Anybody else have this trouble

[AngelHeart]

Anybody else have trouble telling the exact color of the water in the API ammonia test vial or is it just me ? ???

 

[King Fisher]

Try taking it outside in the daylight against a plain white piece of paper. Don't press it up against the paper, just hold it a few inches away.

 

[AngelHeart]

Ok that helped a lot. 0 ammo I’m sure now

 

[AngelHeart]

King Fisher .... My Ammo is 0, my nitrites are 0 and since yesterday my nitrates have fallen to only a trace. I still only have 1 danio - have not added anything else yet except a pinch of fish food daily. Is that normal for the nitrates ?

 

[King Fisher]

I'd say your water changes are knocking out nitrates along with the rest. I forgot your water change schedule. I think you'd be fine adding a total of 6 danios and doing a 35% water change every three days for starters. Feed them once a day for 6 days then fast them on the 7th. You want a little bit of ammonia to build your beneficial bacteria. Like around .25-.50ppm by the time you are ready to do your water change. So on day 3 test your water. If it's still reading 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites then let it go another day....test again. Repeat until you get some ammonia readings. This will give you a gauge on when to do your water change and how much you need to change (%).

 

[Francinej]

No offense but the directions of the test say to hold it tight to the paper (and I have contacted api and they confirmed this) if you don’t it can lead to inaccurate results...
if you read in the instructions it says not to use an “up light” that is where most people have trouble... you need to read it with the tube presses right up against the paper under a light that shines down... again, these are instructions right from api.... if you have anything dark underneath where you are trying to read like a dark table or counter it can make a shadow on the tube and make it hard to read... you need to position yourself so the shadow is not showing on the tube... IF you choose to read it in natural light you must also do so with your back against the sun (or you can once again get false results) if it’s only ammonia you are concerned about seachem makes a product “ammonia alert” it hangs in your tank and ONLY measures free ammonia (not a combination of NH3 and NH4) like the api kit... it is free ammonia that is the toxic one not so much the ammonium... this is why people get confused after using prime... it works by binding the free ammonia and turning it into ammonium (less harmful) however because the api test measures both at the same time you will still get an ammonia reading but your fish are safe because it will detox I believe up to 1ppm of ammonia.... but don’t expect your color to change....
The ammonia one should be very easy to read (if it doesn’t look yellow but it doesn’t look like the .25... it means you are in between) when you have 0 ammonia it is very distinguishable...

 

[AngelHeart]

Here is my Ammo vial under lamp light

 

[Francinej]

I don’t see a picture?
Also what you could be seeing is a mix between 0 and .25.... which is why it may look funny... it could be at like .15 or something... but I know with mine there is no mistaking the 0 is yellow yellow.. and once you get used to the test you don’t even have to use the card for the ammonia and nitrite ones.. you can tell just by looking at the vial... I always double check but it is 0 when I do...

 

[AngelHeart]

Sorry for the multiple posts. Cant seem to add the photo

 

[Francinej]

That is most definitely 0

 

[Francinej]

Take a picture with your color card and hold it tight to it... like touching the card but you use the white part if that makes sense.... like you hold the tube beside the colors for ammonia but hold it on the white part of the card lol

 

[AngelHeart]

Thanks all