Keep adding prime? Water changes?

[AuroraDawn]

Questions are at the bottom!

The nitrite in my 3 newer but cycled tanks went from 0 to somewhere between 0 and .5 on my tetra tests from me getting a bit carried away and being too aggressive in vacuuming gravel and then adding a few new fish to each of them. I vacuumed three other older tanks while I was at it and alll the older tanks I had no problem with the nitrite or anything else changing. These are the readings I took today, two days after dosing with Prime and additional bacteria. The nitrite reading was 0 after I cleaned them, then I added fish and tested again the next day and they had risen to the values previously stated.I am using tetra testing and it is states 0 as safe and .5 as caution for nitrite and 0 as ideal and .5 as safe for ammonia. All of my tanks normally read between ideal and safe for ammonia using the tetra testing. (0 - .5). Please read through to the bottom as I will explain my comparisons between different strips and the API liquid Master Kit that I have found personally in my tanks here.

These are the current values that I just got today around 3pm central the only levels that have changed from before I vacuumed, after adding fish and 2 days later is the nitrites. The first tank apparently has bounced back already to normal. I have had 2 SAEs in there for two weeks prior to adding three cory cats (two very tiny), so perhaps that is why. The readings for tank 2 and 3 have not changed; the nitrite has not gone down at all.


Tank 1: 2 SAE and 3 cory cats (2 of them super tiny). Did huge water change while vaccuming gravel
Ammonia= .25
Nitritrite= 0
Nitrates= approx. 10

Tank 2: 4 tiny SAE, 3 tiny cory cats and 5 very small mystery snails. (all new). Did huge water change while vaccuming gravel
The ammonia = .5
Nitrite = .5
Nitrate = approx. 10

Tank 3: 4 tiny SAE, 4 tiny cory cats. (all new). Did large water change while vaccuming gravel mainly to take out methylene blue. Still a little in there and in one bag of media.
Ammonia = .25
Nitrite = .25
Nitrate = approx. 10

I am using tetra strips as they are much more more sensitive than the API strips (which were very close to the API liquid master kit when I tested using both to see the difference. The API Master kit was a bit more sensitive than the API strips.) I have found that the liquid master kit seems to be a bit less sensitive than the tetra strips at least for ammonia and for nitrite. My values with that Master kit in my older tanks are almost always zero for nitrites and ammonia, with 5 to 20 or so for nitrates.

Questions:
1) I had read that with a nitrite change due to overly aggressive gravel vacuuming that you can use the prime for a few days and give the nitrites time to bounce back and if is doesn't go back down to 0, start water changes. Does this sound accurate?
2) Do I need to do water changes at this point daily and dose with prime again after the water change?
3) Is there a better test than the liquid API Master kit that is not a strip?

Thanks!

 

[Noroomforshoe]

I prefer Salifert liquid test kits as they are esier to use and to read, but I dont know if they are better. But being able to see the results clearer is a big difference to me.

 

[A201]

What type & of substrate do you have and how deep is it.

 

[Fishfur]

Up to .25ppm nitrite is safe though not ideal.

Anything over that calls for a water change in my playbook, though many use Prime instead.

Personally I much prefer to use as little water conditioner as I can possibly get away with, so I don’t use it for managing nitrogen compounds.

Hobby level tests are all very similar in terms of overall accuracy. None of them are super sensitive and if they were, I doubt that many of us would be able to afford them.

Dip strips unfortunately have what I consider to be a most undeserved reputation for giving bad or misleading results.

I know many will disagree with me but I simply don’t buy the idea that they are inherently inferior.

Dip strip test technology is relied upon in numerous fields including medicine among many others. Diabetics use them to test blood glucose, a vital use. Urine tests for drugs, ketones, blood, are all done with dip strips to name but a few,

There are hundreds of manufacturers of them around the world, with quite a few big corporations, and like most things, you can have them made under any desired brand name. It’s quite possible that a brand you really like and one you hate could be manufactured by the same factory.

Anything made by the hand of man is subject to human error & mishap and lousy quality control and that includes the liquid tests reagents too, not just dip strips

Dip strips are very widely used and relied upon and that wouldn’t be the case if the technology was badly flawed.

Though any given brand might not perform as you desire, and I do think that the strips with too many test pads per strip (more than maybe 7 or 8 pads) are badly designed because they are hellishly difficult to read in the allowed time frame, but there can be quality issues with any GH at d til product,

If your brand new tires blow out not long after you get them, you’re never going to buy that brand again, I’m sure, and you’ll tell your friends how lousy those tires were, but you wouldn’t be going about bad mouthing every tire brand there is, would you?

Seems to me that’s what happens with dip strips but they are simply different from liquid reagent tests. Find a brand that works and stick with it.

I find the API strips quite difficult to read so I don’t like them, but a couple of other brands work great and are easy to read.

I’ve got to the point I can usuallyinterpret a Tetra 6-in-1 dip strip without having to check the chart because I’ve become so familiar with them.

Proper handling, storage and accurate timing for reading them is essential for them to work as intended and so they don’t get contaminated or damaged.

They do have downsides, everything does.

Primarily, it’s the need for proper handling & storage and their cost over time. They are generally more expensive to use if you do a lot of testing,

With liquid reagents, the main downside is the time they take plus the cleanup of the vials.

The primary advantage to dip strips is the speed with which you can get multiple results, especially for multiple tanks or in emergencies. They also don’t need cleanup afterward and there are no vials to break accidentally or leak.

Tetra 6-in-one strips are quite good. I used them for years until they got a bit too expensive.

To get any notable increase in test accuracy from API et al tests, you need to spend a LOT of money.

You’d either go with something like the Hanna checkers, which could easily cost you something like $80. per device plus the replacement reagents as needed. (That price is just what I recall from the last time I checked into it - they are not made here in Canada and I haven’t checked into what they cost currently).

After that you’re looking at even more money because you’ll be into the realm of highly sensitive scientific instruments.

Such testing devices can cost many hundreds and even thousands of dollars, depending upon just what tests you need and what quality you’re willing to pay for. HACH is a good site to look at to get an idea about tests like these.

API liquid tests are plenty good enough for our needs, as are Salifert, Nutrafin, Seachem & JBL brands.

In the end, use tests you can read easily & don’t have trouble using and you should be good.

 

[RayClem]

Your substrate contains a large amount of beneficial organisms that help maintain the stability of your tank. Vacumming the substrate is necessary to prevent excessive waste buildup. However, it is not advisable to do so frequently. Nor is it advisable to vacuum the entire substrate at one time. Just vacuum a portion of the substrate each time and safe other parts for n ext time. Also, do not clean the substrate and your filter media at the same time. Doing about 1/3 of the substrate at a time is ideal.

There are additives that can help clean the substrate without vacuuming. Additives such as Seachem Pristing, API Stress Zyme, and MicroLife Gravel and Substrate Cleaner contain falcutative bacteria that will break down sludge in the gravel and convert it into compounds that can be further broken down by your nitrifying bacteria.

 

[AuroraDawn]

Up to .25ppm nitrite is safe though not ideal.

Anything over that calls for a water change in my playbook, though many use Prime instead.

Personally I much prefer to use as little water conditioner as I can possibly get away with, so I don’t use it for managing nitrogen compounds.

Hobby level tests are all very similar in terms of overall accuracy. None of them are super sensitive and if they were, I doubt that many of us would be able to afford them.

Dip strips unfortunately have what I consider to be a most undeserved reputation for giving bad or misleading results.

I know many will disagree with me but I simply don’t buy the idea that they are inherently inferior.

Dip strip test technology is relied upon in numerous fields including medicine among many others. Diabetics use them to test blood glucose, a vital use. Urine tests for drugs, ketones, blood, are all done with dip strips to name but a few,

There are hundreds of manufacturers of them around the world, with quite a few big corporations, and like most things, you can have them made under any desired brand name. It’s quite possible that a brand you really like and one you hate could be manufactured by the same factory.

Anything made by the hand of man is subject to human error & mishap and lousy quality control and that includes the liquid tests reagents too, not just dip strips

Dip strips are very widely used and relied upon and that wouldn’t be the case if the technology was badly flawed.

Though any given brand might not perform as you desire, and I do think that the strips with too many test pads per strip (more than maybe 7 or 8 pads) are badly designed because they are hellishly difficult to read in the allowed time frame, but there can be quality issues with any GH at d til product,

If your brand new tires blow out not long after you get them, you’re never going to buy that brand again, I’m sure, and you’ll tell your friends how lousy those tires were, but you wouldn’t be going about bad mouthing every tire brand there is, would you?

Seems to me that’s what happens with dip strips but they are simply different from liquid reagent tests. Find a brand that works and stick with it.

I find the API strips quite difficult to read so I don’t like them, but a couple of other brands work great and are easy to read.

I’ve got to the point I can usuallyinterpret a Tetra 6-in-1 dip strip without having to check the chart because I’ve become so familiar with them.

Proper handling, storage and accurate timing for reading them is essential for them to work as intended and so they don’t get contaminated or damaged.

They do have downsides, everything does.

Primarily, it’s the need for proper handling & storage and their cost over time. They are generally more expensive to use if you do a lot of testing,

With liquid reagents, the main downside is the time they take plus the cleanup of the vials.

The primary advantage to dip strips is the speed with which you can get multiple results, especially for multiple tanks or in emergencies. They also don’t need cleanup afterward and there are no vials to break accidentally or leak.

Tetra 6-in-one strips are quite good. I used them for years until they got a bit too expensive.

To get any notable increase in test accuracy from API et al tests, you need to spend a LOT of money.

You’d either go with something like the Hanna checkers, which could easily cost you something like $80. per device plus the replacement reagents as needed. (That price is just what I recall from the last time I checked into it - they are not made here in Canada and I haven’t checked into what they cost currently).

After that you’re looking at even more money because you’ll be into the realm of highly sensitive scientific instruments.

Such testing devices can cost many hundreds and even thousands of dollars, depending upon just what tests you need and what quality you’re willing to pay for. HACH is a good site to look at to get an idea about tests like these.

API liquid tests are plenty good enough for our needs, as are Salifert, Nutrafin, Seachem & JBL brands.

In the end, use tests you can read easily & don’t have trouble using and you should be good.

Thank you so much for this! I actually test more often and much more easily since I switched to mainly just the tetra 6 in 1 and the tetra ammonia strips. I have brain fog and shaky hands and a lot of the time the liquid tests are just not accessible to me. And the tetra brand is definetly better than the two other strips I tried.

What do you use now for water tests?

I have heard of hanna... are those instruments alone or do the require you to buy chemicals along with them that will need replacing?

What type & of substrate do you have and how deep is it.

Gravel and it is about 2 inches possibly a bit deeper as I do planted tanks.

 

[Fishfur]

Thank you so much for this! I actually test more often and much more easily since I switched to mainly just the tetra 6 in 1 and the tetra ammonia strips. I have brain fog and shaky hands and a lot of the time the liquid tests are just not accessible to me. And the tetra brand is definetly better than the two other strips I tried.

What do you use now for water tests?

I have heard of hanna... are those instruments alone or do the require you to buy chemicals along with them that will need replacing?


Gravel and it is about 2 inches possibly a bit deeper as I do planted tanks.

Hanna checkers are made up of an instrument plus a reagent and the reagent will need periodic replacement as it gets used up.

When I can find them at a tolerable price, Tetra’s strips are what I prefer.

Aquarium Co-Op are the other brand I use.

I actually have a new brand for ammonia and they have been very good so far - easy to read and accurate - Hoviran is the brand.

 

[mulletmcnasty]

Does anyone just get spin tests done at the LFS?
I personally do because they're pretty accurate and only once monthly because I have a very low bioload. They cost me $10 a test, sometimes free if I buy lots of things. Just a thought.

 

[Fishfur]

Does anyone just get spin tests done at the LFS?
I personally do because they're pretty accurate and only once monthly because I have a very low bioload. They cost me $10 a test, sometimes free if I buy lots of things. Just a thought.

I had never heard of spin testing - I had to go look it up.

Interesting - but no store here has a spin testing machine, that I know of.

The machines themselves are sure not cheap - the API Aquaspin, which is pretty new , only been around since 2023, I think.

It costs somewhere in the $1500-2000.USD range and I just hate to think of how much more it would cost here in CAD.

The reagent discs come in packs of 50 for something around $350.USD and work out to around 7-8 dollars per disc, which does the tests it has on it but I didn’t bother to check into which ones it does.

Could be good for a busy store & service professionals but would be prohibitively costly for most hobbyists, I think.

 

[mulletmcnasty]

I had never heard of spin testing - no store locally does them so far as I know, now that I know what they are.

The machines themselves are not cheap - the API Aquaspin is somewhere in the $1500-2000.USD range and I just hate to think of how much more it would cost here in CAD.

The reagent discs come in packs of 50 for something around $350.USD and work out to around 7-8 dollars per disc, which does the tests it has on it but I didn’t bother to check into which ones it does.

Could be good for a busy store & service professionals but would be prohibitively costly for most hobbyists, I think.

Yes, I agree about the costing for the store, as far as I know there are only 2 shops that use these in the city I live and hence the charge for the tests.
They are both pretty busy stores and do so many that sometimes they run out of testing discs.
I wouldn't suggest a hobbyist gets one of these devices, they're cost prohibitive, but if a local LFS does have one, then they are just another test option on the table. They do both fresh and saltwater options.

 

[Fishfur]

Yes, I agree about the costing for the store, as far as I know there are only 2 shops that use these in the city I live and hence the charge for the tests.
They are both pretty busy stores and do so many that sometimes they run out of testing discs.
I wouldn't suggest a hobbyist gets one of these devices, they're cost prohibitive, but if a local LFS does have one, then they are just another test option on the table. They do both fresh and saltwater options.

These spin testers would certainly save a lot of time, that’s pretty clear. But the convenience comes with a price, as it usually does.