How low a Hanna ammonia reading is ok for fish?

Dave-T

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I am cycling a 240 gallon tank, I'm at about 400 gallons including the sump and connected frag tank. I dosed Fritz fishless fuel in the beginning to get the ammonia PPM up to about 2.0. That was a month ago. The ammonia reading was steadily dropping for a while, but for the last week it's been bouncing between .11 and .14. Do I really need to wait for it to get to zero, before it's safe to add fish? I'm not sure how much I should trust the Hanna checker at that low a reading. Is it accurate? Seems odd that it goes up, on some days... I looked into getting the Hanna LR checker, but that seems to only be available for fresh water.

I'm also monitoring nitrites, that was at 0.049 according to my Hanna Nitrite LR checker, about a week ago (when I first got a 0.11 ammonia reading).
 

fishski13

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Both ammonia and nitrite need to be dead 0 in order to add anything. If you add livestock now you will cause both ammonia and nitrite poisoning in fish which will cause them to die in days.

Your best bet is to wait a little longer or try to purchases another ammonia test kit, like the salifert or other brand to see if you get similar readings.
 

PatW

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Ammonia should be at 0. Nitrite is NOT as toxic but it should be at 0 also. Now, you might have a positive reading on ammonia as a testing artifact. If you think that is the case, you can either get a good local fish store to confirm or you can buy a decent test kit like Salifert (good quality low price) and see if it is 0.
 

gbroadbridge

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I am cycling a 240 gallon tank, I'm at about 400 gallons including the sump and connected frag tank. I dosed Fritz fishless fuel in the beginning to get the ammonia PPM up to about 2.0. That was a month ago. The ammonia reading was steadily dropping for a while, but for the last week it's been bouncing between .11 and .14. Do I really need to wait for it to get to zero, before it's safe to add fish? I'm not sure how much I should trust the Hanna checker at that low a reading. Is it accurate? Seems odd that it goes up, on some days... I looked into getting the Hanna LR checker, but that seems to only be available for fresh water.

I'm also monitoring nitrites, that was at 0.049 according to my Hanna Nitrite LR checker, about a week ago (when I first got a 0.11 ammonia reading).
You don't state the checker model you are using, but if it's the HI733, its stated accuracy is +- 1 ppm , so the result you have is not much use.

You need total ammonia to be under 0.25ppm to be safe.

I'd suggest a salifert or red sea test for ammonia.

The nitrite is unimportant so I would not test for it, and it varies even in a cycled tank.
 
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Dave-T

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You don't state the checker model you are using, but if it's the HI733, its stated accuracy is +- 1 ppm , so the result you have is not much use.

You need total ammonia to be under 0.25ppm to be safe.

I'd suggest a salifert or red sea test for ammonia.

The nitrite is unimportant so I would not test for it, and it varies even in a cycled tank.
I have the H1784 Hanna checker. It says the accuracy is "+/- 0.05PPM +/- 5% of reading". I don't really understand it, the reported values are down to 2 decimal places, so you'd think it would be accurate to more than 0.05. But maybe that's the issue I'm seeing. My main question is why it goes up from .11PPM to .14 PPM.

When you say "nitrite", do you mean "nitrate"?
 
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Dave-T

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And regarding the Salifert test kit vs the Hanna, you folks think that's more accurate? I have a real problem with the "match the colors to the card" test kits, I find it very hard to decide which is the correct color.
 

gbroadbridge

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I have the H1784 Hanna checker. It says the accuracy is "+/- 0.05PPM +/- 5% of reading". I don't really understand it, the reported values are down to 2 decimal places, so you'd think it would be accurate to more than 0.05. But maybe that's the issue I'm seeing. My main question is why it goes up from .11PPM to .14 PPM.

When you say "nitrite", do you mean "nitrate"?
Firstly, Nitrite and Nitrate are harmless in Saltwater tanks at any level you will see during cycling.

Next, that checker measures total ammonia rather than free ammonia.

Free ammonia is also known as toxic ammonia which is what you need to know as it is harmful to fish and other animals.

Most measuring instruments can have lots of numbers after the decimal point, ie.e a thermometer could say 76.0032 however if it is only accurate to +/- 1 degree the decimal digits are useless.

Your reading of 0.11 could actually be anywhere from 0.05 to 0.17 based on the specs of the device being +/- 0.05 +/- 5%.

You need toxic ammonia to be under 0.01ppm to be safe, and you can use the following table to calculate where you're at. In your case 0.14ppm @ 79F and ph of 8.2? gives you 0.14 x 0.088 = 0.012 ppm which is quite safe.
Adjust for your own temp and pH :)



Capture.PNG
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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All cycles are done at one month duration see any reef cycled here using updated rules. We don't require any testing to know what a seneye would read at this stage.


Post a tank pic

It'll show plenty of surface area stewing this whole time, ready three weeks ago


It's not that we're ignoring ammonia and it's bad and you're not cycled


It's that you're cycled, there isn't seneye data here, so nothings in contest considering how many markers from the thread above match this reef
Your cycle was done three weeks ago.

Your biofilter is specifically built up to carry any bioload you want, and waiting longer does not make the tank safe for fish. A specific disease protocol from the disease forum makes your tank safer for fish, the cycle wait is done.

What a non seneye meter shows doesn't matter to us for thirty straight pages we call a cycle start date using duration charting for water in the tank, not parameter testing.

On prior pages there i said i wanted to see what the new hanna meter would say on a known cycled tank and based on this post it's about as helpful as api. Your nh3 is in the thousandths ppm weeks ago, regardless of what that meter says

There are zero real examples of a failed reef display cycle at day thirty on the internet. Oh there's fifty thousand claims of a broken cycle, but not a single one is true

Up until now they'd always been api but never ever seneye.
 
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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That whole thread is us adding fish on day ten of wait

You're at day thirty ish = safe

We chose day ten for a bottle bac cycle based on these details:

-Any cycling chart ever made: what date does the ammonia drop

-All seneye testing: someone reading here, try and find any single post on the internet of a calibrated seneye machine stating any cycle wasn't ready by day ten and link it for us. That thread won't be found.

- the searchable outcome from all fish-in + bottle bac posts. None are fails, they're all wins of living happy fish... this form of cycling is adding fish + bottle bac with zero wait and it always tests safe on seneye because bottle bac from the big three options are live out of the gate. You're thirty days wait using a system able to carry fish on day one legit.

If you add in pre quarantined fish you are off to a great start but you'll need to fallow pass all stocked items like corals and inverts etc.

Or you could wait on fish, deck your tank out with corals and inverts, then fallow it and add fish last. It's what I would do if I owned a large tank.
 
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Dave-T

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Firstly, Nitrite and Nitrate are harmless in Saltwater tanks at any level you will see during cycling.

Next, that checker measures total ammonia rather than free ammonia.

Free ammonia is also known as toxic ammonia which is what you need to know as it is harmful to fish and other animals.

Most measuring instruments can have lots of numbers after the decimal point, ie.e a thermometer could say 76.0032 however if it is only accurate to +/- 1 degree the decimal digits are useless.

Your reading of 0.11 could actually be anywhere from 0.05 to 0.17 based on the specs of the device being +/- 0.05 +/- 5%.

You need toxic ammonia to be under 0.01ppm to be safe, and you can use the following table to calculate where you're at. In your case 0.14ppm @ 79F and ph of 8.2? gives you 0.14 x 0.088 = 0.012 ppm which is quite safe.
Adjust for your own temp and pH :)



Capture.PNG
Thank you! Now to start thinking about a stocking list!
 
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