API test results help

[Captainscott]

Here is my results for ammonia and nitrate both seem high I do weekly water changes 20% on my 15 g nano

 

[brandon429]

no concern at all, post pics of the tank

thats what will help us discern your cycle status, not the tests. from your readings we can discern at least this variable= you didnt add all dry sand, and dry rock, and only saltwater with or without ammonia

somewhere in the mix a live substrate is present, or bottle bac has been added to start a little motion.

for the final call, post that full tank shot, and how many days has this tank had water in it + that mix stated above

ammonia tracing is very fun with limited measures like that.

 

[Captainscott]

Thanks Brandon the tank has been up and running for 6 1/2 months

 

[brandon429]

well fantastic. cycle clearly complete whats your concern

the ammonia in this tank is certainly, 100% in the thousandths ppm turnover rate its not .25, api can't read that low - no concern here that reef is perfect. nitrate looks mild, sharp reef.

its very common for api to show low level ammonia, my guess is thats the best the ultra sensitive kit can report what a seneye would read here.

the position of the fish is the best indicator. ammonia burnt fish (we think its about .02 free ammonia that will cause the fish to freak out) act all cra

also the stuck snail on glass, he'd keel over if you ever reached even hundredths ppm, a total free ammonia wimp.

your mine canaries, test kit, age of tank, surface area, water clarity all line up for perfection here, ammonia tracing complete.

 

[Captainscott]

I don’t know why I keep using api test kit but it’s what my local lfs has so I question my results every time thanks for the help I love having a second opinion

 

[brandon429]

if the tester turned total green Id be concerned and look for something wild going on, but they're not for low level thats whats going on here. seneye is for low level reading, and ammonia is so predictable its not worth 300 bucks for something we can predict with very very very little input

*ammonia is one param that cannot will not will never drift out of spec in a reef, nothing makes bacteria slowly die off, or fail to do their job. handy trick for trust.

*this assumes no dead fish are rotting in the tank, or snails...'drift' meaning something inherent in the system changes and bacteria cannot keep up. doesnt occur in reefing (well maybe a qt tank with low surface area being dosed with copper...takes something atypical. can't be a normal reef with rocks and sand, those last forever if kept wet.)

 

[brandon429]

 

[brandon429]

1. if this was 2004 we'd be out four pages already talking about how you've killed your bacteria off.

2. 80% of readers still feel that's happened but who wants to break a meme celebration.

*your reading is low, some would legit see that as zero for the kit its not a bad kit at all above.

the real fun is when the tester shows about 4 ppm lol and the tank posting is exactly like yours, fine, nothing wrong, nothing going wrong in the future....when these kits get adulterated the discussions can pan out pages but in the end its all the same (many posters have already added Prime for the first .25 scare, dont disclose it in the description, now its darker reading than yours, but prime is one api adulterant for both ammonia and nitrite false reads/example)

no cycle stalls, no cycle fails to complete, no cycle starves out or gets weak over time. that rule makes ammonia tracing very easy.


case in point, my bacteria have been dead for 90 days but all my life looks great and eats great day to day. *if copper really was a factor the tank would simply crash unable to control ammonia, ammonia never hovers at a set level in a reef tank. when it does, the tester is faulty.

Four weeks of cycling -- nitrites are 0, nitrates are at ~12, but ammonia won't drop.

So, as of today, I've: Turned off the skimmer completely for a week (didn't realize that was a thing with bacteria additives) Filtered with carbon for a week ahead of time (turned off now) Pumped 15 gallons (20%) out of the tank Carefully sifted about 15 dead snails out of the sand bed Added 15...

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