Ammonia Test Problem

[mark7616]

i have a freshwater master test kit made by aquarium pharmacutecles and it seemed to be ok. I have never had any ammonia according to the kit but nitrate and nitrite well i went to start the fishless cycle on my new tank and was trying to work out how much ammonia to put in i was mixing it in a 10l bucket to work this out but couldnt get a possitive result for ammonia so i just put the ammonia flud in the test tube and that didnt even change the colour of the test! whats going wrong am i doing something wrong???

 

[valleyrich]

Sometimes an ammonia test does go bad. Mix a small amount of ammonia in with plain water and test this. If you still get clean readings your test is bad. Since you have done this and it is bad I have one question. How old is your test?

 

[mark7616]

i bought it 2 weeks ago

 

[valleyrich]

Read the warranty info. I'm not sure if you need to take it back to the store or send it to AP. Either way they need to replace it with one that works. Those tests aren't cheap and you shouldn't have to suffer because this one sat on the shelf too long.

 

[saturnal]

Sometimes an ammonia test does go bad. Mix a small amount of ammonia in with plain water and test this. If you still get clean readings your test is bad. Since you have done this and it is bad I have one question. How old is your test?

I'm wondering if this can also happen in the opposite way. For instance, can a bad test kit always read some level of ammonia even if there is none in the water?

 

[lizjamie]

This may be a very unwelcome comment, but are you using both bottles?

For the test to work you have to put in 8 drops (or whatever) from ammonia test 1 AND ammonia test 2.

When I first got mine I obviously didnt read the instructions and just assumed they were the same, and that hte kit was nicely giving you extra of the tests you needed the most. I didnt work it out until i wondered why i was getting a clear test sometimes and yellowsiht the others.

Whoops.

 

[mark7616]

thanks just did it and it worked maybe i should read the instructions from now on!!!