How to cycle salt water tank using ammonia?

mattix · 11/28/2013, 11:31 AM

I have a 75 gallon tank with about 80 pounds of dry rock. I have unsented ammonia, how much do I pour in? Enough to get it to 2ppm ammonia? Do I add ammonia daily keeping it at 2ppm until I get a nitrite spike?

Also I am just going to run my power heads during the cycle, then turn on my protein skimmer towards the end to help it brake in before I add

asylumdown · 11/28/2013, 11:42 AM

Yes, 2ppm is the optimal concentration. Figure out how much you need to add to create that, it will likely be a whole lot less than you think. Anything over 5ppm begins to inhibit the species that you want and can make the whole thing take longer. You probably won't need to add any more ammonia for a while, up to a week or more I bet, but once the ammonia levels start to fall, you'll want to bump it back up to 2ppm at least once, though once the levels start falling, maintaining it at 2ppm for more than a few hours is going to become difficult/impossible (which is a good thing), so don't go crazy trying to maintain it at that concentration, as you're just going to end up with a tank full of nitrate.

11/28/2013, 11:31 AM	#1
mattix Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Whittier, CA Posts: 152	How to cycle salt water tank using ammonia? I have a 75 gallon tank with about 80 pounds of dry rock. I have unsented ammonia, how much do I pour in? Enough to get it to 2ppm ammonia? Do I add ammonia daily keeping it at 2ppm until I get a nitrite spike? Also I am just going to run my power heads during the cycle, then turn on my protein skimmer towards the end to help it brake in before I add

11/28/2013, 11:42 AM	#2
asylumdown Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 437 Blog Entries: 5	Yes, 2ppm is the optimal concentration. Figure out how much you need to add to create that, it will likely be a whole lot less than you think. Anything over 5ppm begins to inhibit the species that you want and can make the whole thing take longer. You probably won't need to add any more ammonia for a while, up to a week or more I bet, but once the ammonia levels start to fall, you'll want to bump it back up to 2ppm at least once, though once the levels start falling, maintaining it at 2ppm for more than a few hours is going to become difficult/impossible (which is a good thing), so don't go crazy trying to maintain it at that concentration, as you're just going to end up with a tank full of nitrate.