Seachem Free ammonia test

[Orange Crush]

Has anyone used this before? I was using API ammonia test kit which tests total ammonia not free ammonia but since I am now using Seachem Safe dechlor I thought it would be better to know how much actual (free) ammonia my fish are dealing with. However, my API says my ammonia is 0.25 ppm but the Seachem says 3 mg/L. I am not sure about the conversion difference between ppm and mg/L but I thought 1 ppm = 1mg/L. If this is the case then I would assume that the free ammonia tested by Seachem should be less than the total ammonia tested by API and yet it is MUCH more. I am confused, could someone help me understand this please? :D

[lipadj46]

you are correct, one is wrong sounds like the seachem test. which test is it, the liquid test or the ammonia alert?

[Orange Crush]

The "liquid" test which is really a piece of paper that you put into the testing tray. I would never use the amm alert because I have never heard good things about it.
What confounds me is that the API test is 11 months old but I just bought the Seachem's one so I would think that a newer one would have the potential to be more accuarate.

[lipadj46]

the ammonia alert actually works quite well.

[Niblet]

That doesn't make any sense does it? Don't suppose the Seachem test is reading .3? Just thinking out loud......

[Orange Crush]

That doesn't make any sense does it? Don't suppose the Seachem test is reading .3? Just thinking out loud......
That would make more sense but .3 is an option on the color chart but the color matches with 3 not .3
I also tested another tank which read no free ammonia at all but the API read <.25 ppm
:confused:

[Orange Crush]

.
the ammonia alert actually works quite well.
On Amazon out of 15 reviews 8 people gave it 1 star....:(

[lipadj46]

IME it does what it is suppose to do. It's not necessarily a replacement for a liquid test but I found it to be a good backup and pretty accurate. The pH alert is crap though.

[Niblet]

Oh brother....hopefully someone here will know the answer. Makes me crazy to not be able to always trust results. Maybe contact Seachem? http://www.seachem.com/support/Contact.html

[Orange Crush]

IME it does what it is suppose to do. It's not necessarily a replacement for a liquid test but I found it to be a good backup and pretty accurate. The pH alert is crap though.
If you use that how much do you do a reg liquid test?

[lipadj46]

never unless I saw it change from yellow which only happened if I did something to cause a mini cycle. I don't bother anymore and just use the api kit when cycling and know my pH is around 6.0 so if there is a small amount of ammonia most of it is ammonium.

[Orange Crush]

So you trust it enough to tell you that the amm levels have been elevated but, would you trust it for cycling?
The biggest complaint people have had with it is that it never alerts them that the amm level went up but then they start have fish dying so they test with liquid test which shows the amm levels are toxic.
I often wondered if the people were not understanding the diff between free and total amm and that is why they got no amm with the amm alert in the tank but higher levels of amm with the liquid test kit (they did not say what brand). But I am starting to think the Seachems amm tests are just crap since my fish would be sick or dead if my water had 3ppm of amm the whole time the API was saying .25, oh well.

[lipadj46]

I did use it for cycling yes and it worked for me. I don't think it lasts as long as seachem claims though.