8.0 ammonia, 2.0 nitrite

Pallen81

Pallen81

TheSunCoralTamer
Jun 20, 2006
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Lawrenceville, NJ
www.mygodmusic.com
I have a 55 gallon tank with 2 large silver dollars, 1 convict, and a tiger pleco.

my water quality is crazy, but there are no problems... yeah wierd I know. Check these out.
ammonia: 8.00ppm
nitrite: 2.0ppm
temp 80
Nitrate: 15ppm

now according to those tests results (i use the drip test kits) i should have a tank of dead fish. but I have had those results for a month straight... and the ammonia has been reading 8.0 for over 5 months. (you may have seen me post about this before! obviously I assume this is a false high reading... it has to be. hehe.) I am just so confused as to why my tests are so bad. My tank water looks sparkling clean and my fish show zero signs of stress. I vaccum the gravel about every 6-7 days.

I use Water Conditioner and a little Stress Coat in every bucket of water when I do water changes. I also add a little aquarium salt as well.

I am doing everything correctly and I am having no troubles with my fish (they seem great)... yet my results are off the charts...

Does anyone have any idea what is going on here? I'm highly confused.
:thud: THANKS!!!
 
go out or order yourself an accurate liquid test kit like the Freshwater Master Test Kit from API that includes ph, ph high, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrites.
 
80 degrees... constant... never wavers...

i use the aquariuam pharmaceuticals brand for all my testing...
 
What brand is your test kit? if its AP you can find the date on the bottle and see if its old. If you get a new kit and confirm the results, I would do some major water changes. Not one big one (may cause shock from the drastic change) but a lot of little ones over the next few days. Just because your fish are not dead doen not mean they are OK. Not sure about the PLec, but the other fish you have are tough enough to live through bad conditions, even though it could cause them irreprable harm.

The use of aquarium salt is not really needed, and in reality, can be bad. http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/salt.html

Edit-you beat me too it ;) at the bottom of the bottle, on back, last 4 numbers are the month and year of manufacture. Generally 3-4 years old is expired.
 
I forgot to write that I went out to my LFS a few weeks ago and bought brand new test kits because some of my others were old.... exact SAME results...
 
Expiration date on reagents?

Proper agitation of reagents and samples?

Readings on your tap water after it has set out over night in a shallow dish?

What water conditioner?

Take sample to LFS and compare their readings?
 
if its the same dip test i would go out and get the ap master test kit like others have said. i dont know about other test kits but this is what ap says about there test kits.

In response to your question, each reagent bottle has a Lot # printed on
the bottle. The last four digits are the month and year of manufacture.
Example: Lot # 28A0102. This is a pH reagent manufactured in January of
2002. Pond Care Wide Range pH, Ammonia, High Range pH, Nitrate,
Phosphate, Copper, Calcium and GH all last for three years. Nitrite and
KH will last for four years. Freshwater pH(low range) and Pond Care Salt
Level will last for five years. I would not trust these kits after they
have expired.
 
I had that reading before and none of my fishes died..If that water reading is accurate meaning that you have that high ammonia and nitrite, you can get bio spira and it will bring it down to normal levels probably within five days..When I had that water reading, after I put the bio spira in, I did not do any water changes until bio spira fully cycled the tank..If you used Amquel as a water conditioner that will detox the ammonia..
 
what is the reading from the water source?

You need some kind of control to use to compare your test readings.

even with a false positive reading(depends on de-chlor used) you should not have ammonia at 8.
 
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