Ok so I started up my tank. I used prime per instructions to dechlorinate tap water. Now I checked tap water ammonia it reads .50 ok before adding the dr Tim's ammonia I checked tank just to see what I'm starting with. The funny part is here where it reads 2.0 and I've not added any ammonia. Is that a problem? Now I did go ahead and added 4 drops of Dr Tim's ammonia to bump up the ppm to around 3.0 my thing is why would I read higher in tank than tap without adding any additional ammonia? It is a 10G tank
Cycling help
- Thread starter bsud
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That seems odd. It's common for the pH of your tap water to change after you let it sit for a while. That has to do with oxygenation. But I'm not aware of ammonia doing that.
Your tap water likely contains ammonium - which is a byproduct of municipal chlorination. It's not as harmful as ammonia, but products like Prime don't remove it. So if your tank water has been sitting a while and there's been a lot of evaporation, the concentration might go up. But .5 to 2.0 is a huge jump, so that's probably not it.
Did you use anything to clean the tank or decorations that might have had ammonia on it? An old rag with Windex or some other cleaner? (If so, I'd rinse everything off, just to make sure you have no other chemicals in there.) Did someone give you gravel from an old tank to "seed" yours? (If so, there might be fish poop and debris in there that's temporarily raising the ammonia levels until your bacteria culture really takes off. In which case, cycling will take care of that.)
Other than that, I'd suspect the ammonia test itself. If you're using those paper strips, they're notoriously wonky... especially so if you get an old one that's been sitting in the store for a while. The ones with the drops and test tubes are more of a hassle, but they're more accurate.
Your tap water likely contains ammonium - which is a byproduct of municipal chlorination. It's not as harmful as ammonia, but products like Prime don't remove it. So if your tank water has been sitting a while and there's been a lot of evaporation, the concentration might go up. But .5 to 2.0 is a huge jump, so that's probably not it.
Did you use anything to clean the tank or decorations that might have had ammonia on it? An old rag with Windex or some other cleaner? (If so, I'd rinse everything off, just to make sure you have no other chemicals in there.) Did someone give you gravel from an old tank to "seed" yours? (If so, there might be fish poop and debris in there that's temporarily raising the ammonia levels until your bacteria culture really takes off. In which case, cycling will take care of that.)
Other than that, I'd suspect the ammonia test itself. If you're using those paper strips, they're notoriously wonky... especially so if you get an old one that's been sitting in the store for a while. The ones with the drops and test tubes are more of a hassle, but they're more accurate.
Barliman
Aquarium Advice Addict
I think I recall reading somewhere (here or another forum) that Prime can cause a false .25-.5 reading, but I could be misremembering that.
What Barliman said just rang a bell. I checked my bottle of Amquel Plus, which is a similar product, and it carries a warning that it can affect water chemistry tests. According to the bottle, tests that use Nessler reagents won't be accurate, but ones that use salicylate reagents (like the API tests) are fine. Prime may very well have the same effect.
I'm guessing that because your test is showing ammonia in your tap water, you're using a Nessler one. Nessler tests include ammonium (which isn't a concern) as part of the total ammonia reading. So a Nessler test is already showing higher ammonia levels than what you've really got, and the Prime could be exaggerating it even more.
If your ammonia test shows you a range of amber to brown, you're using Nessler reagents. If it shows you a range of yellow to green, you're using salicylate ones.
If you're using a Nessler reagent test, everything is probably fine. You may just want to get yourself a different type of test while you're cycling, as you'll be monitoring ammonia so closely.
I'm guessing that because your test is showing ammonia in your tap water, you're using a Nessler one. Nessler tests include ammonium (which isn't a concern) as part of the total ammonia reading. So a Nessler test is already showing higher ammonia levels than what you've really got, and the Prime could be exaggerating it even more.
If your ammonia test shows you a range of amber to brown, you're using Nessler reagents. If it shows you a range of yellow to green, you're using salicylate ones.
If you're using a Nessler reagent test, everything is probably fine. You may just want to get yourself a different type of test while you're cycling, as you'll be monitoring ammonia so closely.
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