Ammonia test kit help

[gr2]

Hi everyone I’m having some trouble reading whether my ammonia is at either 0ppm or 0.25ppm. In person it has more of a green hue but it has tested this color for about a week now. My nitrite is at 0ppm. I’ve attached a picture with flash and without flash.

What do you guys think?

 

[Dan_P]

Hi everyone I’m having some trouble reading whether my ammonia is at either 0ppm or 0.25ppm. In person it has more of a green hue but it has tested this color for about a week now. My nitrite is at 0ppm. I’ve attached a picture with flash and without flash.

What do you guys think?

The low end of the scale if the API test is difficult to interpret. Try this modification of the test.

Use only 3 drops of the test reagents and let the color develop 1 full hour. 0 ppm ammonia will be nearly colorless while 0.25 ppm will be a definite blue to blue-green color. Let me know if you need further advise.

 

[gr2]

The low end of the scale if the API test is difficult to interpret. Try this modification of the test.

Use only 3 drops of the test reagents and let the color develop 1 full hour. 0 ppm ammonia will be nearly colorless while 0.25 ppm will be a definite blue to blue-green color. Let me know if you need further advise.

Hi there thanks for the alternative. I followed the instructions you gave me and this is what the results looked like after an hour. With flash and without. What do you think?

 

[Dan_P]

Hi there thanks for the alternative. I followed the instructions you gave me and this is what the results looked like after an hour. With flash and without. What do you think?

A white background would have better but this appears to be a “zero” ppm.

 

[Gtinnel]

The API test for ammonia is really bad, especially if the ammonia in the tank is zero. My tank is approaching 2 years old and it will still show around .25-.5 ppm for ammonia using an API test.
If your tank is new and you are testing to see if it is cycled then as long as you saw nitrites rise and then fall then I'd say you're fully cycled. If your tank isn't new then unless you have some reason to suspect that you have ammonia in the tank then I wouldn't even test for ammonia.
Either way I'd say your ammonia is at 0.

 

[c3h5]

I have this same test kit and went through the same issue, luckily I had another well established tank to also test and realize what was going on. If you look through my build thread you will see the same colors at end of my cycle.

 

[Gtinnel]

Also @gr2 I don't know why but the scale that you have behind the vial is for freshwater. I don't know if the tests are interchangeable from saltwater to freshwater or not.

 

[gr2]

The low end of the scale if the API test is difficult to interpret. Try this modification of the test.

Use only 3 drops of the test reagents and let the color develop 1 full hour. 0 ppm ammonia will be nearly colorless while 0.25 ppm will be a definite blue to blue-green color. Let me know if you need further advise.

Hi there thanks for the alternative. I followed the instructions you gave me and this is what the results looked like after and hour. With flash and without :

The API test for ammonia is really bad, especially if the ammonia in the tank is zero. My tank is approaching 2 years old and it will still show around .25-.5 ppm for ammonia using an API test.
If your tank is new and you are testing to see if it is cycled then as long as you saw nitrites rise and then fall then I'd say your fully cycled. If your tank isn't new then unless you have some reason to suspect that you have ammonia in the tank then I wouldn't even test for ammonia.
Either way I'd say your ammonia is at 0.

hi thanks so much! Yes it is a fairly new tank it has been 8 weeks since I started it up. My nitrites did rise and then now they went down to 0ppm for a week. I’m going to go with that it is very close to or it is already cycled