Seachem Safe and Ammonia

[JL15219]

I just wanted to make sure that I am not adding too much or too little Safe.....I have been having some trouble with ammonia in my 29gal QT.......I have had reading anywhere from .25-.75 ppm of ammonia using an API Ammonia test kit.....The instruction on the Safe bottle say " Ammonia: use 5g (1tsp) to each 40 gal of tap water to remove 4 ppm o ammonia. Do not overdose! and if temperature is above 86F cut dose in half"

If I did a 50% w/c which would be 15 gallons more or less, would a heaping 1/4 tsp be too much, too little, or just right?

Temp 86-88F
pH about 7.5

[kaceyo]

According to the info above, you only need 1/4tsp to treat 40gal at 1ppm. Yours never gets as high as 1ppm so that leaves you a little comfort room. So adding 1/4tsp at each wc is more than enough as far as ammonia is concerned.
I wouldn't add any less since you still have to deal with chlorine or chloramine. In fact, you may want to find out what and how much your local water dept adds and check it against the chart on your Safe label to make sure that is also covered.
HTH

[JL15219]

Okay so after the 50% W/C and adding the 1/4 tsp...when I test for ammonia again it shouldnt show any ammonia right? And if it still shows that I have ammonia should I add more Safe?

[yim11]

I know you will get false positive results on API test kits using Prime, if Safe is the powered version of Prime then I would expect the same incorrect readings.

Try a Seachem Ammonia test and see if you get the same readings.
Like this:
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/AmmoniaAlert.html

More info on the false positive:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=61003

HTHs,
-jim

[kaceyo]

Okay so after the 50% W/C and adding the 1/4 tsp...when I test for ammonia again it shouldnt show any ammonia right? And if it still shows that I have ammonia should I add more Safe?

You will still show the same amount of ammonia because it doesn't remove the ammonia. It only detoxifies the ammonia. The ammonia is still there, it's just changed into ammonium, which is basicly non-toxic.

[JL15219]

So if though it says there is ammonia present I shouldnt add any more Safe since it converted it to non toxic form right?

[kaceyo]

So if though it says there is ammonia present I shouldnt add any more Safe since it converted it to non toxic form right?

That's right. No matter how much Safe you add, the ammonia level will stay the same.

[JL15219]

That's right. No matter how much Safe you add, the ammonia level will stay the same.

Okay I think I got you.......