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- Feb 19, 2020
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I have live sand (1/2 the recommended amount for a thin covering) and dry rock (pukani, came from another tank over 7 months ago and was myric acid bath'ed).
So according to Dr. Tim's I was going to have to add 152 drops of ammonia. Want to help? I thought not. So I used the teaspoon conversion but it seemed to me it was tough to tell what was a teaspoon and not- with a 50% leeway. Maybe I added 152 drops, maybe 85. I don't know- how would I know? So inaccurate using this kitchen teaspoon as a measuring device. Give me a syringe any day or some other idea...
Day 2: Just testing, no adding of ammonia
Salifert test kits: Is it just me or is it impossible to tell if the ammonia is zero and that water is just cloudy in the vial or if it's actually registering slight yellow (small amounts of ammonia)? I'm not sure this is a useful test kit though next time I add ammonia, I'll try testing the ammonia level right away after adding the ammonia (wish I did that day 1), and I'll be expecting to see a clearly yellow liquid in the vial, instead of a head scratching "coloration" or not.
Moving on, it seems fairly clear I have .01 Nitrites (again Salifert). This is a more useful test kit, it seems.
----
So...
How does this sound? Normal?
I'm just a bit worried that I didn't add enough ammonia because of that whole teaspoon difficulty mentioned above. But even if I didn't, does it really matter?
Cycling along....
So according to Dr. Tim's I was going to have to add 152 drops of ammonia. Want to help? I thought not. So I used the teaspoon conversion but it seemed to me it was tough to tell what was a teaspoon and not- with a 50% leeway. Maybe I added 152 drops, maybe 85. I don't know- how would I know? So inaccurate using this kitchen teaspoon as a measuring device. Give me a syringe any day or some other idea...
Day 2: Just testing, no adding of ammonia
Salifert test kits: Is it just me or is it impossible to tell if the ammonia is zero and that water is just cloudy in the vial or if it's actually registering slight yellow (small amounts of ammonia)? I'm not sure this is a useful test kit though next time I add ammonia, I'll try testing the ammonia level right away after adding the ammonia (wish I did that day 1), and I'll be expecting to see a clearly yellow liquid in the vial, instead of a head scratching "coloration" or not.
Moving on, it seems fairly clear I have .01 Nitrites (again Salifert). This is a more useful test kit, it seems.
----
So...
How does this sound? Normal?
I'm just a bit worried that I didn't add enough ammonia because of that whole teaspoon difficulty mentioned above. But even if I didn't, does it really matter?
Cycling along....