Very odd occurrence..

[roka64]

LOL! I'm on well water, we have been fighting the city. They want to hook us up, but we are a little more than 3 miles out of the city limit.

 

[fishman]

I just went and bought another test kit from a LFS. Its Aquarium Pharmac. Company. It tests between .25 or below in my main. Im very surprised that nothing has died. My QT is less than .25 as far as I can tell too. So now I am at a loss as to what to do. Do I need to replace my whole RODI unit? Could it be breaking down due to age? Its about 6-8 years old. Although again I keep the membranes changed....any suggestions. Going to start buying RO water until I decide what is going on.

 

[fishman]

Any thoughts or suggestions on my last post?

 

[melosu58]

To me age should not matter. Your filters and resin and RO membrane are what matter. It sounds like you`ve done that. On your test kit you need to use a test kit that measures 0 since that is what it should be in your tank. When you test at .25 or below then you really dont know where you are. Could be at .25 which is not great or 0 which is great. I use red sea test kits.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I agree with melosu. If you replace the cartridges, the age shouldn't matter. However, your RO membrane shouldn't be allowing ammonia through. So..either your new membrane is bad, or it needs replaced. The worse the water quality, the more quickly it's going to deplete your membrane...so maybe that one needs replaced more often? I'm unsure, but a properly functioning RO unit should not allow ammonia through.

 

[vsnsofadrgn]

im having the same problem with my tap water. my ro/di isnt pulling it out either. it could be the water pressure, if there isnt enough, no ro/di unit will work. i just got a pressure gauge to check that, havent put it on yet, but hopefully thats what the problem is. you may want to check your water pressure..... if thats what it is, then you get a booster pump to help with the pressure and your water should be good to go. if its not that, then check your ro membrane, as said b4, if your water is that bad, it will deplete it quickly.

 

[Kohan Bros.]

are u getting well water or treated water from waste managment plants?

 

[fishman]

Its treated water from the municipality. Im in the process of talking to the city about this issue and they are going to come out and test my water for me. We shall see what the results are. Will keep all of you posted.

 

[fishman]

Ok so I took my DO water, main tank water and tap water to a LFS with some good tests. My main had just a slight hint of ammonia but nothing more than like .05. My RO water is now at 0, and my tap is at like .50. SO now I can rest. I dont know what was wrong with my test. I DO know that I think I waited to long to change my filters and thus the slight ammonia in my main.
Now - I got a Tetra test kit and tested my main tonight and Im back to square 1!!! I show like .50+ in my main and 1.5 in my QT!!!! IM SO DONE with these test kits! However, the Tetra kit shows that it test for 2 ammonias - NH3 and NH4...is this a test kit that I should use? I have not noticed this before on any other test kit. IM SO frustrated with these test kits. In my QT my tang is eating, swimming, playing around like nothing is wrong. I would think if I had 1.5+ ammonia in my tank, it would be floating! I did add another peice of rubble rock from my main to the QT tonight to make sure. Its about a baseball sized peice.
Secondly when ordering a DI resin, I havent been getting a "mixed resin". I dont buy the filters already made, I buy the resin and the refillable cannisters. Can someone help with the resin issue as well as the test kit issue?

 

[newfound77951]

Ammonia is tricky to test for, so the varying results with different kits is common. Make sure to exactly follow the kit directions as far as shaking vials, waiting 5 minutes etc. And try and make sure you perform the test the same way every time. From what I've heard, I'm not sure how good the Tetra tests are, but I've heard that mostly from the FW side so I can't recommend a better SW kit, I have the AP master kit for SW. I would probably trust your LFS's kit as they probably test enough water to go through the kits frequently and therefore aren't using old kits. These kits can and do go bad, and they really don't last that long, a year or two at most.

NH3 and NH4 are the same thing, for all intents and purposes. One is ammonia and the other ammonium, different forms of the same thing. Which one you have depends on the pH of the water. All the test kits are measuring the same thing, although there is more than one way to test which can give you different results if you use two kits with different methods. (for ammonia, either phenol or salicylate can be used, phenol is more common but more dangerous so the salicylate method is becoming more common now).

Ammonia is extremely volatile....if you had happened to wipe down your countertop or cleaned your windows with windex around when you did the test that could affect your resuts. When you aren't using your test kit, keep the vials full of RO water and rinse them out 2-3 times before and after the test. This helps keep things clean and minimizes the chance of contaminants.

A properly working RO system should remove all ammonia....I test nutrients in seawater for work and my check on our in-house RO system is my nutrient analyzer....it will pick up traces of ammonia getting through long before the meter on the RO system says the cartridges are bad. But when it's working, the ammonia is 0 (and with the machine I use, 0 is really 0! It's accurate to 2 decimal places, ie I can measure .02 ppm)

Hope this helps....happily your fish seem to be just fine, which is a good sign. Please let me know if there are any other questions I can answer, I do this for work so I understand it pretty well.

 

[fishman]

Newfound
Thanks for the post. I would ASSUME since I cant get a test kit to work for me, I will have to drop by yet another LFS this weekend and see if I can find another one. What I dont understand is IF my ammonia were that high, wouldnt I see my fish reacting? The fish is swimming around, nipping at the items in the aquarium, breathing easily (not fast which they do when they are lacking oxygen)...etc. Plus Im getting to the point that Im not to sure Im not going to go ahead and move the QT fish. Its been almost 4 weeks now and no signs of ick or anything. This tang (yellow) is at fat of a fish as my regal in my main. I just dont know what else to do on the testing thing....