Ammonia testing

T

Temeraire

Betta Owner
Jan 6, 2009
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0
0
I've read people saying that ammonia levels at or above 0.25 ppm (mg/L) are dangerous for fish. My Nutrafin test kit's first readable level is 0.6 mg/L, and it says that anything under 1.2 mg/L is safe when using Nutrafin Cycle Biological Aquarium Supplement. From what I've read it is unlikely products of this nature will do much good (though I could be wrong).

Should I start using a different test? If so, what are some of the more popular (and therefor hopeful more accurate) ones?
 
There really is nothing special about the .25 ppm level, only that it is the first measurable amount of ammonia for the API test kit. Any amount of ammonia is harmful to fish so it's advisable to do a water change whenever you detect ammonia. For that reason I would highly suggest a more precise test kit, especially since it sounds like you are going through a fish cycle.

And you are correct. Almost all the the "biological supplements" or "instant cycle" products do not work.
 
i'm still new and can only tell you what I've done per the recommedation of the people here. I use the api kit also. My experience was that it is accurate as long as you don't use any ammonia locking additives. When I tried using the bacteria starting your talking about, the only thing that happened was I ended up with a bacteria bloom and it made my water look terrible. I would advise to stay the heck away from that. But in the end, listen to the people here, they seem to really know what they are talking about
 
a bacterial bloom is going to happen even if you dont add the bacterial additive. the bloom is part of the cycle, and is a response to the rising ammonia.

if you get a reading of 0.6 with your test kit, do a 50% water change. it would be better to get a more accurate test kit though.

a word on bacterial additives- most would actually work if they were refrigerated. the bottles that sit on the shelves at room temperature are all filled with dead bacteria.
 
Are you saying that I should do a water change at 0.6 now that I've finally reached it?
 
most of the people here told me to do a 25 to 50 % daily water change daily until everything stabalized. but like i said, I am new, I am just telling you what was told to me.
 
Temeraire said:
Are you saying that I should do a water change at 0.6 now that I've finally reached it?
Click to expand...


The water change applies to fish-cycle. Sounds like you're doing a fishless-cycle, so no need to change the water until the cycle is complete.
 
Temeraire, the nature of the tank will significantly affect what you need to do. If you have detectable ammonia levels and have fish in the tank, a large partial water change is needed. If you have no fish in the tank and are dosing with ammonia to get your filter going, it would be time to bring the levels back up if you are at the lowest value you can read. Without more information from you, we are really being left in the dark.
 
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