Ammonia Still Up on Day 5 Using Dr. Tim's One and Only

[albertski]

I started off ghost feeding my 10 gallon QT and using Microbacter 7. After some feedback, I siphoned out the food and stopped adding Microbacter 7, and went with Dr. Tim's One and Only. I'm currently on day 5 of cycling my tank using Dr. Tim's One and Only process. On Day 2, the ammonia went up and it never went below 2ppm. Is it normal for the ammonia to stay up like this? Nitrite is at 0 ppm and Nitrate is at .2 ppm.

I'm guessing that my ammonia is at 3ppm because the color is darker than my Red Sea Test kit has. It has been at about 3ppm for the past 3 days.

 

[vetteguy53081]

If you’re relying on ammonia badge, they are notorious for false readings and do not test if you’ve just added Dr Tim’s until after 12 hrs or more as it will give you also, false readings

 

[brandon429]

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[brandon429]

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[albertski]

Albert to fix this cycle simply let stew ten more days, change water for new, cycled. None of your testing will matter or alter completion on this stew date. It will work. Cycled by sept 18th, testlessly


the disparity we can see on the two kits, one is alarm and the badge is safe, drives the false notion of stuck cycles always. @Dan_P why is there such a disparity here above the badges work well for your recent tests

Am surprised the Red Sea is this far off

the top test drove the false notion to double buy cycling bacteria and that happened, the bottom test is fine and safe.

Albert did you dose prime or any water conditioners

Albert these clear pics are so helpful in tracking false stalls and purchase impulses this thread may become a top reference for us once this is figured out.

********were it not for the bottom kit saying safe clearly, every cycle umpire from any reef board would say you’re stalled, but you’re actually done already. The +10 days is simple insurance wait time

every stalled cycle is this issue, every alarm post over free ammonia in a display with all fish accounted for is this issue.

I didn’t dose prime or conditioner.

 

[Garf]

I started off ghost feeding my 10 gallon QT and using Microbacter 7. After some feedback, I siphoned out the food and stopped adding Microbacter 7, and went with Dr. Tim's One and Only. I'm currently on day 5 of cycling my tank using Dr. Tim's One and Only process. On Day 2, the ammonia went up and it never went below 2ppm. Is it normal for the ammonia to stay up like this? Nitrite is at 0 ppm and Nitrate is at .2 ppm.

I'm guessing that my ammonia is at 3ppm because the color is darker than my Red Sea Test kit has. It has been at about 3ppm for the past 3 days.

Perhaps you’ve got some crud collecting on the plastic plants. You got some sponge or other media in a circulation / hang on filter? If your pH is super low, it can massively change the free ammonia / total ammonia expected balance. Also if there’s a lot of crud floating around, I would run the water sample through a coffee filter first just in case the total ammonia test is being affected from that.
However, to get all three tests reading wrong, would be very odd.

 

[albertski]

Albert to fix this cycle simply let stew ten more days, change water for new, cycled. None of your testing will matter or alter completion on this stew date. It will work. Cycled by sept 18th, testlessly


the disparity we can see on the two kits, one is alarm and the badge is safe, drives the false notion of stuck cycles always. @Dan_P why is there such a disparity here above the badges work well for your recent tests

Am surprised the Red Sea is this far off

the top test drove the false notion to double buy cycling bacteria and that happened, the bottom test is fine and safe.

Albert did you dose prime or any water conditioners

Albert these clear pics are so helpful in tracking false stalls and purchase impulses this thread may become a top reference for us once this is figured out.

********were it not for the bottom kit saying safe clearly, every cycle umpire from any reef board would say you’re stalled, but you’re actually done already. The +10 days is simple insurance wait time

every stalled cycle is this issue, every alarm post over free ammonia in a display with all fish accounted for is this issue.

In my opinion I feel like the badge is towards the alert side. For sure, prior to adding Dr. Tim’s, it was more yellow.

 

[brandon429]

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[albertski]

Excellent input. No water conditioner makes this test read post very very helpful. Was that Red Sea taken after Dr. Tims


whether it’s creeping on alert by the badge isn’t a concern for a low surface area qt setup, it’s the night and day disparity of the top two reads on an uncontaminated water sample that I can use in a thousand coming false stalled cycle posts in the hobby. Your thread and quick follow up is going to help others

if non digital ammonia testing was reliable for us, the two kits would at least match. Even after TAN conversion per instructions that red sea is off the charts. Given total context here the badge is right

still do the 18th wait + water change you’ll be as cycled as the surface area in that qt allows, the surfaces will have all the bac and biofilm they can hold by then bc the total time fed, dosed and underwater will be over ten days.

Unfortunately, I didn't test prior to Dr. Tim's. I'll test RODI water tonight and see if that reads 0.

 

[brandon429]

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[brandon429]

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[brandon429]

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[albertski]

Perhaps you’ve got some crud collecting on the plastic plants. You got some sponge or other media in a circulation / hang on filter? If your pH is super low, it can massively change the free ammonia / total ammonia expected balance. Also if there’s a lot of crud floating around, I would run the water sample through a coffee filter first just in case the total ammonia test is being affected from that.
However, to get all three tests reading wrong, would be very odd.

I have a sponge and bio media in the filter. I’ll haven’t tested alkalinity but will tonight.

 

[albertski]

was meaning that red sea above has been taken after you've already dosed Dr. Tims, which actually works to decrease ammonia in the time frame you've used it, a couple days at most. on seneye, it tracks out to reduce ammonia in an hour after adding

one hour

so the red sea test above should show much lower, having been snapshot after adding the guaranteed ammonia reducer and then much longer wait time than it requires.

its ok to benchmark on known clean water if the red sea shows hard zero we know the kit isn't ruined.

those two kits should be showing close together, that they don't cannot be understated in impact to this hobby. imagine owning only the red sea above, you'll never cycle.

can you run that kit on a running reef display, is that possible

such as take the kit over to a running reef at lfs, run the test, post results after the prescribed wait time for the kit/instructions.

don't transport a sample back to home for testing, take the kit if possible. its handy to see this red sea test above ran on more than one actual living water sample if possible.


if not that's ok, what's been clearly pictured here is already post gold.

Unfortunately, I still don’t have my display tank up.

 

[albertski]

Albertskit its amazing to know more than one person is stumped in your readings differential. it throws such a weak point in our assessments wheel there isn't much context for such opposite reads on the same water. hey can you post a full tank shot of the quarantine system it helps us discern ratios at work

 

[brandon429]

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[albertski]

I tested with RODI water and the Ammonia was 0 so it seems like the Red Sea Ammonia Test kit is working correctly.

Day 6 Results:

Ammonia Red Sea Test Kit: 3 ppm
Ammonia Seachem Ammonia Badge: Alert .05 ppm (IMO the color is more green than yellow in person)
PH: 8.2
Nitrate: .05 ppm
Nitrite: .2 ppm
Salinity: 1.026 SG
Temperature: 79.3 F

 

[brandon429]

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[brandon429]

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[albertski]

I don't have my display tank up yet (the plan is to quarantine my fish and then start up my very first display tank) so I can't compare the badge to anything else. Also, just to point out that I only dosed ammonia on day 1 (4 drops x 10).

Here are the latest pictures of the tank.