In order to start the nitrogen cycle in your new fish tank, you will need a source of ammonia. One of the products you can use is Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Aquarium Treatment for Fishless Cycling.
Below, you can find Aquarium Blueprints’ review for this solution.
Benefits of fishless cycling over fish-in cycling
Before we talk more about the product, let’s first briefly discuss the benefits of fishless cycling over fish-in cycling. The biggest advantage, of course, is that you won’t harm any fish in the process. Even if you decide to use aquarium fish that are tough enough to withstand the high ammonia levels, you are still torturing them with toxic parameters.
Another big benefit when it comes to fishless cycling is that you won’t have to do any water changes. If you go with fish-in cycling, you pretty much have to swap out water every day as even small amounts of ammonia can be very toxic to the fish.
In the end, both methods will lead to the same results. With that said, fishless cycling is considered to be more humane and less troublesome than using fish to cycle your aquarium. You can check out our aquarium cycling guide for more information.
Pricing and Available Size Options
Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride come in two different sizes: 2 oz or 4 oz. The 2 oz version has a dropper top while the 4 oz version doesn’t. So you may have to buy a dropper if you are getting the bigger bottle in order to make sure you are adding the right amount of the solution into your tank water.
The 2 oz bottle is enough to treat 300 gallons of water at a concentration of 2 ppm. With double the amount of ammonia, the 4 oz bottle can treat 600 gallons of water at a concentration of 2 ppm.
You can check out the current prices for both available size options with the following links on Amazon: 2 oz bottle and 4 oz bottle. (#CommissionsEarned).
Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Directions
It is very important to note that Dr. Tim’s Aquatics changed the concentration of their branded solution as of Nov. 1, 2016. In the bottles that were manufactured before that date, you have to add 1 drop per gallon to achieve an ammonia concentration of 2 ppm. In the bottles that were manufactured after that date, you have to add 4 drops per gallon to get a concentration of 2 ppm.
The directions you need are printed on the bottle. So it is vital that you follow the steps instructed on the bottle and nowhere else.
In terms of dosing, Dr. Tim’s Aquatics recommends adding enough of its branded solution to produce around 2ppm of ammonia in your tank. You don’t want to exceed 5 ppm as it could slow down the cycling process.
Keep in mind that you most likely won’t utilize your entire fish tank when it comes to filling it with water. This is because anything you put in your tank, such as the substrate and decor, will take up space. Not to mention that you want to leave some room on the top of your tank to avoid water splashes, overflow and other inconveniences. To find out more about how much room you should leave on top of your tank, you can check out this guide.
Having said all that, we recommend that you should still dose based on the entire tank volume just to make the process less complicated. As long as you don’t get to 5 ppm of ammonia, you should be safe when it comes to tank cycling. Even if your ammonia levels get to that point, you can do a simple partial water change to bring it back down to a safer zone.
We also like to add that you should get a test kit to go along with the Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Aquarium Treatment for the cycling process. Otherwise, you won’t know for sure how much ammonia is in your tank when you are building up beneficial bacteria in your tank. We recommend getting the API Master Test Kit, which you can purchase with this link on Amazon (you can also find our review for the kit here). (#CommissionsEarned).
Test your water parameters daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. At some point, you may get 0 ppm of ammonia and some traces of nitrites in your tests. If this happens, you should add more ammonia so that you won’t starve the beneficial bacteria responsible for converting ammonia to nitrite. While you can aim for a concentration of 2 ppm again, you can also reduce the dosage if you want the cycling process to go by faster.
You can begin to add fish to your aquarium slowly once you get readings of 0 ppm of ammonia, 0 ppm of nitrites and less than 40 ppm of nitrates.
After dosing the required amount, you have to wait until the nitrogen cycle to naturally take place, which usually takes 6 to 8 weeks if you are starting with nothing else. With that said, there several steps you can take to significantly speed up the process. If you are interested cycling your tank as fast as possible, as well as learn more about the process, you can check out our comprehensive fish tank cycling guide.
Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Pros
We like using the Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Solution because you don’t have to wait for ammonia to develop. If you decide to use fish food or fish, the organic wastes will first have to break down. With this solution, you will get ammonia from the get go.
Another benefit is that you have a more accurate idea as to how much ammonia you are putting in your tank. For example, you wouldn’t know how much the aforementioned fish food will add to the ammonia in your water column unless you use a test kit. Whereas you should have a pretty good idea with the Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Solution if you follow the instructions correctly.
Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Cons
We don’t have any real issues with Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Aquarium Treatment aside from the 4 oz bottle not having a dropper top. So, if you have the choice of picking between the two sizes, we highly recommend getting the 2 oz version of the product unless you already have a dropper in your house.
Recap
We find that the Dr. Tim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride Aquarium Treatment is great for fishless tank cycling as you don’t have to wait for organic wastes to breakdown. Not to mention that you will get more accurate readings as you know how much ammonia is being added to your water parameters.
We also suggest getting the 2 oz bottle due to the fact that it comes with a dropper tap. If you already have a dropper at home, then you can get the 4 oz version if you need more of the solution.