False Ammonia Readings?

[Corleone]

Ok, I just had a major freak out. I'll start with the picture.

The tube on the right shows 2 ppm of Ammonia! I just about crapped myself when I saw it. Nitrite was 0, pH was normal, and nitrate was 20. All in order. But the ammonia tube was Christmas green.

I started draining for a massive water change, and started a second ammonia test. I accounted for all my fish (except the platy fry which probably got eaten overnight), the snail is actually out and moving around for a change, all the fish are behaving normally - the barbs are shoaling with the corys, the tetras are biting each other, and the platy is trying to mate with a rock - status quo for my tank.

Anyway, the second ammonia test is the one on the left. Nice, clear zero. Note I took the second sample before I did a water change, so it came from the same water. What the heck?

 

[poconoboss]

You could have gotten something in the tube like a piece of old food?

Or did you accidentally put too many drops in?

 

[Corleone]

Too many drops is possible. I get tremors in my hands occasionally and it gets hard to count drops.

You might be onto something with the food. I didn't see anything before, but I just poured out some of the tube, and there's something stuck to the glass.

Anyway, I'm not terribly worried - I did another test and ammonia is still zero, and a water change never hurt anybody, right? Just wanted to get to the bottom of what went wrong so I can prevent unnecessary panic in the future.

 

[Tobigara]

i totally know how you feel.

when i switched tap water conditioners i started getting ammonia readings of 8. you couldn't even see light thru the tube it was so dark. i think i crapped myself, cried and passed out at the same time when i saw that. i asked about it on here and was told it might be a false reading. i did a water change with my old brand conditioner and it was back to 0. talk about a heart attack

 

[joecoral]

i find that if i do an ammonia test in the same tube shortly after a pH test, or vice versa, that often affects results, so maybe there was residue from another test still in the tube?