Seachem Ammonia/pH Alert Stickers

I was browsing livefish and I came across these stickers which are attached to the tank like a thermometer and claim to monitor ph and ammonia levels 24/7. Does anyone know about their accuracy and longevity? They are made by seachem and seem to have a decent range of readings. They have "used by dates" making me think that they might have something to them. The price is pretty alluring too, since a bottle of ammonia testing fluid costs $20 at my lfs, and a full kit cost $70! I wouldn't rely on them, but they might make a pretty good warning system.

Have any of you guys used these before? Do you think I should try them out?

 

I have used them.....and they DON'T work. I had them when I first started my tank and the ammonia never read anything other than 0ppm. I picked up some test strips and I actually had 3.0 ppm. Scary to say the least.

 

IMHO, these products are not required. As much as I love Seachem, these products are a bit of a gimmick.

Ammonia alert - in a properly cycled and stocked aquarium, you won't or certainly should never see ammonia again.
pH alert - there is no need to monitor pH as such unless you are breeding or keeping a sensitive species (i.e. Discus).

With proper husbandry, and maybe the occassional test, you don't need these products.

Oh, and test strips are notoriously inaccurate. Liquid tests are much more reliable and accurate.

 

Seconded! I asked a chain pet store employee, and even they said it was inaccurate. The only thing I've known to be reliable is liquid tests, as strip tests are also inaccurate.

Edit: Oops, ninja-ed...make that thirded!

 

I have used them.....and they DON'T work. I had them when I first started my tank and the ammonia never read anything other than 0ppm. I picked up some test strips and I actually had 3.0 ppm. Scary to say the least.

I've used them and they work fine, for their intended purpose. You're ammonia was way too high - you'll notice that the scale on the ammonia alert is from 0.02 ppm (it doesn't read 0) to 0.5 ppm, so using it on an uncycled tank (3 ppm) is outside the range of the product's capabilities.

One thing people don't usually know about them is that the ammonia alert only measures free ammonia, not the total ammonia (including ammonium), so the numbers will always be lower than what the test kit measures because they don't differentiate. It's not inaccurate - they are just measuring different things.

They are for monitoring ammonia in an established tank. But as ryan said, they really aren't needed because an established tank should not have ammonia issues.

 

Good afternoon,

I use the Ammonia Alert in both of my tanks as a back up to the API Liquid Master Test Kit. If you hold them over a bottle of ammonia, they will change colors. If for nothing else, it's peace of mind for me. I change them out every 6 months.

Ken

 

I don't use the ammonia ones but I use the Mardel brand ph ones & I like them very much. I got them at Kensfish.

 

I'm with Ken,I keep them in my discus and my Seahorse tanks...mainly for piece of mind.....and on one occasion they saved my Seahorses......I had added a couple of newbies and because of making sure they were all getting enough food I overfed the tank.....(I do weekly maintenance on all my tanks) if it weren't for the ammonia alert I could have had a real disaster on my hands, I was a few days away from actual water change for the Seahorses.

 

I just got a few myself and so far, so good. The reason I got them is because my tank is over 2 + months old and EVERYDAY, my readings on Ammonia with API test kit is 0.25.
It seems like it may be less than that because the color is more yellow than the tint of green
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 5.0

So I had been obsessing over this "Ammonia" reading because it never has gone down to 0 and while I can go 7 days, my ammonia never goes up but my Nitrates have gone to 10.0 on occasion. Always 0 on the Nitrites.

So I am using this as an "inbetween" check and so I am not using API every day like I was when nothing changes - even up to 2 weeks......