Ammonia testing

[reefmaster70]

Hey all,

Ok, I've taken the plunge and purchase a handful of Hanna Testing checker kits for my saltwater tank. I have been using Salifert kits for years and have always liked them. I've only been using Hanna Checkers now for a few months. So Anyway, today I wanted to run an Ammonia test, Nitrate and phosphate on my tank, as i am changing out some media and doing a water change anyway. My issue is my Ammonia readings were very different from one to the other and I don't know which one to believe. Now my tank continues to look amazing, and fish, inverts, etc are all doing just fine, nobody is stressed, or has any issues. My Salifert test told me that my Ammonia was under/less than .15ppm. which is pretty much where it's been since the cycle has finished. My Hanna Checker told me today that my Ammonia reading is 1.1ppm which I am nervous about, I'm doing a 20% water change today anyway, but was just wondering what your thoughts on this would be??

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ammonia is never a problem in an established reef tank unless something large just died.

Not sure why it reads 1 ppm, which is unlikely to be accurate, but it’s not at toxic levels even if real.

 

[reefmaster70]

Ammonia is never a problem in an established reef tank unless something large just died.

Not sure why it reads 1 ppm, which is unlikely to be accurate, but it’s not at toxic levels even if real.

That's what I suspected. Maybe I'll try the Hanna checker again tonight. Maybe there were some bubbles, or something that threw the test off. Noting has died in the tank, all fish, inverts and corals accounted for (and happy). again my Salifert test has read under .15ppm and I ran that test twice because it's much easier than running the Hanna Test.

 

[taricha]

take a pic of the hanna test vial at 0 minutes and at the end of the 15 minute reaction.

 

[reefmaster70]

Here is my sample. First one is after C powder has been added, before putting into meter and 2nd pic is after the 15 minutes. This test was done after a 20% water change, 4 gallons on my 20g tank.

 

[taricha]

Here is my sample. First one is after C powder has been added, before putting into meter and 2nd pic is after the 15 minutes.

Yep, that's what a low/ zero ammonia test looks like. All good.

 

[reefmaster70]

Ok, I'll take your word for it.

 

[martysparty]

Ammonia is never a problem in an established reef tank unless something large just died.

Not sure why it reads 1 ppm, which is unlikely to be accurate, but it’s not at toxic levels even if real.

Have you ever heard of hanna kits giving inaccurate or misleading readings, I’ve had mine saying 15 nitrite and ~.08 ammonia for almost 3 weeks now and I’m just concerned I’m not seeing what I should

 

[brandon429]

They have a .5 variance


This rule is best:
Reef tanks self manage ammonia always just fine when normally running. Even if a fish dies it doesn’t crash. Tanks can absorb spikes like a shock absorber.

Whatever variance a kit shows doesn’t matter. That’s the variance for the unit and sample time, but even at higher reading no action is taken. There is not a time in a running reef tank where it’ll lose the ability to shock absorb free ammonia and keep it in spec. That makes all readings for it: incidental and merely handy for testing various proofs needed to solidify cycling science claims in reefing. No display tank needs testing for it

So that means if you said your reef tank was running, and the fish were accounted for, there’s no reading you could post with this or any other test kit that would be alarming. The kit is varying is what I’d think, because the rule doesn’t allow for times a reef tank running with fish accounted for needs control verification or support. Packing rocks in the center mass and swirling water around them from all angles produces this effect in scale across reef tanks ranging one gallon to fifteen hundred gallons.

That a pico reef shows the same ammonia shock absorbency as a fully stocked thirty fish large reef is an amazing testament to the scaling our systems accomplish.

 

[brandon429]

As we cover in seneye calibration debates, that reading of .8 above is your safe reference point for that reef. If one day it spikes well above that I’d be impressed. It would also be so handy to see what another hanna digital would read on your display, should a friend also have one. A dual calibration check would be fun, that’s how your reading is to be factored. As a proof hunt but your display has nothing wrong with it.

Even if a fish is dead, that’s your spike, it’ll be fine, and the tank will steady state before long owing to the rule.

It takes a large fish kill to begin the ammonia loss cascade, which falls under the label of abnormal running so the rule does not apply.

**the rule has utility. In any large fish kill post, any of them, primary ammonia noncontrol is often assumed (cycle stalled, fish loss followed)

That does not occur (the rule)

To think it does has misled many many a causative hunt for $ aquarists. It will always be a disease or hardware issue that starts the ammonia loss cascade crash, it’ll never be loss of basic ammonia control for any reason. Believing in the rule instantly helps you trace disease loss threads a hundred times better. You have no idea how many thousands of greenish api posts accompany a fish loss thread and the umpires identify primary ammonia noncontrol as the cause.

Hundreds of thousands have the rule backwards. The rule govern what steps you should take in your reef regarding ammonia: none. Lastly, it would be so handy if you posted a full tank picture

It will likely look like a normal reef vs a crashing one. How a tank appears in a post is more important for ammonia assessment than any kit they may show up with.

 

[brandon429]

*littering seneye predictions I’ll be audited on one day.


So in this thread we have two reefs with pretty varied ammonia readings off hanna. A claimed good digital kit


But per the rule, and supported by owners of calibrated seneye units, each reef runs pretty close to each other in the thousandths ppm nh3. They don’t run in the tenths ppm nh3 as this set of data shows even when adjusted down from that initial nh4 reading on both kits. That’s a large variance off what we know post cycle reefs to run at, therefore I think hanna digital nh3 is crapola. It’s merely a wide ranging digital version of the api ammonia kit that has set reef cycling science permanently behind.

Any four testers are found to have wide readings on those kits. I don’t like them anymore for cycling. Use seneye or use predictive cycling science that needs no measure.

The real crime is that owners of calibrated seneyes aren’t running tests on reef tanks to audit claims and updating here.

 

[Dan_P]

Have you ever heard of hanna kits giving inaccurate or misleading readings, I’ve had mine saying 15 nitrite and ~.08 ammonia for almost 3 weeks now and I’m just concerned I’m not seeing what I should

Both measurements are likely real, but…too small to worry about. The 15 ppb nitrite is actually 15 ppb NO2-N or about 0.05 ppm NO2. For saltwater that is a non-issue but will make the nitrate test read high. The zero point or baseline for the ammonia test may run a little high, maybe 0.05 ppm. So the 0.08 ppm may only be 0.03 ppm. That is a non-issue because the amount of free ammonia in that total ammonia reading is about 0.003 ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree that real or not, they are not any concern. :)

 

[martysparty]

Appreciate it, had my lfs test my water today and their tests came back both zero and all other readings came back in spec as well

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sounds good. Happy reefing. :)

 

[Louis Z]

In a QT tank where ammonia reading is critical . I have a ammonia badge which registers in the safe zone yet an API test kit registering a higher amt between .5 and 1ppm . so if the api is more sensitive , I am going with that one to be on the safe side. I would love to do a test across the board with all the test kits with known ammonia conc. . Yet don’t have the funds to do all that . So I just use the api . I had no mortality My ammonia came down because I introduced some foam filter material previously held in another cycled tank . If that didn’t work a complete water change was on the way . No ick or flukes showing . Will obtain more of the fish from LFS next week and then will start tank transfer method on all of them at the same time