Dr Tim's and household ammonia

[Joe31415]

I'm in the process of setting up my first saltwater tank. Years ago, when I set up my first freshwater tank, I cycled it using regular household ammonia and nothing else. For this tank, I picked up some Dr Tim's One and Only and started the (fishless) cycle with that and the ammonia I already had instead of buying the Dr Tims Ammonium Chloride. I assumed (incorrectly) that Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride was being sold as a convenience to the end user (just grab a bottle of each) and because it's difficult to find the correct household ammonia. I had to go to several stores to find it when I set up my previous tank.
In any case, I realized today they're not the same.

So, my question is, am I okay to use Dr Tim's One and Only with ammonia? I'm thinking I should be fine, but I'm not having a lot of luck finding a good answer on this one.

 

[Reef.]

I'm in the process of setting up my first saltwater tank. Years ago, when I set up my first freshwater tank, I cycled it using regular household ammonia and nothing else. For this tank, I picked up some Dr Tim's One and Only and started the (fishless) cycle with that and the ammonia I already had instead of buying the Dr Tims Ammonium Chloride. I assumed (incorrectly) that Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride was being sold as a convenience to the end user (just grab a bottle of each) and because it's difficult to find the correct household ammonia. I had to go to several stores to find it when I set up my previous tank.
In any case, I realized today they're not the same.

So, my question is, am I okay to use Dr Tim's One and Only with ammonia? I'm thinking I should be fine, but I'm not having a lot of luck finding a good answer on this one.

With regular ammonia you probably don’t know if it has any additives in it such as perfume as most household cleaners do and also the strength will be different to Dr Tim’s, so yes DR Tim’s is a convenient way to add ammonia but not just because it’s easy to pick up from your LFS but because we know exactly how much to use and what’s in it.

 

[Joe31415]

With regular ammonia you probably don’t know if it has any additives in it such as perfume as most household cleaners do and also the strength will be different to Dr Tim’s, so yes DR Tim’s is a convenient way to add ammonia but not just because it’s easy to pick up from your LFS but because we know exactly how much to use and what’s in it.

This is the ammonia I'm using. It's was one of the few recommended (easily attainable) ones for cycling because it's unscented and doesn't have any surfacants or other ingredients that can cause a problem. It's 3% ammonia hydroxide and the rest is water.
I do agree, using the Dr Tim's AC would make dosing it easier since there's no testing required, just add the amount it says to use based on the water volume. Had I known going it that Dr Tims wasn't household ammonia, I would have just grabbed a bottle instead of using what I had and testing the ammonia level.

 

[Reef.]

This is the ammonia I'm using. It's was one of the few recommended (easily attainable) ones for cycling because it's unscented and doesn't have any surfacants or other ingredients that can cause a problem. It's 3% ammonia hydroxide and the rest is water.
I do agree, using the Dr Tim's AC would make dosing it easier since there's no testing required, just add the amount it says to use based on the water volume. Had I known going it that Dr Tims wasn't household ammonia, I would have just grabbed a bottle instead of using what I had and testing the ammonia level.

trouble I find, the ammonia tests are not great, in theory you should be able to add the ammonia and test to see how much you have added but hard to do with the tests.
It’ll work but will just take a little more guess work to figure things out.

 

[Joe31415]

trouble I find, the ammonia tests are not great, in theory you should be able to add the ammonia and test to see how much you have added but hard to do with the tests.
It’ll work but will just take a little more guess work to figure things out.

I agree. I'm using the API test kit, which I understand to be...not the best. I just try not to get anywhere near the max ammonia level. At least it's just during the cycling part where I'm having to monitor ammonia on a regular basis and if I read the color chart as 2.5ppm but it's really 2 or 3ppm, it's not the end of the world, no fish are going to die.

Having said that, I'm in the process of buying the supplies I'll need going forward. I haven't decided if I'll upgrade to a better ammonia test kit or not. If it's anything like freshwater (and I beleive it is, in this respect), I need to be more concerned about the presence of ammonia, not the exact ppm.

 

[blasterman]

If you can't read an ingredient label why are we posting on the internet?

Ammonia is ammonia. Always cycled tanks with local ammonia sources and just bought brands minus perfumes or other garbage.

There also is no set amount of ammonia to initialize a cycle. You throw enough in spike your ammonia test to a strong level then wait for it to dive.