Ammonia test kits

[bernie82]

I have always used an Ammonia test solution sold by a company called Aquarium Pharmaceuticcals Inc. and is found in most LFS. Eight drops of the solution goes into a 5 mil vial of fish water and shake for 5 seconds and then match up to a color chart that varys from clear (0 ppm) to a bright gold (6 to 7 ppm).
I visited a local pond store store last week and remembered I was getting low on my testing solution so I bought a kit there that was made by the same manufacturer. It was about twice the price but I noticed that it had two bottles instead of one so I bought it.
When I used it for the first time I was surprised to discover that it was a more sophisticated procedure. The instructions indicated that I should use 8 drops from bottle one and then 8 drops from bottle 2. It had a reading chart of 0 ppm. .25 ppm, .5 ppm etc.. up thru 8 ppm. The color range was bright yellow at 0 ppm thru very dark green 8 ppm.
My tests using this new kit indicate that my tanks have about .5 ppm of Ammonia where the old kit using only one bottle shows clear or no ammonia. So now I'm not a happy camper anymore.
Is everyone out there aware of this? Am I the only nerd who missed this?

[Carol_Roberts]

If that tank has been up and running for months I'd bet either the new test kit is faulty or too sensitive.

[bernie82]

Hi Carol. The tank has only been up for 2 weeks and the test kit is perfect. If you're using an Ammonia test kit that works with only one bottle of solution, you're missing Ammonia readings that are greater than 0 ppm and less tham 1 ppm.
Perhaps we're OK with reading of less tha 1 ppm?

[Pat_in_NC]

Bernie,


This is one of my pet peeves. I have found as you have that many many of the test kits for ammonia are far too insensitive for discus keepers. I strongly prefer the one made by Tetra for ammonia tests. This one is quite sensitive in the low range and I have never had a kit (I'v probably gone through 15 in the last two years) go bad and give me a false negative (unlike several of the other brands including aquarium pharmaceuticals). Discus are quite sensitive to ammonia and IME will start showing signs with as low as 0.25 ppm (or mg/L) of ammonia.

A good test is whether the discus are showing signs of an ammonia spike. The classic signs are excessive skittishness (or hudling in back of tank whenever you come by), hyper agressiveness (lots of fighting), and "scratching" or rubbing against objects (the ammonia irritates the gills). Are your fish showing these sign?


Good luck,

Pat

[DavidH]

Ditto what Pat said, Tetra's the best.
I've used both the AQ kits and you'er right the one bottle kit is much less sensitive than the two bottle.

Dave

[Mr. Limpet]

Good Morning people,
There are at least 2 different test methods out there in kits. One is the Nessler method and its too early for me to remember the other. One of them will give you a false positive reading if you use certain kinds of water treatments for Chloramines. Again, too early for me to remember. If you go to The Amquel site, I think it is Kordon.com or at least that will get you close, there is a good technical write up on testing for ammonia. I'll look later after a another cup of coffee. Paul.

[fshngal]

Hello,

The other test kit is the salicylate type. I use it because I have chloramines in my water. Chloramines are a mixture of Chlorine and Ammonia. Once you treat the water with water conditioners, i.e., Prime, Chloram-X the AQ test kits give a false ammonia reading.

I have used the Kordon Salicylate test kit but now use the Lamotte Tests Kits that measure Ammonia Nitrogen and have found they are very precise.

The Kordon test kit is reasonably priced for the hobbyist.

Mary

[DavidH]

The AQ kits = the one bottle kit is based on nessler and the two bottle, which also reads for salt and fresh use salicylate. But even with this kit after using prime, initially I get a reduced ammonia reading but within a short time in the holding tank the readings rise. Tried added more and more prime with same results. So not sure if I'm getting good reading of not.

Dave