Ammonia testing cycling a planted fish tank.

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ewilde1988

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jan 25, 2022
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So just gonna say up front total noob to the hobby. I have had my planted 5 gallon for about 2 weeks now I did absolutely no research prior to starting. I setup the tank and in went the fish. I know from now on not gonna happen.

I originally was using test strips but I found them far too expensive to use per test so I got the api master test kit. I noticed that the kit tests for nh3 and nh4 combined. From my research I've noted nh3 is highly toxic but nh4 is relatively harmless by comparison does anyone know if there is a way to test individually for nh3 then test for nh4? I'm only ask because I've also read that the ratios of nh3 to nh4 can fluctuate while still testing at the same total ppm level. I don't want to be a bad aquarist so I don't want to stress the fish with unnecessary dosings of the tank or excessive water changes. Please kindly inform me and educate if my research isn't 100 percent accurate.
 
You are correct that nh3 (free ammonia) is the part to worry about and nh4 (ammonium) is less of a worry and that test generally measure total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) which is both of these together. The proportion of free ammonia to ammonium will vary depending on pH and temperature. If your water is stable there wont be any noticable fluctuations in these proportions.

Seachem ammonia alert patches measure just the free ammonia element. Seachem also do a multi test that measures both free ammonia and TAN and i believe its the only readily available test for this.

I think you are overthinking it a bit though. Get your tank cycled and you should see zero TAN. During your cycle keep TAN + nitrite no higher than 0.5ppm combined through your water changes. At typical aquarium pH and temperature this will be reasonably safe.

See the link below to a thread discussing ammonia toxicity in more detail. There are tables in there which you can use calculate your free ammonia with a handy colour guide to see if your toxicity is of concern.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html
 
Thanks for the quick response I actually stumbled upon these charts during my research hence why I joined. This was going to be a reply to the post but that thread is no longer active.
 
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