The Puffer Forum

Hello- I purchased some ammonia at Safeway to do a fishless cycle on my new 47 gallon tank. The ingredient list says "water, ammonium hydroxide". When I shake it, you can see bubbles. I'm wondering if I should trust the label, or is there another way to know that the ammonia is pure?? Thanks!

there should be no bubbles.. unscented. If you shake it the bubbles should break almost immediately and only the liquid should remain.

Welcome to the forum!!

Thanks J-P!

Okay... so I put a half a cup of the ammonia in my kitchen sink and ran the water thinking that it might get sudsy. It didn't. It bubbled for a moment but the bubble went away nearly instantly. I think it's good? Maybe I'll call the 1-800 phone number on the bottle just to check?

It should exactly like shaking a glass of water. Any lingering suds or foam is what you don't want.

you should be good to go.

I think I'll go for it! Thanks so much- I'll keep you posted. I'm sure I'll have lots more questions as I go along!

Well... I'm glad to announce that nitrates and nitrites started appearing on Wednesday, and the ammonia is quickly disappearing. So now I'm patiently waiting for the nitrites reading to drop... thanks for all the help. I guess the ammonia was good!

Be sure and post the name brand, stock number and picture if possible. Finding the correct ammonia is becoming extremely difficult.

I bought it at a Safeway in Saskatchewan, Canada. It's the Safeway brand. The label says "AMMONIA regular all purpose cleaner for kitchens and bathrooms phosphate free 1.8 L". The ingredients list "water, ammonium hydroxide".

I also bought this ammonia from safeway but in Edmonton i did shake the bottle some suds show up but are gone within a few seconds here are pics of the bottle

Looks like pure ammonia to me.

This is what I used: