Can someone explain my water readings?
It's been about 6 days since setting up my 16g saltwater tank. I doused it with ammonia from the start. On day 1 and day 2, ammonia read 2ppm. I upped the levels to 4+ ppm on day 2. I was concerned that I might have overdosed with the ammonia since the colors for 4 and 8 on the API test are similar so I did a 20% water change. I tested the water again, and the ammonia level seemed to be about 3. So I'm assuming the original ammonia level was about a 4. I started testing for nitrite on day 3, but the test came out 0ppg. It's day 6 now, and ammonia level is about a 2 and my nitrite level is still 0ppg (baby blue). Just for kicks I tested for nitrates, and the test came out 5 or 10 (the colors are pretty similar), but definitely not a 0. The water that I used is RO water and I tested that, and it came out to 0. I would have thought by now that I should be reading some level of nitrite but I'm not, and I'm getting nitrates instead. What does this mean?
It's been about 6 days since setting up my 16g saltwater tank. I doused it with ammonia from the start. On day 1 and day 2, ammonia read 2ppm. I upped the levels to 4+ ppm on day 2. I was concerned that I might have overdosed with the ammonia since the colors for 4 and 8 on the API test are similar so I did a 20% water change. I tested the water again, and the ammonia level seemed to be about 3. So I'm assuming the original ammonia level was about a 4. I started testing for nitrite on day 3, but the test came out 0ppg. It's day 6 now, and ammonia level is about a 2 and my nitrite level is still 0ppg (baby blue). Just for kicks I tested for nitrates, and the test came out 5 or 10 (the colors are pretty similar), but definitely not a 0. The water that I used is RO water and I tested that, and it came out to 0. I would have thought by now that I should be reading some level of nitrite but I'm not, and I'm getting nitrates instead. What does this mean?
