Api freshwater v salifert

[brandon429]

I want to show you something both very neat and pertinent and relevant


this thread here remains a top bacteria proof in reefing. It is direct proof with half a year follow up that reef tank water not only has cycling bacteria in it, it has enough in it to fully cycle a 200 gallon system within 20 days by mere water contact. Not a drop of feed or bottle bac added and dry sand

fully proof cycled at twenty days then stocked then follow up as a full blown large mixed reef. Look at his test at the end heh


i made a ramp up with the equivalent of fireworks cannons and then the pics one and two and three all matched and right at fire time, you can hear my launch emit as a tiny extended squeak

that’s the salifert effect, it looks convincing in person I have proof lol


i still use this thread for examples but it shares a not stark movement test that convinced him easily. Follow up pics of the maturing reef seems to call that correct as well

Connecting Established Reef To New Tank

EDIT: In conclusion, if using the method I did - connecting an established reef to a new system with dry rock (clean), I recommend the following: 1. Dose your new tank prior to connecting to your old tank with NO3 and PO4 enough to raise to your established tank levels. 2. Take your skimmer...

www.reef2reef.com

we use the exact test you are doing at the end of his test run.

 

[kenny_scotland]

Dont think I’m wanting you to dose to infinity lol but still can’t see a difference from pic one but that doesn’t matter.

you’ve for sure challenged these bacteria everyone would agree they’re under test now, report how you see the test this time tomorrow and I’ll have a lot of good uses for this thread for sure. Even if it takes until Monday nbd, but if not moved by Tuesday I’ll be shocked. I would put all chips on movement down by tomorrow

I will dose a little more. I don’t have an issue with raising the levels a little bit. Im in no rush at the moment.

Will dose again and post the results again

Many thanks again

 

[kenny_scotland]

Ok, that’s another 2.5 ml in. It’s definitely a lot darker. Looking down from above it’s very clearly in the 0.5. From the side however it’s more like 1.5.

im reluctant to add any more now......

 

[kenny_scotland]

Side by side from first To last. Deffo easy to see the change.

 

[kenny_scotland]

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be looking down, from the top, into the test vial with it setting on the white section of the color chart. The color will look darker from the side and maybe why it doesn't match any colors on the chart. I don't use Salifert though so I could be wrong.

the Salifert one actually says look through the side. Just read that in the instructions.

 

[brandon429]

I clearly see it, test underway thank you very much this will be neat to track out for movement

 

[kenny_scotland]

I clearly see it, test underway thank you very much this will be neat to track out for movement

Many thanks for your help. I’ll get some readings tomorrow and see where it’s at

 

[brandon429]

Ok nice job here we have many uses for the thread for sure.

 

[takitaj]

the Salifert one actually says look through the side. Just read that in the instructions.

Well, it was a guess. Interesting though how it matched so closely top down...in photos anyway.

 

[kenny_scotland]

Here’s today Colours. Also took some nitrite and nitrate ones too for info.

i went to a local shop today and they tested the ammonia with an api saltwater kit and it was pretty much off the scale. They also used the salifert one and was smack bang in the 0.5 box. The reagent was yellow at the shop tho. The one I have in my kit is clear

I’m a little confused

 

[brandon429]

Nitrate proves the bacteria added weren't dead

If your ammonia has stayed the same after we dosed it a bunch that's OK we're only 12 hours past the dose, might take another day on that kit like on our red sea pic. We had to dose a bunch to get a change, who knows how that's affecting timing. Curious what tomorrow shows on the ammonia one


the nitrite doesn’t factor, we don’t reference that anymore as it’s neutral impact in a cycle and one less non digital tester to concern over

im not sure if the reagent differences between your test and theirs impacts accuracy, not sure. It will be neat to see if your ammonia kit or theirs shows a reduction later today or tomorrow.

the funny thing about nitrate confirmation is if your bottle bac was dead the nitrate wouldnt be fifty ppm approximately

it would be blank

and there’s no such thing as half alive bacteria, they’re alive or dead, and if they’re alive they affix to surfaces when the directions on the bottle say they will


only non digital ammonia readings constantly causes this confusion. If your reagent is bad or expired etc it’s nice to have their comparison kit to use as a side gauge

 

[brandon429]

Calculator

that ammonia ppm calculator is handy for proofing your levels separate from either of the kits. If we know your ammonia strength % and gallons in system we can estimate nicely where your levels were after three blasts of ammonia yesterday

 

[kenny_scotland]

Hey

i know it was a little early to be testing again. I was just curious to the difference between the tests at the shop and mine. Especially the same salifert one.

I’ll get back to another one later today. Just setting up my protein skimmer and wave maker. Couple more things ticked off

 

[brandon429]

This conflict between high nitrate vs implied inability to move ammonia from another kit is the classic challenge this decade for cycling. People will routinely buy more strains of bottle bac to try and unstick it, but we know ammonia just doesn’t lock in place when the other factors like # days underwater + surface area and nitrate confirmation are in place


it would be so neat if a sample of this tank water could be tested on a seneye machine for the current levels


its also accurate to note that if polled, nobody would agree a high nitrite ammonia not moving system was anywhere near cycled


they would either disregard the high nitrate endpoint proof or simply state half the required bacteria are in place, and when the other half builds up all the ammonia and nitrite will balance. It will be neat to see how long it takes the system to get zero on nitrite and hard zero on ammonia in relation to the older ways of cycling, and for the new rules we know when that ammonia decides to lower then after a water change the system will be controlled.

what digital seneye shows nh3 to be doing when compared alongside titration kits is always amazing.


im curious to know what we drove your ppm to yesterday I’m going to run the calc out of curiosity

what % strength is the ammonia used

how many system gallons, remove some in estimation to make up for rocks displacement

how many mls were input of the ammonia. Not sure how the calculator impacts free ammonia nh3 it just provides a basic comparison to the 1st pic test reads

 

[kenny_scotland]

Since the tanks been running it’s had 7ml ammonia at 9.5% concentration.

with the displacement of rock and sand it’s about 25 gallons give or take a half.

 

[brandon429]

I thought that was a 120 gallon setup we could never practically change out the water, nice update. the pics and scape made it look huge

no matter how much ammonia we blasted in, overdone or not, at 25 gallons what an easy change out and this will leave all bioslicks functioning on the surface like it did for Jacks example reef using api. it will still be very neat to see when one or both of these ammonia tests shows a down move. neat work thread here, represents the challenges from nearly all concerned cycle posts in 2020.

 

[brandon429]

we created about 7 ppm total ammonia trying to induce a change in the salifert, rock on lol. this wont kill the bac, it will feed them

Testing could be odd next few days understandably

 

[kenny_scotland]

we created about 7 ppm total ammonia trying to induce a change in the salifert, rock on lol. this wont kill the bac, it will feed them

Testing could be odd next few days understandably

Yeah and still hasn’t read above 1.5

 

[brandon429]

we have goosed it a good load indeed.
I was like: no i cannot see, hit me again.

and again
hit me again. ok barely

that poor colorimetric kit. In the end after meeting the date on the bottle bac, however long that strain says it takes to work, we claim you can change out the water and begin. changing the water leaves the huge overdose no longer present


old cycling science says that will kill the bac, new says it wont. classic duel of claims.

i try to assemble outcome threads so people can see the patterns and see if agreeable- and right now in the new tanks forum a thread about unstalling cycles 6 pages is exactly doing a full water change on the date from the bottle bac directions, regardless of the wastewater mix (we are not the first overdosers of ammonia, thats routine, explains variation in something rather exacting) and then everybody's clownfish feed and act normal from there on out.



my claims aren't running hot here particularly heh in this thread - that kit wouldnt move for us at 3 ppm ha I was = lets triple it then. make that rascal move. and now six reefs of ammonia is the test, love it.



If you change out that water and start with some normal bioloading, on the dates from the bottle bac labels on readiness, and it dies in a clear obvious cloudy ammonia noncontrol event, then Ill prominently update these threads below with that foul call. and if your ammonia happens to move down from seven in the interim, that's a lucky pic set we'll have. if not, there's a backup plan for meeting a start date. the reason i put links is to see others with $ on the line running these tests. all cycling rules we can read about on the internet have been about clearing out wastewater, regardless of variation, waiting for that to clear. so some cycles take sixty days...

new cycling says sometimes a clean water table tests better than a blasted one...and that bioslicks were formed the whole time even though we dosed to seven. removing the offending wastewater is shown in link one to leave behind a functioning reef. many of the posters are updating here to show fish and corals now/moving right along and formerly stuck cycle.

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

non digital ammonia test kit readings (api, Red Sea, nyos, seachem badges) make you think you aren’t cycled when indeed you are if you owned a $200 expensive seneye meter, you’d never be doubting your cycle status. since .01% of the reefing population owns these, we need a way to help the...

www.reef2reef.com

Updated Cycling Science thread 2020

The number of parameters measured allowing your start date is now reduced from three parameters measured (ammonia nitrite nitrate) into only one-nh3 form free ammonia. We dont need three-parameter compliance anymore to begin reefing safely. we need know only that ammonia is controlled. you...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[zoaprince]

APIs freshwater test kit can be used for saltwater BUT you must compare the results to the saltwater color chart found here: https://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Downloads.html. Best to print them out as each screen shows colors differently.