Mastertest Kit ammonia results

[Miyavp]

Is the differance between 0ppms and .25ppms suppost to be signifigant on the ammonia test? I'm having a hardtime telling. I took some of my tap water with prime in it and tested that and they look identical to me. I'd post photos but my crappy phone makes the tubes look much darker than they are.

 

[Mebbid]

the .25 reading is mainly there to just show that there is some ammonia in the tank. It isn't dangerous to the fish at all at that level.

 

[Miyavp]

But if theres ammonia at all it means my tank isnt cycled. Which is an issue.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah ammonia should be zero if you're cycled... what are the details to your setup? Stocking? How long has it been setup?

 

[Mebbid]

There's always a trace amount of ammonia in a tank which isn't uncommon to have small spikes on a regular basis.

It could be indicative of a bigger problem. I would just test daily for the next 2 - 3 days and see if anything changes.

 

[Miyavp]

37gal three goldfish one aquaclear 70 one sunsun40 and two 10gal water changes a week.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

How long has the tank been setup and cycled? What goldfish species and size? Some goldfish get over a foot and ALL goldies have HUGE bioloads (produce copious amounts of ammonia). That's good you're doing the amount of PWC's weekly, goldies certainly need it... but maybe you might need a bigger tank if these goldies are anything other than the fancy goldfish (i.e. oranda, etc .). The ammonia level is miniscule, but even in my overstocked tanks, given a healthy amount of beneficial bacteria in my cycled tanks, which I'm over filtered BTW, I still get zero on my ammo readings from my API master test kit.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Oh... and what's a SunSun 40? Is that a canister filter? Lol

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I took some of my tap water with prime in it and tested that and they look identical to me.

Sorry I missed this part... could your test kit be faulty? Maybe you can bring a sample of your water to a LFS and see if they can verify your readings.

 

[Miyavp]

The sunsun 40 is a submersible filter. In tank kinda thing. I'm just wondering are you suppost to be able to tell from 0ppms to. 25ppms. I dont think my test is faulty. Oh and my goldfish are ryukins. I need a bigger tank anyway I know.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Well... I think it's easy to tell between 0 and .25ppm. The latter being okay for short term but shouldn't persist unless there's an underlining problem with your BB -- like some type of die off due to chemicals or mishandling of the bio media when cleaning, not enough oxygenation for the nitrogen cycle, or not enough surface area with BB in relation to your bioload capacity. Maybe you can add more biomax in the AC 70 so it can process more ammonia. How are your nitrites and nitrates? Luckily your ammonia level is miniscule given that you have 3 goldfish in that tank... also helps that they're hardy.

 

[Miyavp]

Well if my test yesterday we 0ppms ammonia then it says my tank is fully cycled like normal. I was just concerned because I was having a hard time telling the ammonia test. 0ppms nitrite 30ppms nitrate.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

You sound like you're fine now. Guess you just had a minor spike for some odd reason.