Prime does not Work with Nessler-based Test Kits

SchizotypalVamp

The REAL AC Mafia
Mar 18, 2008
2,943
0
0
California
I was doing a little browsing on MFK and JohnPTC posted this up:

"
alert most ammonia test kits dont work with prime....check their website


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Q: I am using Prime™ to control ammonia but my test kit says it is not doing anything, in fact it looks like it added ammonia! What is going on?
A: A Nessler based kit will not read ammonia properly if you are using Prime™... it will look "off scale", sort of a muddy brown (incidentally a Nessler kit will not work with any other products similar to Prime™). A salicylate based kit can be used, but with caution. Under the conditions of a salicylate kit the ammonia-Prime complex will be broken down eventually giving a false reading of ammonia (same as with other products like Prime™), so the key with a salicylate kit is to take the reading right away. However, the best solution ;-) is to use our MultiTest: Ammonia™ kit... it uses a gas exchange sensor system which is not affected by the presence of Prime™ or other similar products. It also has the added advantage that it can detect the more dangerous free ammonia and distinguish it from total ammonia (which is both the free and ionized forms of ammonia (the ionized form is not toxic))."

The API master is not Nessler based, though I don't know which is better. Just FYI.

I think it's time to start a "test kits" tag.
[/FONT]
 
Last edited:
I read this same thing on the Seachem FAQ. I've been wondering why my API ammonia test shows an amount between 0 and the next one up (.25, IIRC): neither one nor the other. For the heck of it, I've ordered the Seachem MultiTest Ammonia kit to compare. I suspect my ammonia should read zero, since I have a heavily planted tank with a very light bioload, and nitrites have never read anything but zero. I'll post some observations when I've worked with it a bit.

:read:
 
AquariaCentral.com