How much ammonia

[Jeff1192]

Ok so I found the ammonia at Home Hardware. Thanks again to all those who offered suggestions. Now I'm just wondering how much I should put in and how often. I have the filter running in a rubbermaid container with about 65-70 gallons of water.

Thanks again,

Jeff

[BigDaddy]

Use an ammonia test kit and add enough to put about 1ppm of ammonia in play.  Adding 1ppm of ammonia daily is probably more than enough to maintain the bacters in your Eheim.

[dan2x38]

Someone on this forum said to add a piece of shrimp.

[Jeff1192]

Huh? A piece of shrimp?

[BigDaddy]

A cocktail shrimp will slowly decay and break down into ammonia.  Since you have already purchased your ammonia, though, you do not need to do this.

You will really have to play with your ammonia test kit, as every product uses a differing amount of ammonia in it.  Most are around 3% ammonia.  So, you are already starting off with a diluted solution, and you will be diluting it further in your 70 gallon rubbermaid.

Try a tablespoon to start... wait a bit for it to circulate, and then do your test.  Adjust from there.  If you dose too high, you can always do a waterchange to get rid of some of it.

[dan2x38]

I was doing that little test about the filter bacteria. I was adding about 20 drops approx. 1/4 tsp. to 6 gal. In 6 hrs. NH3 was back to zero. Does that help?