DIY Ammonia Dosing Chart

[TriGa22]

I’m dosing 5mls in a 25 Lagoon and still have undetected nitrate on a Salifert Nitrate test. I’ve been dosing for 2 weeks and I dose one bolus dose in the afternoon. Moving up to week three is scaring me - I haven’t tested but the chart says I’m adding .3ppm ammonia all at once - talk me off the ledge? Is bolus fine because the literature says don’t add more than .1 in 24hr but the chart gives amounts to exceed that?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m dosing 5mls in a 25 Lagoon and still have undetected nitrate on a Salifert Nitrate test. I’ve been dosing for 2 weeks and I dose one bolus dose in the afternoon. Moving up to week three is scaring me - I haven’t tested but the chart says I’m adding .3ppm ammonia all at once - talk me off the ledge? Is bolus fine because the literature says don’t add more than .1 in 24hr but the chart gives amounts to exceed that?

If you ramp up to more, I'd split the dose.

 

[Iinux]

Good morning all, had an outbreak of possibly some golden algae or dinos, the people ive shown it to on Mack's group were not 100%. So I started ammonia dosing to raise my Nitrates.

Well, today ran into an issue : my API test kit is showing 1PPM, but my seachem badge is showing .5. Not sure which I should follow, and or if i should dose prime or just do a water change. Nitrites are a strong 0, and Nitrates are starting to finally creep up at 7.3ppm and what ever was there(algae or dinos), are gone.

Fish are doing fine, still swimming/eating/and just in general acting normal.

Would kill for some advice.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Good morning all, had an outbreak of possibly some golden algae or dinos, the people ive shown it to on Mack's group were not 100%. So I started ammonia dosing to raise my Nitrates.

Well, today ran into an issue : my API test kit is showing 1PPM, but my seachem badge is showing .5. Not sure which I should follow, and or if i should dose prime or just do a water change. Nitrites are a strong 0, and Nitrates are starting to finally creep up at 7.3ppm and what ever was there(algae or dinos), are gone.

Fish are doing fine, still swimming/eating/and just in general acting normal.

Would kill for some advice.

1) No issue with Nitrite in saltwater aquariums. It's non-toxic compared to freshwater.
2) Are you dosing ammonium or ammonia? Big difference in those 2. You should be dosing something like ammonium chloride or ammonium bicarbonate.
3) 0.5-1ppm of Ammonia should be OK, but I wouldn't let it keep it creeping up if there is sudden upward movement.
4) How new is the tank? How much live rock? How many fish? Size of tank? Without a strong bacteria population and completed cycle, you will see ammonia begin to rise from fish poop, decaying organics, etc.

 

[EnterName]

Good morning all, had an outbreak of possibly some golden algae or dinos, the people ive shown it to on Mack's group were not 100%. So I started ammonia dosing to raise my Nitrates.

Well, today ran into an issue : my API test kit is showing 1PPM, but my seachem badge is showing .5. Not sure which I should follow, and or if i should dose prime or just do a water change. Nitrites are a strong 0, and Nitrates are starting to finally creep up at 7.3ppm and what ever was there(algae or dinos), are gone.

Fish are doing fine, still swimming/eating/and just in general acting normal.

Would kill for some advice.

Neither 0.5ppm nor 1ppm total ammonia would kill fish in a short amount of time and I could imagine it's a testing error.

I would be interested in how much you dosed of what exact solution and how large the tank is. If nitrates went up to 7.3 that means at least 2ppm ammonia have been nitrified since your last reading of 0ppm. That isn't too much and a well cycled tank would be able to do that within a day without issues.

 

[Iinux]

1) No issue with Nitrite in saltwater aquariums. It's non-toxic compared to freshwater.
2) Are you dosing ammonium or ammonia? Big difference in those 2. You should be dosing something like ammonium chloride or ammonium bicarbonate.
3) 0.5-1ppm of Ammonia should be OK, but I wouldn't let it keep it creeping up if there is sudden upward movement.
4) How new is the tank? How much live rock? How many fish? Size of tank? Without a strong bacteria population and completed cycle, you will see ammonia begin to rise from fish poop, decaying organics, etc.

Thank you for the response!

Tank was set up in June, so its newer, but ran through the whole fishless cycle.
I was using Ammonia from fritz's fishless cycle so I believe just ammonia. (https://fritzaquatics.com/products/fishless-fuel/) I did order a bag of ammonium bicarbonate, and will be swapping to this once this swing is over.

Tank size is 60 gallons, with 2 clowns and currently homing my buddy's baby yellow tang while he's rebuilding his system. Also have some snails and shrimp. As far as rock, it's filled with about 60 lbs, 5 of which was just recently taken out of my established tank to help with the algae/dino issue. I will say over night the badge has looked like it's gone down in color, but still right below that .5 on the seachem.

Wondering if i should dose some prime and let it keep breaking down, or do a water change, or just keep watching the fish and if they seem okay and it doesn't swing anymore up, keep the path and eventually swap to the ammonium bicarb.

 

[Fish Fan]

Would kill for some advice.

No need to go to such extremes

Well, today ran into an issue : my API test kit is showing 1PPM, but my seachem badge is showing .5. Not sure which I should follow, and or if i should dose prime or just do a water change.

This is nothing to be alarmed by. The API ammonia test kit reports total ammonia, and the Seachem badge reports only free, toxic ammonia. As mentioned above, 0.50 ppm ammonia isn't a huge concern, especially if your fish seem fine, but it's at the upper limit to where I'd start to worry about it if it gets higher.

I'd let this ride out

If the free ammonia does continue to rise above 0.50 ppm to 1.00 ppm or even higher, then you would want to mitigate that with water changes. Unfortunately, Seachem Prime has been independently tested, and testing has shown that it is not effective at binding or reducing ammonia as it claims.

 

[Iinux]

Neither 0.5ppm nor 1ppm total ammonia would kill fish in a short amount of time and I could imagine it's a testing error.

I would be interested in how much you dosed of what exact solution and how large the tank is. If nitrates went up to 7.3 that means at least 2ppm ammonia have been nitrified since your last reading of 0ppm. That isn't too much and a well cycled tank would be able to do that within a day without issues.

I have been dosing https://fritzaquatics.com/products/fishless-fuel/ for about a week, was dosing .5ml a day for my 60 gallon tank but have since STOPPED. I will use the ammonium bicarb.
The tank stayed 0PPM for a while, and then finally got above the hump, and now its at 1.0PPM after dosing over the week.

 

[Iinux]

No need to go to such extremes


This is nothing to be alarmed by. The API ammonia test kit reports total ammonia, and the Seachem badge reports only free, toxic ammonia. As mentioned above, 0.50 ppm ammonia isn't a huge concern, especially if your fish seem fine, but it's at the upper limit to where I'd start to worry about it if it gets higher.

I'd let this ride out

If the free ammonia does continue to rise above 0.50 ppm to 1.00 ppm or even higher, then you would want to mitigate that with water changes. Unfortunately, Seachem Prime has been independently tested, and testing has shown that it is not effective at binding or reducing ammonia as it claims.

Thank you for the response! :)

 

[EnterName]

Neither 0.5ppm nor 1ppm total ammonia would kill fish in a short amount of time and I could imagine it's a testing error.

I would be interested in how much you dosed of what exact solution and how large the tank is. If nitrates went up to 7.3 that means at least 2ppm ammonia have been nitrified since your last reading of 0ppm. That isn't too much and a well cycled tank would be able to do that within a day without issues.

I have been dosing https://fritzaquatics.com/products/fishless-fuel/ for about a week, was dosing .5ml a day for my 60 gallon tank but have since STOPPED. I will use the ammonium bicarb.
The tank stayed 0PPM for a while, and then finally got above the hump, and now its at 1.0PPM after dosing over the week.

That's something like 0.1ppm ammonia a day, I don't think that caused ammonia to rise to 0.5-1ppm over a few days. Fish Fan's response says it all

 

[EnterName]

Good morning all, had an outbreak of possibly some golden algae or dinos, the people ive shown it to on Mack's group were not 100%. So I started ammonia dosing to raise my Nitrates.

Well, today ran into an issue : my API test kit is showing 1PPM, but my seachem badge is showing .5. Not sure which I should follow, and or if i should dose prime or just do a water change. Nitrites are a strong 0, and Nitrates are starting to finally creep up at 7.3ppm and what ever was there(algae or dinos), are gone.

Fish are doing fine, still swimming/eating/and just in general acting normal.

Would kill for some advice.

1) No issue with Nitrite in saltwater aquariums. It's non-toxic compared to freshwater.
2) Are you dosing ammonium or ammonia? Big difference in those 2. You should be dosing something like ammonium chloride or ammonium bicarbonate.
3) 0.5-1ppm of Ammonia should be OK, but I wouldn't let it keep it creeping up if there is sudden upward movement.
4) How new is the tank? How much live rock? How many fish? Size of tank? Without a strong bacteria population and completed cycle, you will see ammonia begin to rise from fish poop, decaying organics, etc.

What's wrong with ammonium hydroxide (ammonia solution), assuming you can ensure purity and are not using some cheap cleaning product?

Shelf life might be reduced, ok... But the chemical itself should be fine.

 

[Iinux]

That's something like 0.1ppm ammonia a day, I don't think that caused ammonia to rise to 0.5-1ppm over a few days. Fish Fan's response says it all

Thank you.
I’ve also been heavily feeding, I’ve cut back on everything and stopped dosing will ride it out :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Good morning all, had an outbreak of possibly some golden algae or dinos, the people ive shown it to on Mack's group were not 100%. So I started ammonia dosing to raise my Nitrates.

Well, today ran into an issue : my API test kit is showing 1PPM, but my seachem badge is showing .5. Not sure which I should follow, and or if i should dose prime or just do a water change. Nitrites are a strong 0, and Nitrates are starting to finally creep up at 7.3ppm and what ever was there(algae or dinos), are gone.

Fish are doing fine, still swimming/eating/and just in general acting normal.

Would kill for some advice.

How much ammonia did you dose?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What's wrong with ammonium hydroxide (ammonia solution), assuming you can ensure purity and are not using some cheap cleaning product?

Shelf life might be reduced, ok... But the chemical itself should be fine.

I agree. But purity might be harder to assure at low cost.

 

[Iinux]

How much ammonia did you dose?

I started with .5ML but after the 2nd day I still did not see any ammonia, so from there on I dosed 1ML. Once I saw the ammonia I stopped dosing, and here we are.

I am going to wait for the ammonia to drop to zero, and then i will begin again with the ammonia bicarb.