shadowavenger

I am in the process of cycling 2 tanks. a 14 gallon and a 5 gallon both stocked. My 14 gallon has been in service for about a month and I have been constantly monitoring the NH3 levels and performing water changes. The 5 gallon is only a week old and is due for a water change in the next day or so.

Thesis:

I have been testing the 14 gallon tanks NH3 levels and I kept getting the same reading of about .25 PPM. it doesn't go up, and it never went down. So I was curious, I checked the tap water, and it too gave the same reading. I assumed that the tap water has trace amounts of NH3 so I took the same tap water and put in a filter bag with zeolite in it and let it set for a half hour. When I tested that water, it still said .25 PPM. The results lead me to believe that the test kit has a margin of error that could falsely indicate a positive ammonia reading. All three tests from the tank, dechlorinated tap water, and dechlorinated and zeolite treated tap water, all yielded the same results which lead me to believe that all tests will have a green tinge to them and could lead to a false NH3 reading.

Equipment and Materials:
1 gallon pitcher
API Ammonia NH3/NH4+ Test Kit
1 spare vial
1/2 cup API AMMO-Chips (zeolite)
1 small porous filter bag
Jungle INSTO CHLOR Dechlorinator and chloromine remover

Experiment:
Took a 5 Ml sample from tank and tested for NH3. Reading of .25 PPM
filled pitcher with 1 pint tap water at ~ 72 F
added dechlorinator and mixed thoroughly
after setting for 5 minutes took a 5 Ml sample in the second vial and tested for NH3 also yielding .25 PPM
I took a filter bag and put in 1/2 cup of zeolite and rinsed thoroughly in tap water.
I set the zeolite in the pitcher and let it set for 1/2 an hour swirling periodically.
Afterwards, I removed the zeolite
I cleaned the vial containing the sample from the aquarium, added a 5 Ml sample and tested for NH3 and compared it side by side with the sample taken from the tap water sample not exposed to zeolite.
Both dechlorinated tap water and water treated with zeolite both gave the same results of slightly green hue indicating .25 PPM NH3.

Conclusion:
This experiment concluded to me that the API Ammonia/Ammonium test kit has a slight margin of error resulting in a slight greenish tinge which can be misinterpreted as a positive .25 PPM reading for NH3/NH4+. The pure yellow reading apparently does not occur with this kit and therefore a false reading can be interpreted as the presence of toxins and could lead to over treatment or possible unnecessary stress.

If anyone would like to repeat this experiment and give feedback It would be greatly appreciated. I may redo this experiment later and add another control group using bottled distilled water to compare that to the readings from the other sources. If anyone has advice to improve or get better results please give feedback. I hope these results help! Its helped me because now I know I don't have to constantly add detoxifiers or add zeolite trying to get the NH3 levels to zero!

Since my tank yielded the same results as the tap water, do you think its finally cycled?

Lucy

I might have read it wrong, can you explain this sentence further? In my cycled tanks, I get the pure yellow reading.

Oh, out of curiosity, what's your pH?

pinkfloydpuffer

I have the API test kit and have gotten a pure yellow reading many, many times. Have you tested the expiration date on your test, and are you sure that the zeolite is working?

shadowavenger

The tests on all three water sources: Tank, dechlorinated tap water and dechlorinated tap water treated with zeolite all yielded a .25 PPM reading using the API ammonia test kit.

The tap water should essentially have 0 ammonia but I also treated the tap water with zeolite to remove any trace amounts of ammonia from the tap water and even the water treated with zeolite still gave a .25 PPM reading.

Do you let your vials sit for at least 5 minutes? the test will indicate yellow for several minutes after added the test solutions. if its allowed to set for 5 minutes it will get a very slight green hue which is indicated as a .25 PPM reading.

The test wont go to a deeper green if allow to set for long periods of time. I tested this last night by taking a sample from my 5 gallon tank and it read to be about .5 to 1 PPM and I let it set over night and it still read the same the next morning.

My Ph in the tank is about 7.2. I did not test the pH of the tap water. but like I said if someone wanted to repeat the experiment they could check those details and see if they effect the results.

pinkfloydpuffer

Yes, I time mine down to the minute. And sometimes leave it sitting for days (lol)
It's not unheard of to have ammonia in your tap water.

Lucy

I always set the timer for 5 minutes as per the directions.
5 tanks 5 pure yellow results.
Just a side note, nothing to do with your experiment. If you leave the solution sit too long, the vials can get discolored.

shadowavenger

I can test a sample of distilled bottle water and see what it yields. The zeolite was fresh out of the carton and rinsed thoroughly.

A few improvements to the experiment could be to rinse the test vials with distilled water and rinse the zeolite and filter bag with distilled water as well. A fourth test group of distilled bottled water and testing the pH of all groups could be an improvement too. I may redo this later with these factors in mind.

The purpose of the experiment was to test the margin of error with the API test kit and according to my results there is a small margin of error. but without some kind of highly accurate comparison its very very difficult to judge the exact amount of NH3 in each test.

pinkfloydpuffer

To make your results more accurate I suggest getting multiple API ammonia tests, to be sure that you didn't just get an off one.

Lucy

We appreciate the hard work you've put into your experiment and the results were interesting.
I wonder if the margin of error differs per test kit.

Edit: PFP

cg49me

I've had a similar experience, and have discovered something... The lighting where you read the results can affect what color you see, and how close you hold the vial to the white section on the card can affect it as well.

I usually read the colors in my bathroom, since it's got a well-lit vanity. However, if I put the vial right up against the card, I'll get a slight green twinge that makes it look like about 0.25ppm ammonia (a smidge less actually, but it's definitely not pure yellow). However, if I hold the vial away from the card about 1in or so, I get pure yellow.

My guess is that light is going through the vial, bouncing off the card, then going back through the vial, which is why you get an "exaggerated" green. If you hold it so that you only get light hitting the card and then bouncing back through the vial, you get the "true" color. How shadows fall on the card/vial can screw with the color you think you see as well.

Just a theory - feel free to call me a moron.

pinkfloydpuffer

I've also noticed that the best readings is when it's slightly off the card, not touching it

docjr03

Does the zeolite convert the NH3 to NH4+? If so, your readings are going to be the same. I ran a similar experiment as you (testing the tap water prior to each water change) with similar results, and I also began to question the validity of my test kit; however, it did eventually go to pure yellow.

Butterfly

I have to do water tests at work and the instructions say to "rinse the tubes twice with the water being tested to insure there are no foreign contaminants that might skew the water test readings." since I read that I make sure to rinse my tubes at home twice with the water from each tank I'm testing to make sure some from the last tank I tested isn't affecting the current test. I get a nice clear yellow doing my tests this way. Just a suggestion
carol

Lyrae

Don't take this the wrong way, but your experiment wasn't rigorous.

Your negative control should be some distilled water you can get from the grocery store or maybe if your LFS sells RO water. Then you should get a bottle of pure ammonium hydroxide from ACE.

What you do is in 1 vial, which has been thoroughly rinsed with the distilled/RO water, is take a measurement of the ammonia. This should read 0. If it does not read zero your test kit probably isn't working.

In a second vial, you do the same, but before you take a measurement of ammonia, add a drop of the ammonium hydroxide to the vial, then take your measure ment. This should give you a very high reading well above 8ppm.

There was too much uncertainty and assumptions in your original experiment. You assumed your tap water doesn't have ammonia in it, and then you assumed the ammo-lock chips did what they were supposed to. You want to eliminate all that and buy the stuff to prepare absolute knowns for your controls.

For the record, my fiance bought some ammochips and even though we are both chemists, we could never get these things to work, so i'm not so sure about their efficacy.

shadowavenger

Thanks for the advice! Im actually a chemistry major and when I did this experiment I did go in with the assumption that the tap was ammonia free but thats why I tested water with zeolite. I was going to do a 4th control against distilled water but I didn't have any available at the time so I used the zeolite to remove any trace ammonia that may have been there. I actually think that it may not have been from ammonia, but possibly from chlorimine since the the dechlorinator I use only severs the chloromine bond and doesn't actually remove the ammonia component. As for the Zeolite, it may have a tolerance as to what it can absorb as far as the amount of NH3 in solution, and can't be at equilibirum if there is no ammonia present in solution. I can say that it does work though because my tank got to about 2 PPM and I put in a bag of zeolite in the filter and within a few hours the reading dropped to .50 PPM. I don't know if the pH of the water would matter or not because Im not sure is NH4+ will be absorbed by the zeolite so if the pH of the water was low then it would have ammonium present. One thing I didn't consider was cleaning the vials in distilled water between readings which would ensure no contamination but like I said, I just didn't have any at the time. But one thing I can say is that its highly unlikely that even untreated tap water would have levels as high as .25 and every test gave the same number, including the test with zeolite. I can pick up some water on the way home and test it against dechlorinated tap water.

Thanks for the feedback though! Im always looking for advice to help me in my feild!

Dean

. I seem to get the green hue every time I test lately too. I thought it might be because I added a school of cardinal tetra's but now I'm wondering if it might be something similar to what you describe

jdhef

If you were showing pure yellow before adding the school of Cardinal Tetra's then it is probably showing some green due to the additional school.

Generally only enough bacteria forms to digest the ammonia present in your tank. Any addiditional bacteria would just starve off due to lack of food (ammonia). So your tank reaches equalibrium. But as soon as you add additional fish, the ammonia load will become greater than what the bacteria can consume. But luckily more bacteria quickly forms to get your tank back to equalibrium.

There's always that Catch 22 when adding schooling fish. It's better to add only 2 or 3 fish at a time, but schooling fish like to be in schools and not groups of 2 or 3.

Butterfly

Rinse the tubes with whatever water your testing as any remains of previous water will affect the test.
Carol

shadowavenger

I had another thought, do you think that the dechlorinator I use could possibly contain trace amounts of ammonium? Im not exactly sure of the reaction that takes place but it could potentially have ammonium/ammonia or some form of nitrogen compounds.

Butterfly

I truly doubt it
Carol

shadowavenger

I really have alot more variables to look into. later I will test some distilled water and test untreated tap water and see what happens.

Dean

thanks jdhef. There was alos a white clowdy watter too for about 3 days but the cloud was gone yesterday. Does that mean that the bio load is increasing?

shadowavenger

Ok, I did 3 more tests with the API NH3/NH4+ test kit.

Results:

Distilled bottle water: .25 PPM reading with test kit

Zeolite treated dechlorinated tap water: .25 PPM reading

untreated tap water: .25 PPM

All tests gave the same result of .25 PPM according to the color chart. So, the API test kit will indicate an ammonia reading regardless of if there is ammonia present or not. It may just be a mis-calibration with the color chart in that maybe the base 0 PPM is actually a very light shade of green instead of yellow.

If anyone has feed back or if you repeated this experiment please post your results.

Nate McFin

I get bright yellow just like the test chart when I test my tap water my tank is on an ammonia fishless cycle so its all over the place. It sounds like maybe you got funky batch?? Too bad you cant test your ammonia test kit for ammonia. LOL

Butterfly

How odd! Sorry you are having issues with the test kit. It really is the best on the market. I too get clear yellow when testing so I know it does work
Carol

shadowavenger

Im just going to put an assumption that, that shade is 0 PPM, and just judge based on how much darker it gets when ammonia is present. And since my tank has that reading Im just going to assume that it now has a 0 PPM reading and is either cycled or is very close to it. I don't have a nitrite test kit but so far the fish have been fine and not showing signs of nitrite poisoning or spikes. I also have a sludge build up in the bio net so hopefully thats a sign that the bacteria have colonized. The tank is due for a gravel vacuum in the next few days so I will do that and do another test to see if the ammonia is still down.

jdhef

Yes, I would think that the increased bioload could have LED to a bacteria bloom, and therefore clouded your water for a few days.

Butterfly

sounds like it's progressing
Carol

Lyrae

I have a rediculous amount of free time at work and as a result, i spend it lurking around various fish forums trying to learn all i can (just started this past november). One of the weird things i've noticed is that every once and a while someone somewhere will post that their API test kit reads real close to .25ppm Ammonia when there is verifiably NO ammonia present (as with your distilled water sample).

The nearest thing i can figure is one of the chemicals in the ammonia test has reached the end of its stable lifetime and as a result will show slight coloration in the absence of ammonia.

All i can say for certain is that in general, the API kit (and the individual test for ammonia) works fine. Mine shows yellow when there is no ammonia. Maybe you could buy another ammonia test kit form another store to try and decrease the likelyhood of getting another kit from the same lot? Maybe its not such a huge deal if you know that it tests a little bit higher than what is really present.

I'd go ahead and assume there is nitrite for about two weeks after your ammonia went to its minimum and continue your water change regimin accordingly until you could test for nitrites and know when they are zero.

Dark_Rider2k3

just wanted to chime in that my test kit reads fine as well.

Though, how do you check for the exp. date? Is it on the back of the bottles or front? (I know to read the code.. the last few digits are the month/year..)