Going Insane due to False Positives

I have spent the last 4 days obsessively trying to bring my tank back to normal after an ammonia spike only to realize that the liquid tester was inaccurate.

Day 1: Was not thrown off after testing positive for high ammonia because a fish had died. I just thought there was food and waste that needed to be cleaned. Did a gravel and partial water change plus dosed the tank.

Day 2: Now I'm confused but decided to add ammonia pads to my canister filter.

Day 3: OK...now I am borderline mad. Do a 50% water change, vacuumed the gravel, cleaned decorations and cleaned the filter.

Day 4: ****?!?! 75% water change and dosed tank. I am ready to throw up my hands but now I am mentally at the point where I HAVE to win this ammonia battle. I decided it was time to seek professional help. I collected water samples and went to multiple (5) pet stores for testing. Each place told me all levels where perfect. Bought the test strips and when I tested the tank it was indeed perfect.

Has anyone else experienced false readings with the liquid testing kit?

 

test your tap water if ammonia comes up that high positive it’s a bad test

 

Prime used in conjunction with some liquid tests, like API, may give false ammonia results.

 

test your tap water if ammonia comes up that high positive it’s a bad test

I'll test that right now

 

I have the same issue!

 

test your tap water if ammonia comes up that high positive it’s a bad test

Tested and ammonia came up high

 

Tested and ammonia came up high

Then you have a faulty test kit.
Some people have small amounts of ammonia in their water but I’m not sure that high is even legal so I’m pretty sure it’s just faulty

 

I agree with AggressiveAquatics, especially for the fact that multiple stores all said your water parameters are good. I would consider buying a new test kit and pitching that other one. They also have expiration dates on them as well. Do you know the expiration date on the ammonia kit?

 

Are y'all shaking the ammonia testing solution bottles? That may help get a more accurate reading. I know the instructions don't suggest doing it but shaking any liquid before using it has just become a habit for me. Maybe I am just lucky but I do get a true zero reading with my API liquid ammonia test. Yours may be faulty or shaking the bottles first may help get an accurate reading.

Tested and ammonia came up high

When you say high, how high is it? It is difficult to determine the color so ammonia level of the test tubes you posted. Some folks do have ammonia in their source water 'specially if the water company is using chloramines instead of chlorine in the water. One lady is having to deal with 1ppm ammonia in her tap water. If you do in fact have ammonia in your tap water once this tank is fully cycled the bacteria should take care of it.

I will suggest you shake the bottles and then run the test on some bottled water. Distilled would be best but just bottled drinking water should work. If you still get an ammonia reading I will have to say you do have a faulty test.

 

It is really possible your tap water has ammonia. Its not uncommon. Test a bottle of spring water to check you test. Not tap water.

 

Are y'all shaking the ammonia testing solution bottles? That may help get a more accurate reading. I know the instructions don't suggest doing it but shaking any liquid before using it has just become a habit for me. Maybe I am just lucky but I do get a true zero reading with my API liquid ammonia test. Yours may be faulty or shaking the bottles first may help get an accurate reading.

When you say high, how high is it? It is difficult to determine the color so ammonia level of the test tubes you posted. Some folks do have ammonia in their source water 'specially if the water company is using chloramines instead of chlorine in the water. One lady is having to deal with 1ppm ammonia in her tap water. If you do in fact have ammonia in your tap water once this tank is fully cycled the bacteria should take care of it.

I will suggest you shake the bottles and then run the test on some bottled water. Distilled would be best but just bottled drinking water should work. If you still get an ammonia reading I will have to say you do have a faulty test.

I'll do an aggressive test after work and let you know

It is really possible your tap water has ammonia. Its not uncommon. Test a bottle of spring water to check you test. Not tap water.

I'll test after work and let you know

 

test your tap water if ammonia comes up that high positive it’s a bad test

Testing tap water is not fool-proof. In some localities, chloramine is used to disinfect the water. Chloramine is a combination of chlorine (typically 3 ppm) and ammonia (typically 1 ppm). If your water supplier uses chloramine, as mine does, you will get a positive test for ammonia.

I understand that after the mess they had in Texas with the power outages, many of the localities started using chloramine to restore a safe water supply. Whether they will continue using chloramine, I do not know.

 

Are y'all shaking the ammonia testing solution bottles? That may help get a more accurate reading. I know the instructions don't suggest doing it but shaking any liquid before using it has just become a habit for me. Maybe I am just lucky but I do get a true zero reading with my API liquid ammonia test. Yours may be faulty or shaking the bottles first may help get an accurate reading.

When you say high, how high is it? It is difficult to determine the color so ammonia level of the test tubes you posted. Some folks do have ammonia in their source water 'specially if the water company is using chloramines instead of chlorine in the water. One lady is having to deal with 1ppm ammonia in her tap water. If you do in fact have ammonia in your tap water once this tank is fully cycled the bacteria should take care of it.

I will suggest you shake the bottles and then run the test on some bottled water. Distilled would be best but just bottled drinking water should work. If you still get an ammonia reading I will have to say you do have a faulty test.

I did an aggressive shake and presto changeo it worked. I also bought one of those alert badges to keep an eye on the tank.

Thanks everyone

 

I did an aggressive shake and presto changeo it worked. I also bought one of those alert badges to keep an eye on the tank.

Thanks everyone

Are you saying you are now getting a zero reading in both tank and tap? If so then this is an important piece of information we need to share as much as we can. Getting a false reading for ammonia seems to come up often.

 

Are you saying you are now getting a zero reading in both tank and tap? If so then this is an important piece of information we need to share as much as we can. Getting a false reading for ammonia seems to come up often.

Yes both at 0

Will be adding fish today

 

Are y'all shaking the ammonia testing solution bottles? That may help get a more accurate reading. I know the instructions don't suggest doing it but shaking any liquid before using it has just become a habit for me. Maybe I am just lucky but I do get a true zero reading with my API liquid ammonia test. Yours may be faulty or shaking the bottles first may help get an accurate reading.

When you say high, how high is it? It is difficult to determine the color so ammonia level of the test tubes you posted. Some folks do have ammonia in their source water 'specially if the water company is using chloramines instead of chlorine in the water. One lady is having to deal with 1ppm ammonia in her tap water. If you do in fact have ammonia in your tap water once this tank is fully cycled the bacteria should take care of it.

I will suggest you shake the bottles and then run the test on some bottled water. Distilled would be best but just bottled drinking water should work. If you still get an ammonia reading I will have to say you do have a faulty test.

I shake the bottles a bit first too. Just makes sense to me and theres nothing in the instructions saying not to.

 

I know you have to shake the second nitrate bottle but have never shared the ammonia. This is new. The bottle of water is the go to check. No ammonia in bottled water.

 

Yes both at 0

Will be adding fish today

Yea i somehow had 7ppm in my tank of amoina at one point that the fish all survived im pretty sure its a faulty test kit

 

Or your ph is below 6.4

 

It doesn't say to but I always give the bottles a shake or two before I use them. Except nitrate 2 .. lol

 

I did an aggressive shake and presto changeo it worked. I also bought one of those alert badges to keep an eye on the tank.

Thanks everyone

I had this with the nitrate test. I found an old fish forum from years ago with an email attached from API. in the nitrate bottle there is chemical which settle and seperate. The advice was to bash the bottles on a solid surface a good few times and then shake it to mix back together for a good 2-3 minutes. You don't have to do this everytime just when new or has sat for a long time. I was getting negative for nitrates which I knew in my goldfish tank was near on impossible. I thought I'd crashed my cycle and was prepping to do a fish in emergency cycle until I found this. So I bashed all my bottles and mixed them all really well and had very good results since.

 

I had this with the nitrate test. I found an old fish forum from years ago with an email attached from API. in the nitrate bottle there is chemical which settle and seperate. The advice was to bash the bottles on a solid surface a good few times and then shake it to mix back together for a good 2-3 minutes. You don't have to do this everytime just when new or has sat for a long time. I was getting negative for nitrates which I knew in my goldfish tank was near on impossible. I thought I'd crashed my cycle and was prepping to do a fish in emergency cycle until I found this. So I bashed all my bottles and mixed them all really well and had very good results since.

The 2nd solution of the API nitrate test contains suspended zinc particles which react with nitrate to reduce it to nitrite. If the zinc particles are not thoroughly dispersed in the solution, you will get a bad test. Thus, follow the instructions provided with the API nitrate test precisely for good results. Reagent bottle 2 needs to be shaken vigorously for a minimum of 30 seconds to insure dispersion of the zinc. Then after adding the 10 drops of solution 2 to the water sample to which 10 drops of solution 1 have already been added, the instructions indicate that the sample mixture needs to be shaken for an additional minute to insure the reaction between the zinc and nitrate is complete. Once that is completed, wait an additional five minutes before comparing the color against the color chart.

I do not believe vigorous shaking is quite as critical for the other test solutions, but a quick shake still sounds like a good idea.