What color?!? Ammonia

[luisruiz326]

What color am I looking at?
Nitrates came down last couple days and so did nitrites just need ammonia to hit 0.

 

[MnFish1]

Imo that's a 0 ppm reading on an api amnonia test.
You go by what the closest colour is and it's more yellow than green.
Saltwater makes it go a little hazy so I think this where all the confusion of 0.25 always reading in api tests
Best to follow test to the t and look at test with natural daylight behind you and look onto the white part of the chart.
Even looking in ambient light from a lamp/ light and in darkish room can make reading look darker than it is so best in natural light.
@MnFish1 Did some tests with api.

I know if I do a nitrate test with api I get 30-40 and if use salifert it's darker than 25 but not as dark as 50 so about same reading.
In my opinion all hobby grade test kits give similar results if used right from what I've read ( only used api and salifert myself)
Now if wanting a very low reading with api on nitrate for example may struggle as similar colours but even what alot say is best hobby grade kits ( hannah) they often differ from icp test results ive also read and read even icp not the be all and end all test so for my use of is it low medium high it's good enough but no high end corals in my tank to be paranoid over and want an exact number ( and is it even exact on the more expensive test kits as all got %errors) ^_^

That is 0

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

I got Ocean Water from LFS. Did Dr. Tim’s quick start. Saw that my tank stalled for a bit so I decided to go with the ghost feeding and Seachem Stability to introduce beneficial bacteria. Saw consistent ammonia and nitrites rise and drop as well as nitrates. Finally got my nitrites down from 5ppm and my ammonia from 2ppm couple days ago. Just yesterday my tank was showing all 0’s but today saw a jump in ammonia to the picture shown above.

Can you explain what you mean by your tank "stalled"? If you follow Dr. Tim's quick start and used the bottle of bacteria you should be fine to add fish. Common misconception is that these bacteria need a constant supply of ammonia for the tank to stay "cycled" but this is not true. The test looks like ammonia is at 0 or very close to it.

 

[luisruiz326]

Can you explain what you mean by your tank "stalled"? If you follow Dr. Tim's quick start and used the bottle of bacteria you should be fine to add fish. Common misconception is that these bacteria need a constant supply of ammonia for the tank to stay "cycled" but this is not true. The test looks like ammonia is at 0 or very close to it.

My tank stalled because ammonia levels and nitrites stayed consistent above 1.0 regardless of the beneficial bacteria added for 3+ days.

 

[Rmckoy]

Looks like zero to me . It’s more yellow ..
but this is the flaw with api .

 

[luisruiz326]

Better picture in white light

 

[ying yang]

And also to add api amnonia tests total amnonia so even a reading of say 0.5 amnonia maybe cause fir concern but after doing a " tan" conversion it goes down to something like 0 05 amnonia ( don't quote me on them numbers but if research it,it's something close to this ,) lots of threads on r2r as there's nh3 and nh4 and only one is toxic but other factors cone into play with temp and ph values and stuff like this as higher the ph = more toxic amnonia is.

Have a little Google on total ammonia and free amnonia and look at nh3 and nh4 and tan conversions and stuff,as interesting read and often something that may have worried us ,now mind gets eased a little.

But little research is good as will back up what people will tell you or you will realise they said it slightly wrong or you misinterpreted it slightly wrong etc.

Good luck and hope you get great enjoyment from your new fish that are coming ^_^

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

If you are concerned, you can add some more bacteria when you add the fish in and that will help to keep any ammonia produced by the new fish in check. If you have nitrites and nitrates, your tank is probably cycled and will be fine as long as you don't add a large amount of fish at one time.

My tank stalled because ammonia levels and nitrites stayed consistent above 1.0 regardless of the beneficial bacteria added for 3+ days.

Sometimes it just takes time, if your ammonia finally went to 0 and you had nitrites and nitrates produced, you can feel comfortable that your tank is cycled. It doesn't hurt to continue monitoring ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels for the first week or two but after that usually your ammonia and nitrite levels stay bottomed out and you just monitor nitrates. As far as QT protocols, there is a very detailed one under the sticky threads on the Fish Disease Treatments and Diagnosis forum.

 

[MnFish1]

Looks like zero to me . It’s more yellow ..
but this is the flaw with api .

No - this is not really a 'flaw with API'. It's a flaw in following instructions for API - for the ammonia test the reading is based on the color CLOSEST to the chart (as you said). If its slightly green its not read as 0-0.25 or 0.25. It's read as zero.

 

[MnFish1]

If you are concerned, you can add some more bacteria when you add the fish in and that will help to keep any ammonia produced by the new fish in check. If you have nitrites and nitrates, your tank is probably cycled and will be fine as long as you don't add a large amount of fish at one time.

Sometimes it just takes time, if your ammonia finally went to 0 and you had nitrites and nitrates produced, you can feel comfortable that your tank is cycled. It doesn't hurt to continue monitoring ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels for the first week or two but after that usually your ammonia and nitrite levels stay bottomed out and you just monitor nitrates. As far as QT protocols, there is a very detailed one under the sticky threads on the Fish Disease Treatments and Diagnosis forum.

One problem with Dr. Tim's - unless you use a syringe to measure the ammonia - and know your tank volume fairly closely - it is possible to way overdose the initial ammonia (and subsequent) doses because the drops can vary in size depending on how you hold it when dosing. If you look the experiments done by @Coxey81 when he used drops - he ended up with much more than 2 ppm ammonia - despite knowing the exact volume of water, etc. I had a similar experience. And ammonia levels above 5 ppm can indeed inhibit nitrifier growth