHPREDATOR]

Wow talk about going completely overboard . The tank is not even going to be empty for a week and everyone's dumping ammonia in,there is absolutely no reason for such a drastic step. And when did this become general practice? Please post any info and how it relate's to a tank that's still got a lot of waste breaking down in it since it had fish in it just five day's ago? Even though it's barebottom the filter will have waste breaking down in it. And hey why not just throw some fish in there in the mean-time or is that too boring.

[CJC]

Jeff,
No wonder we like you on this site. You have SOOOO much in-site and even a little common sense.

[emartin]

Wow talk about going completely overboard . The tank is not even going to be empty for a week and everyone's dumping ammonia in,there is absolutely no reason for such a drastic step. And when did this become general practice? Please post any info and how it relate's to a tank that's still got a lot of waste breaking down in it since it had fish in it just five day's ago? Even though it's barebottom the filter will have waste breaking down in it. And hey why not just throw some fish in there in the mean-time or is that too boring.
I actually cleaned that filter thoroughly after I sold those fish when I was doing that water changes, and actually that 20gallon only had one 3" fish in there, and Friday I am going to move it over to a 40gal for 10 fish, ranging between 1.75" to 4" each and just wanted to make sure the bacteria would not only survive but be enough to handle it.

After thinking about it and reading all of your posts though I agree it is stupid of me to think the filter still won't have bacteria on it less than a week later... Either way even if ammonia does do a mini-spike when it's on the 40gal I have Seachem Prime...

Lol Monday was a hectic day for me. Especially now since I realized that the 20gal High I spent a couple hours cleaning and setting up for the holding female (inbetween water changes on the other tanks) that where I put in on the bottom of the stand I got from you Jeff, I blocked in the 40gallon :roll:... Now I am going to have to figure out if I can get that out of there without having to drain the 20g....let alone where I am going to put it...

~Ed

[AMBUSHPREDATOR]

Ed you weren't the only one that wanted to drop ammonia in there, I want to see some articles that say it's a good idea to do it , I'm sure that idea came from somewhere and could lend some credence to this theory.

[joe_jaskot]

Crazy fish people don't have to worry about that problem. We never leave a tank empty for more that a couple of days. LOL!