An Eye for the API?

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vanalisa

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New inhabitants acclimated and moved into tank yesterday.
Should I do a 50% Water change?
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Showing phials of coloured liquid without showing a colour chart or saying what is in them, is not going to get you good responses :)
 
Indeed, nonetheless I hoped for a clue...
I can't find my chart!!! All the ones online look different.

Series of events:

Got 9 lovelies after 2 1/2 - 3 weeks observation at fish store.

Went home.

I checked the water in the bag from the fish store.
Then I checked the cycled tank ready for QT.
No discernable difference.

Did 50% water change on QT tank.
Checked store bag water again
Checked water in QT tank again.
No discernable difference.

Drip acclimated fish over a period of time in the amounts 50% store water to 50% QT
tank water.

Checked temperature and added fish.

Fed them.
Slept.
Fed them, after finally got a good count, which was difficult, I realized that I lost one overnight. I had noticed one a little weak yesterday, it was most likely she.

I was alarmed. I also noticed they were all near the top of the tank. If they ventured out they struggled with the current. Maybe they were hungry? They seemed like they were gasping. And they looked a little more red than I was comfortable with. Or were they just hungry? First thing I did was baffle the filter outflow.
Fed them.

All this started to put me into a flashback of what happened to my green neon tetras.
They got really red the 2nd and 3rd days after I brought them home. And "gasping."

I immediately removed Tara, my Mystery Snail since I think she take a opportunities with weakened fish. Her size tripled as an outcome of access to my poor tetras. The tank never stank, and for that I am grateful.
I digress.

Luckily, I remembered something I saw when I was researching them that said something about water flow or oxygen or filtering.

I couldn't remember so I went back to the source and it turns out they need a slow current but a lot of oxygenation!

So I added an air stone and clamped the air line because the water was still a little rambunctious.

So I created a condition of slow current plus extra oxygen and let's hope for the best. They looked relieved. I'm releived.
 
I can't find my chart!!! All the ones online look different.
And everyone's screen will show a slightly different colour for your photos depending on how the device is set up ;)

There are two types of result, zero and not zero. Not zero needs attention while zero is fine.
With the nitrite tester, if it is blue, that's zero. Anything with a purple tinge is above zero.
Ammonia is a bit trickier. Yellow is zero, anything with a green tint is above zero. But a lot of people never see the yellow of zero even with a tank that has been running trouble free for years. The colour of the tube is influenced by the type of lighting, and different eyes apparently see the colour slightly differently.

If your testers clearly show blue and yellow, you don't need to do a water change. But if there is a hint of purple and/or a hint of green, do the water change.
 
And everyone's screen will show a slightly different colour for your photos depending on how the device is set up ;)

There are two types of result, zero and not zero. Not zero needs attention while zero is fine.
With the nitrite tester, if it is blue, that's zero. Anything with a purple tinge is above zero.
Ammonia is a bit trickier. Yellow is zero, anything with a green tint is above zero. But a lot of people never see the yellow of zero even with a tank that has been running trouble free for years. The colour of the tube is influenced by the type of lighting, and different eyes apparently see the colour slightly differently.

If your testers clearly show blue and yellow, you don't need to do a water change. But if there is a hint of purple and/or a hint of green, do the water change.
I remember you explaining that before what I basically did is use the water from the fish store as a control and tested that water with the water in the tank that I had cycled and ready for quarantine.

After the 50% water change there was still no difference between the bag in the water and the bag in the quarantine tank.

Since I have been keeping an eye on the fish at my fish store for a few weeks I figured things were going well there so I feel good about how my experiment went.

I thank you for explaining it to me again and for the others who also gave me help on that answer before when I posted a question about reading ammonia levels on the API test kit.

* edited for content
 
Just as a tip, make sure you actually fill those vials up to the 5ml full line. If you don’t, it may make it inaccurate.
 
The vials were probably filled to the line, but the nitrite one has had 5 drops of reagent added while the ammonia vial has had 16 drops of reagent added (2 x 8 drops) which push the liquid levels over the line ;)
 

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