This weekend I lost 2 clowns on the same night. Shrimp, hermits, snails, conchs all fine. Ammonia and Nitrite were 0. Went to my LFS to get a second opinion. They did a spin test and API. Ammonia and Nitrite were 0.1 on the spin test but they showed me the API and Ammonia was reading 1ppm. They said my tank just had an ammonia spike and killed my fish…Sold me new bottled bacteria and told me to do an 80% water change.
I get home and ammonia was 0 and nitrite 0.1 on RedSea tests. I think my slight nitrite spike was just because my fish sat dead for about 12 hours overnight and started decaying, not because of an ammonia spike otherwise it would’ve affected my inverts.
My LFS’s Phosphate came back at 4.3 (which was odd.) and Alkalinity at 6. My tests were 0.14 for Phos and 7.9 for ALK on Hanna Checker Tests.
I know my tests are new and are very reliable and recommended by most experienced hobbyists. Could my LFS results have messed up that much?
I get home and ammonia was 0 and nitrite 0.1 on RedSea tests. I think my slight nitrite spike was just because my fish sat dead for about 12 hours overnight and started decaying, not because of an ammonia spike otherwise it would’ve affected my inverts.
My LFS’s Phosphate came back at 4.3 (which was odd.) and Alkalinity at 6. My tests were 0.14 for Phos and 7.9 for ALK on Hanna Checker Tests.
I know my tests are new and are very reliable and recommended by most experienced hobbyists. Could my LFS results have messed up that much?