Ammonium Chloride Question.

[Nano Saltyy]

I’ve been trying to cycle my QT tank with a newly launched bacterial culture(dormant type) product in India and I’m using a lab grade ammonium chloride powder as my source for ammonia. I wanted to ask if there is any special type of ammonium chloride the bacteria need or will any lab grade one do the job. Also, I dosed the ammonium chloride solution at a concentration of 1 ppm and it’s been 1 whole week and the ammonia reading hasn’t budged a bit. Does this mean that the bacterial culture product is not good or is there a problem with the type if ammonia I’ve used.
The tank has a HOB filter with polyfil pads and it does not have much volume of bio media (can this be the issue for the delay in cycling?) the temperature is constant at 76F
TIA

 

[brandon429]

Yes that will work. Also input a small pinch of fish food, ground up for high surface area, a small amount.

your test for ammonia is likely to have reporting issues just like the common ones we see on the board so I have a backup: after waiting 20 days, the current mix above will 100% cycle the media in the qt tank even if the tester can’t prove it. Simply let your stew mix for twenty days, change water, it’s cycled.


in fact you can dose nothing, feed nothing, wait sixty days and get the exact same strength cycle as it’s all related to how much surface area you have and where it’s at in the waste water flow path and how quickly you need a start date. merely having an open topper aquarium in a home setting, exchanging debris with the world, is a complete set of filtration bac and feed at the same time it’s just less concentrated so it takes longer.

the bacteria aren’t likely dead, dormant etc they just may take the full twenty days if there was an initial issue on something we don’t know.

if you have 20 total days to wait, this mix you’ve made is certain to cycle. The fish food trick comes from Dr Reefs bottle bac thread and it’s a fine trick for carbon boosting, which pleases the kinds of bac we initially input from bottles.


that degree of test you mentioned is asking a lot of movement from a low surface area qt/most of them are low surface area compared to displays. You can easily do the three weeks wait and forego any testing or proof, it can’t fail, we have years of tracking these types of cycles on file.

 

[Azedenkae]

I’ve been trying to cycle my QT tank with a newly launched bacterial culture(dormant type) product in India and I’m using a lab grade ammonium chloride powder as my source for ammonia. I wanted to ask if there is any special type of ammonium chloride the bacteria need or will any lab grade one do the job. Also, I dosed the ammonium chloride solution at a concentration of 1 ppm and it’s been 1 whole week and the ammonia reading hasn’t budged a bit. Does this mean that the bacterial culture product is not good or is there a problem with the type if ammonia I’ve used.
The tank has a HOB filter with polyfil pads and it does not have much volume of bio media (can this be the issue for the delay in cycling?) the temperature is constant at 76F
TIA

Ammonium chloride is ammonium chloride. Unless there are other chemicals that can interfere with the process present in the product, you are fine to use the ammonium chloride powder you have.

One week is a bit early to say with dormant microbes, I'd say give it a week. If you do not see any changes in ammonia (or increases in nitrite and/or nitrate), I'd be concerned that yeah the bottled bac product you used did not work.

 

[Nano Saltyy]

One week is a bit early to say with dormant microbes, I'd say give it a week. If you do not see any changes in ammonia (or increases in nitrite and/or nitrate), I'd be concerned that yeah the bottled bac product you used did not work.

Thanks for clearing my doubts. Also I wanted to ask, what are the bottled bacteria (dormant) products seem to work best? I have access to ProdiBio BioDigest, Seachem Stability, AquaVitro Seed.

 

[DrLazyReef]

Get aquaforest pro bio series. Pro bio F, pro bio S.

 

[DrLazyReef]

As well as Bio media with more surface area relative to volume, I'd suggest maxspect or mantis blo blocks.

 

[Dan_P]

I’ve been trying to cycle my QT tank with a newly launched bacterial culture(dormant type) product in India and I’m using a lab grade ammonium chloride powder as my source for ammonia. I wanted to ask if there is any special type of ammonium chloride the bacteria need or will any lab grade one do the job. Also, I dosed the ammonium chloride solution at a concentration of 1 ppm and it’s been 1 whole week and the ammonia reading hasn’t budged a bit. Does this mean that the bacterial culture product is not good or is there a problem with the type if ammonia I’ve used.
The tank has a HOB filter with polyfil pads and it does not have much volume of bio media (can this be the issue for the delay in cycling?) the temperature is constant at 76F
TIA

I would suspect that the bacteria culture is not activating. Wait one more week and try another product. Or just wait, the right bacteria will find their way to the aquarium. Are you near the ocean?