2.4. Indraaien met ammoniak

There are a huge number of beginner hobbyists that have Googled aquarium cycling and come up with ammonia as being the perfect feed for fishless (no fish in the tank) cycling. This is largely because of the determined efforts of one supplier (Dr. Tim) of very overpriced solutions of ammonium chloride.

Most experienced hobbyists, including the author, don’t do cycling with ONLY ammonia as the feed. For whatever reason, cycling with only ammonia seems to take longer and has more variability than cycling with food. This appears to be because beneficial bacteria need many things to metabolize and multiply. In addition to ammonia, they need phosphates, sulfates, iron, carbon dioxide, etc. Pure ammonia doesn’t supply these nutrients, fish food does supply them.

Also, all fish food will have some beneficial bacteria in it. So it adds a tiny amount of “seed” material (inoculate). Ammonia has no “seed” material at all in it. The YouTube video maker “Girls Talk Fish” (great channel!) tried to do a cycle with Dr. Tim’s ammonia solution. She took the level of ammonia up to 4 pm and then added more ammonia when the level dropped to 0.5 ppm. After nine weeks (yeah, 63 days) the ammonia added was still there after 24 hours. The tank wasn’t cycled even after 63 days. So she stopped the test. This is not unusual.

The other ignored factor is that there are two distinct types of “beneficial bacteria”. The first is the autotrophic bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrate. These are what are normally thought of as the only beneficial bacteria.

But there is a second type of beneficial bacteria. These are the heterotrophic bacteria that decompose waste in the filter rather than in the water column. These bacteria are essential to the health of the fish because they outcompete the “bad” heterotrophic bacteria in the water column. These are the bacteria that prevent cloudy water from forming. Cycling with ammonia does not create these bacteria. This is a problem for ammonia cycling methods.

But many hobbyists like ammonia because it is “clean”. So we’ll discuss it here. There are several methods for cycling with ammonia:

Method One: Household Ammonia

Buy some household ammonia. Look at the ingredients to make sure it is pure ammonia. Many bottles of ammonia have soaps in them that will kill fish. To test a bottle of ammonia cleaning solution take a water bottle and fill it halfway with water. Then add one teaspoon of the cleaning ammonia. Shake the bottle. If bubbles are created that last for more than one second, the ammonia has soap in it and can’t be used. Ace Hardware has a brand of ammonia that has no soap.

After the aquarium is set up and filled with water add a quarter teaspoon of a phosphate powder (potassium phosphate, sodium phosphate, or any one of several calcium phosphates, or a high phosphate “bloom” fertilizer like Scott’s Super Bloom 12-55-6, Flower Fuel 1-34-32 or Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster 15-30-15) per twenty-five gallons (94.6 liter) of water. This is necessary when cycling with ammonia.

Then add one drop of ammonia liquid per gallon (about 1 ppm) into the water every single day. Do no water changes. There are 100 drops of ammonia per teaspoon so a teaspoon of ammonia solution will treat 100 gallons (379 liter) of water.

Note that this is for a 5% solution of ammonia and household ammonia goes from 5% to 10% typically. If the cleaning solution says it has 10% ammonia only use one drop of solution per two gallons (7.5 liter).

Method Two: Ammonium Chloride Salt

Buy some ammonium chloride (or any ammonium salt such as ammonium sulfate, ammonium phosphate, ammonium nitrate, ammonium bicarbonate, or ammonium carbonate) crystals over the internet. These chemicals are used for baking so are easily obtained from Amazon.

After the aquarium is set up and filled with water add a quarter teaspoon of a phosphate powder (potassium phosphate, sodium phosphate, or any one of several calcium phosphates, or a high phosphate “bloom” fertilizer like Scott’s Super Bloom 12-55-6, Flower Fuel 1-34-32 or Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster 15-30-15) per twenty-five gallons (94.6 liter) of water.

A 25-gallon (94.6 liter) tank will need 0.4 gram or very roughly half of a gram (1 ppm) per day of ammonium salt crystals (the amount will be the same for all ammonium salts), every day, not a lot of crystals. It is an amount that is about the size of a pea. Do no water changes.

One gram is about one-fifth of a level teaspoon. So we’re talking 1/5th teaspoon of ammonium crystals for a 50-gallon aquarium (189 liter) per day to get 1 ppm per day.

Method Three: Ammonium Chloride Solution

Buy some ammonium chloride (or any ammonium salt such as ammonium sulfate, ammonium phosphate, ammonium nitrate, ammonium bicarbonate, or ammonium carbonate) crystals over the internet. These chemicals are used for baking so are easily obtained from Amazon.

Measure out roughly 60 grams of ammonium salt (any salt) and put it in an eight-ounce or 250-milliliter bottle (240 grams or very roughly half a pound in one quart or one liter of water). Fill the bottle with water. Shake till the ammonium salt dissolves. This is very roughly an eleven percent solution of ammonia.

After the aquarium is set up and filled with water add a quarter teaspoon of a phosphate powder (potassium phosphate, sodium phosphate, or any one of several calcium phosphates, or a high phosphate “bloom” fertilizer like Scott’s Super Bloom 12-55-6, Flower Fuel 1-34-32 or Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster 15-30-15).) per twenty-five gallons (94.6 liter) of water. This is necessary when cycling with ammonia. This fact was confirmed by testing:

2.13. Test of Cycling Methods

Then add one drop of ammonium salt solution per two gallons (very roughly about 1 ppm) into the water daily. Do no water changes. Keep adding the solution every single day until the aquarium is cycled. There are 100 drops of solution per teaspoon so a teaspoon of solution will treat 100 gallons (379 liter) of water.

Method Four: Dr. Tim’s Solution

Simply buy a bottle of Dr. Tim’s ammonium chloride solution over the internet and follow the directions on the bottle. They are:

In Dr. Tim’s videos, he clarifies these directions with the point NOT to add ammonia every day, but rather to test the water and only add ammonia when the concentration drops below 0.5 ppm. This will typically be about every five days initially, then it will drop to every day. Then when it drops to zero after 24 hours Dr. Tim says one’s aquarium is cycled.

Note we do not agree with the directions. We did testing which showed it was faster and better to add four drops of Dr. Tim’s ammonia per gallon (3,79 liter) every single day. To see the test and an in-depth analysis of Dr. Tim’s methodology, go to this link:

2.4.1. Dr. Tim ' s indraai methode

Common to All Ammonia Cycling Methods

Ammonia may rise to 8 ppm and higher over a few days (the exact level depends on the inoculate and the amount of feed). Contrary to popular myth, a level of over 5 ppm or even 20 ppm of ammonia does not stall the cycle. Nitrites may or may not rise to similar levels (tanks commonly cycle without any nitrite showing up).

Do no water changes.

A water change removes the food the beneficial bacteria are feeding on and growing with. So a water change will stall the cycle. Note this is only true if there are NO fish in the aquarium.

Keep adding ammonia in whatever form you decide to use every day until the measurements of ammonia and nitrites come out with zero ppm measured 24 hours after adding the ammonia. The aquarium has then completely cycled.

But some folks do cycling with ammonia by adding 2 ppm of ammonia to an aquarium and then waiting till the ammonia is reduced to less than 0.5 ppm before adding more (Dr. Tim’s directions). This will work, it just will not give a very robust or sizable colony of beneficial bacteria. If the pH of the aquarium is high (over 8.0), the fish could be in trouble with this method.

Cycling with Pee

Whenever someone on Facebook asks “what is the best feed for cycling and aquarium”. Someone will say “pee in the tank” And everyone will give a laughing Emoji at the joke. The fact of the matter is urine is a very good way to cycle a tank. When one does a fishless cycle with fish food as the ammonia source we recommend adding some urine at startup to speed things up. Speaking from experience it works!

Human urine can be used to cycle much like liquid ammonia is used. 2 drops per gallon (3,79 liter) or one teaspoon per 100 gallons (379 liter) per day can be used to cycle an aquarium. Humans urinate urea, not ammonia. But urea is broken down pretty rapidly (like within 2 to 4 days) into ammonia by bacteria in the aquarium, so it acts just like ammonia. The equation is:

The big problem here is that the concentration of urea varies a huge amount depending on how much a human is drinking. This makes it difficult to control. But the average concentration of urea is 2%, roughly half the concentration of most jars of cleaning ammonia. In turn, half the urea is ammonia.

On the plus side, urine contains significant amounts of phosphate, which is something beneficial bacteria need to grow.

Wat onderzoek heeft onthuld over indraaien

Veel voorkomende fouten

"Snake Oil" -producten

There is no use for Prime or other chemical additions during cycling. You can’t “detoxify” ammonia with chemicals. More about that in:

2.9. Chemicaliën voor ‘instant indraaien’

And there was a test run on eleven different “bacteria-in-a-bottle” which showed they were a waste of money. This link reviews that test:

2.8. Bacteriën in een Fles

This test said that always takes 4 to 6 weeks for both ammonia and nitrite to hit zero with these bacteria-in-a-bottle products. The test said there will be a huge difference in the cycling time when one “seeds” beneficial bacteria (BB) with garden soil, composted manure, or brown gunk from the filter of another aquarium (6 to 12 days for a complete cycle!).

The Math of the Various Methods