| This method uses plain old household ammonia. Look in the grocery where cleaning supplies are found. What you are looking for is pure ammonia with no fragrance and sudsing agents. It is dirt-cheap!
DO NOT ATTEMPT add ammonia to the tank or pond that contains fish or plants OR they will die quickly. |
Fill the pond and or tank with clean water. Start your pump and filter and air supply, if you use one. Make sure there is plenty of media in the filter.
Check you your kh (carbonate hardness or total alkalinity). This number should be around 200. If it is not around 200 add baking soda (good old Arm and Hammer) to bring it up to at least 200.
When adding the ammonia mix it in a bucket of water and slowly pour in the pond taking care not to get it directly on the filter or bio-media.
Add enough ammonia to bring the level up to 5ppm. I can not say how much to add because each system is different and the gallons of water vary from tank to tank or pond to pond.
Start with a small amount of pure ammonia. Wait and let the water circulate for an hour or so. Using your ammonia test kit, test the ammonia level in the water. If it is not reading 5ppm then add a bit more household ammonia. Let the water circulate in the pond and test again. Example: in a 1500-gallon tank it took 1 cup of ammonia to get to 5ppm on the ammonia test kit. Your results may vary because every pond of water has its ownchemical make-up.
Repeat until you get a reading on the test kit of 5ppm.
Once you get the 5ppm reading continue to test the water daily around the same time until you get a 0 reading with the ammonia test kit.
Once the reading is 0 you can add fish. DO NOT under any circumstances add fish until that ammonia reading is zero, none, nadda!
If there is going to be delay in adding fish to the pond or tank you can add small amounts of household ammonia every 24 hours to keep the tank or pond cycled. You can actually do this indefinitely. About 24 hours before you plan to add the fish stop using the ammonia. Test the water with a test kit and make sure the ammonia and nitrite are both reading 0. I know in my case that in a 1500-gallon tank I need to add ¼ cup of ammonia every 24 hours to keep it cycled.
Once the ammonia drops to 0 that means that the ammonia is being converted to nitrite. Add salt at the rate of 1 pound per 100 gallons. This will protect the fish from nitrite poisoning
Keep adding the ammonia daily and start monitoring the nitrite (not go be confused with nitrate). You will see the nitrite peak and then gradually begin to fall to zero.
Once both the ammonia and nitrite are 0, it is safe to add your fish and or plants.
I would also like to add that there are a lot of variables on how fast this method works. Water temperature is a huge factor. The warmer the water, the faster it will cycle. There is also YOUR water's make-up to consider because NO two water sources are the same. Each will contain its own mineral make-up that can influence the cycling time.
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