Thinking about buying Ammonia detector

[Noviceafter2yea]

After much advice and research, it turns out my tap water has ammonia in it which was why I was getting positive ammonia results despite many water changes, sometimes twice a day.

I use prime and many people on this site explained that prime will not reduce my ammonia readings because it doesn't distinguish between the toxic ammonia and not so toxic ammonia.

Someone suggested buying an ammonia alert/detector which reads the free (bad) ammonia. Sounds like a good idea, but it seems they have questionable efficacy. There were also comments about its compatibility with certain ph levels.

My ph has been holding steady at 7.4

I was thinking of getting the sticker/suction kind which is only $8. Is there a different type of detector that uses cartridges or something like that? If so, does it yield better results?

 

[Delapool]

I've only seen the suction ones which are also meant to be questionable. I've used the ph suction ones and they were ok but when they stopped working came up with odd results. Looked at getting them but any ammonia/ammonium I regard as odd reading.

If you know ph and temp you could just work it out from the charts or use it to cross-check. If you do get one, can you post how it goes?

My final thought is that I've had fish sulk when the charts have said all is well so I think it is a law of averages. On average fish will be fine at x,y,z but some won't.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

 

[anteatergoanna]

Spend your money on a test kit, the ammonia alerts don't work. I bought one and it lasted for 6 days and it wasn't very accurate.

 

[Mebbid]

How much ammonia is in your tap water?

A well cycled tank should easily be able to handle the ammonia from a 50% water change.

 

[Delapool]

Yikes, that's pretty bad. Was that a seachem one?

 

[Titaniumtim]

I bought the seachem one and used it for my fish-less cycle, to know when to dose up again. Still have it hanging in the tank now that I have fish. Mine actually worked pretty good. just know that if you see any change in the detector when you have fish-its bad. It probably wont alert you to anything below .5-1ppm (which is according to API liquid test). But then again, its only reading the toxic ammonia, not the treated, detoxified stuff. I leave it in just in case i do something stupid, like kill off all the BB by mistake and have an ammonia spike. I don't use it to actually monitor the ammonia, but its nice to know if there's ever something going haywire, i can catch it sooner than my next water test. And for the price its not that bad of an idea. As long as the one you get works,lol. I've heard some bad reviews, but sometimes that's due to not reading carefully to instructions. My PH has been around 7.8-8.2, if that makes any diff!!

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

Mine arrived yesterday. I got the suction cup since that was all I could find. I installed it as directed and waited several hours to see the result.

The reading from the liquid test had me at 1ppm ammonia. The new detector shows my free(bad) ammonia at .05, the "alert" category. That is a huge difference from seeing 1.0.

Whether it is accurate remains to be seen. I still need to get it to the safe level so I will a 20% change later today.

I'm keeping the thing in the tank. The directions didn't say anything about removing it between readings. Supposedly it lasts a year. It cost about 7$, so if it sucks, it was still worth a try.

I will post an update as to its efficacy in a week or so.

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

How much ammonia is in your tap water?

A well cycled tank should easily be able to handle the ammonia from a 50% water change.

The ammonia straight from the tap is between .5 and 1. Maybe about .75 or a little lower.

 

[Mebbid]

The ammonia straight from the tap is between .5 and 1. Maybe about .75 or a little lower.

If your tank was cycled then a 50% water change wouldnt even put it over the .5ppm mark in your tank.

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

If your tank was cycled then a 50% water change wouldnt even put it over the .5ppm mark in your tank.

At one point it was cycled. Somewhere along the way, I must have unwittingly disrupted it. Daily consecutive 40-50% water changes would temporarily lower (or raise N3) readings, but it would be short-lived. I would like for the readings to be lower for longer periods. I'm okay doing weekly changes. It just seems like I am putting more work into a freshwater tank than people who have these spectacular salt water tanks!

My next step will be getting a bigger tank because it seems they are more stable.

 

[Delapool]

Mine arrived yesterday. I got the suction cup since that was all I could find. I installed it as directed and waited several hours to see the result.

The reading from the liquid test had me at 1ppm ammonia. The new detector shows my free(bad) ammonia at .05, the "alert" category. That is a huge difference from seeing 1.0.

Whether it is accurate remains to be seen. I still need to get it to the safe level so I will a 20% change later today.

I'm keeping the thing in the tank. The directions didn't say anything about removing it between readings. Supposedly it lasts a year. It cost about 7$, so if it sucks, it was still worth a try.

I will post an update as to its efficacy in a week or so.

Would you have ph and temp? I'm curious how ammonia would calculate out - unless I've preempted you if you were going to look into it?

Price sounds great. They are like $30 here in the lfs.

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

Would you have ph and temp? I'm curious how ammonia would calculate out - unless I've preempted you if you were going to look into it?

Price sounds great. They are like $30 here in the lfs.

Ph has been a steady 7.4 and temp is about 79 Fahrenheit.

I did about a 25% water change so I will wait a bit to check it out again. Prior to the water change, my Readings:

20 gallon

Ammonia 1 with liquid water test, ammonia detector said free (toxic) ammonia was .05. . says the alert stage is tolerable for several days.
N2 extremely high 3.5
NH3 - 15-20 (this has been the highest reading I've had in a long time, so that is good)
Ph 7.4

Hope this is helpful.

I also have one platy in quarantine. I noticed the platy hanging out at the top of the 20 gallon tank in a vertical position. Her gills looked,extremely red and her scale colors were fading. She swam around at times too. I thought she was either getting ammonia poisoning because of the red gills and coloring or was getting bullied since she is the smallest.

QT is 5 gallons
Ammonia reading for that was .25 (I didn't think to buy a second ammonia detector, so I do to know the exact toxic ammonia.
N2 was 0
N3 was 0
Low ph 6

Because the tank I transferred her from was 7.4 ph, I added a mixture of 1 cup water and about 1/4 a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. You have to be super careful with baking soda because too much is lethal. I must be a gradual process and err on the side of too little baking soda. I will not add more for a day or two because it is a 5 gallon tank. After adding the baking soda, an hour later the ph rose to 6.4-6.5 which is still low, but raising it too quickly can kill.

It has been 1 day in QT tank. She is swimming,around much more, but her gills,still look red.

Hope this helps.

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

Would you have ph and temp? I'm curious how ammonia would calculate out - unless I've preempted you if you were going to look into it?

Price sounds great. They are like $30 here in the lfs.

Also, ordered mine off Amazon. I have amazon prime,so it arrived less than 24 hours later!

 

[Delapool]

20 gallon - Ph has been a steady 7.4 and temp is about 79 Fahrenheit.
Ammonia 1 with liquid water test, ammonia detector said free (toxic) ammonia was .05. . says the alert stage is tolerable for several days.
------------------------------
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

Did I do this right? Off the 1ppm ammonia chart I get ammonia (free) of 0.015ppm?

 

[anteatergoanna]

Yes Delapool, it was Seachem, really disappointed, being Seachem I thought it would be a good product. Since, I have looked into them and there have been some bad reviews ( good ones too), from what I can gather, it's pretty much " luck of the draw", my fault, should of researched before and not after the fact!

 

[anteatergoanna]

Sorry, just realised mine was a PH alert, not Ammonia...lol, getting old!!

 

[Delapool]

Sorry, just realised mine was a PH alert, not Ammonia...lol, getting old!!

Lol

So many test kits I went and got a ph digital meter which is great until it slips out of calibration and I have to use the liquid test kit to check it... Plus I never knew they needed calibration so had to buy stuff for that.

 

[Caliban07]

The Seachem alerts are pretty good. They are not supposed to be deadly accurate. If it changes colour in to the coloured zones that are warning or alert then your total ammonia must be pretty high. An early indication that something is wrong

If you hold the alert over the bottle of pure ammonia the should turn the colour they are suppose to as a quick test.

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

20 gallon - Ph has been a steady 7.4 and temp is about 79 Fahrenheit.
Ammonia 1 with liquid water test, ammonia detector said free (toxic) ammonia was .05. . says the alert stage is tolerable for several days.
------------------------------
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

Did I do this right? Off the 1ppm ammonia chart I get ammonia (free) of 0.015ppm?

I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you asking me whether my parameters are 7.4 ph, 79 degrees Fahrenheit! and off 1ppm ammonia chart - was MY ammonia (free) reading .015ppm?

My ammonia (free) reading was .05

Was there an additional calculation you did?

Sorry I don't understand.

 

[Delapool]

I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you asking me whether my parameters are 7.4 ph, 79 degrees Fahrenheit! and off 1ppm ammonia chart - was MY ammonia (free) reading .015ppm?



My ammonia (free) reading was .05



Was there an additional calculation you did?



Sorry I don't understand.

I looked up the chart on the link. You just match ammonia total, ph and temp to get free ammonia. Unless I've done it wrong there looks to be a huge difference between the table and the alert? I'm quite interested in this as table theory vs reality according to the alert.