Anyone have a salifert ammonia tester?

[rookiegirl]

Is a good reading clear like tap water or is white and cloudy the proper reading? The colour chart for a good reading (0.25) is simply blank so i don't know if that means clear or the same shade as the white paper it's on??

[rookiegirl]

anyone? my corals aren't doing well nor is my skunk shrimp, i need to sort this out quickly. already done a water change and reading is the same, white and cloudy...need to know if i'm reading this right??

[kau_cinta_ku]

for ammonia to be 0 it should be clear, the fact that your water is somewhat cloudy is usually a sign of ammonia. or it could be snails spawning, ect. but first off get some amiquel+ and add that. that will neturalize the ammonia for now.

before adding the amiquel get a water sample and take it to a LFS and have them check it to make sure.

BTW how long has the tank been set up?

[rookiegirl]

Tank is in fourth week of cycle. I have a few hitch hiker corals that were doing remarkably well until now and a skunk shrimp. Polyps are completely closed up and hammer frogspawn turned right in....skunk not looking so good either.

[Sk8r]

This is the crisis point for your cycle. Get some clean new salt water in a plain container, do careful acclimation, and put your critters in there as into quarantine after purchase. (A very good idea, btw! Always!) Filter and feed carefully, testing often. After your tank is back to normal, move them back.

Acclimate! the salinity matching is critical. And that must go slowly, whenever moving any critter.

Get your own test kits. With corals, you'll need tests for your ammonia/nitrate (0 is a good reading) and for alkalinity. After a few weeks, start testing for calcium and magnesium. Maintain those (see the What I wish I'd done earlier threads) and you'll be fine.

[rookiegirl]

Thanks sk8r!

[Simon68]

Whoah, I am not sure you understood rookiegirl, Sk8tr.
Unless maybe I misunderstood. Her DT water is NOT cloudy, it's her ammonia test that shows up a cloudy white. The Salifert test shows ammonia by colors ranging from white to orange. She is asking, does that white in the test tube need to be a clear white or would a cloudy white also be considered 0 ammonia.
Or then again, maybe I got the whole question wrong.

[rookiegirl]

You're right simon68, i was trying to read the colour correctly from my ammonia test. My test water is coming up cloudy white and is that a O reading? Thanks for clarifying, i haven't moved anything yet as i wanted to monitor for just a few more hours before making such a stressful change on the corals. The stress is there if they stay as well but if the unexpected ammonia is going to cycle out it might be better to leave them. I'm torn. Just for the record i put in some Amquel to drop the ammonia a bit just incase that was the problem. I didn't want to interrupt the cycle if that was the result of the ammonia spike but i thought i'd take a chance at saving the corals.

[Xubar]

I use the same test kit and have always recorded the same "cloudy" clear reading and assumed this reading was zero ammonia. It has no color to it, so that means no ammonia reading to me.

[rookiegirl]

Thanks xubar, that helps me greatly.

[Playa-1]

I think I agree with Xubar. It's the tint of the color that your looking for If i'm not mistaken.

[rookiegirl]

Good to know...glad it's not an ammonia problem then. Now i just have to figure out what the heck the problem really is. The only problem I can find is my ph which is at 7.9....not dangerous, but low. My water is probably just too new for these corals. My LFS assured me they would be fine at this early stage, just not to get fish....not so sure about that now.

[jtma508]

What are your nitrite and nitrate tests reading? It sounds to me like your tank is still cycling. Maybe too early to have introduced livestock. I'll get flamed for this but during my cycle I used Hagen's 'Cycle' bacterial supplement. It measurably shortened the nitrogen cycle.

[rookiegirl]

That's the funny thing, all of my readings are coming up at O. As mentioned the only thing off is my ph at about 7.8/7.9. I thought a bit of a late cycle spike was underway when my ammonia was high but as it turned out my ammonia was fine. I have checked my readings over and over and they're perfect. Last week i had some trouble with the temp and it went up to 86 at it's highest point, but was mainly sitting at 83/84 for about a day and a half until i got the fan situation sorted. My mh's are under a canopy and needed some tweaking to cool things down a bit. Other than that, everything has been great. If it meant saving the corals i'd consider the cycle supplement but i don't have the readings to support using it. Thanks for your input.

[jtma508]

That's odd. Have you been moniotoring your parameters every couple of days since you set-up the tank/ Did you ever actually see the cycle happen?

[rbnice1]

whats your kH? and Calc?

If your adding coral you really need to have all the parameters set before hand.

im guessing your kh and/or calc is low so your ph is low.

I wouldnt worry about your ph to much tho. Mine has been at 8 for a while now and the only way I have been able to get it up to 8.4 is to raise kh to 14.

[Playa-1]

If you got a sudden temp swing that likely was the cause of the distress. I think the LFS may have given you some bad advise.

What are you using to replace evaporated water?

What are your water readings at this point?
Salinity
Ph
Alk
Magnesium
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
temp
Calcium

You also need to test PH and Temp several times in one day so you can see what type of swing your getting thru-out the day.
Keep records of the water reading so that you will have them for reference. Ph will likely be low in the morning and maxed out right before light out.

Ph 7.9 is nothing to be concerned about. Ph is effected by many different things. The main thing is to get everything in order and the PH will usually fall into line. PH being off is usually an indication that there is another problem going on.

That brings me to gas exchange. What are you using for circulation in the display tank? Corals require vigorous water movement. The surface area of the tank along with good water movement should keep the tank well aerated, providing that there is fresh air in the room. Aeration directly effects PH.

[rookiegirl]

jtma: I was monitoring every couple of days but then there was about a week where i just let it do it's thing so i imagine that's when the cycle actually happened.

playa: I am using ro/di for replacement water, i have 2 Koralia 3's and my return for water flow, and my water readings from tonight are:

Temp -78
Salinity - 1.024
Calcium - 420
Phosphates - 0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
PH - 8.3 (threw in an additive)
KH/Alk - 10.6/3.77