Had Some Fun This Morning!

[kim03333]

well, this morning, after taking lilly the rottweiler for her walk i decided to do the tank water change, changed about 20% of the water and whilst doing this i came across several small dead flies floating on the tank surface. my guess is that in the evenings they have came in through the open window, attracted to the aquarium light and drowned. they are ever so small, more like gnats really. Just out of interest, had i of left them in there do you think my fish would have eaten them (kribs)?

also, i was getting somewhat suspicious of the api ammonia test strips. the colours are imo extremely difficult to tell apart, made worse by the fact that they go up in increments of 0.5 i seem to have anywere between 0 and 1 ppm in my tank and the colours for these look pretty much the same.

so i did a little experiment. i compared one taken from my tap and one taken from the tank. the result was that they looked extremely similar, but not quite the same. apparently my tap water has more ammonia in it than my tank. so what do u make of that?!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hello and welcome to the forum, yes the kribs probably would have eaten the flies if left there obviously depending on the size of the flies and the size of the kribs. Won’t do them any harm.

Regarding the test for ammonia, is it the paper based test strips you are using? If so then I’m afraid the results are basically meaningless. The test strips are so inaccurate that you can’t set any store by the readings. Get yourself a decent liquid based kit, the API Freshwater Master Test Kit is widely available, usually for about £15 and is about as accurate as you’re likely to get for the home aquaria.

You may find that tap water has ammonia in and the tank doesn’t, plenty of people have some tap water ammonia, in a mature tank it’s no problem as the filter takes care of it just the same as it would the ammonia from the fishy waste.

 

[kim03333]

hi yes it is the test strips, unfortunately i purchased them before i had come across this site. i got the tetra 5 in 1 (most annoying everything bar ammonia testing) is this a ploy to get more money? because then i had to go spend another £10 on ammonia one so there we go i wasted £20 on meaningless colourful strips. these things should be banned. never mind i wont do it again

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah the test strips are bloomin useless and shouldn't be sold! what more can i say really?!

 

[kim03333]

at least the little fishes are ok though. i'm gonna go and look for one of the liquid tests either this afternoon or tomorrow. i'm sure i have seen the one you are talking about. the only reason i didn't buy it was because i thought it looked a bit complex for myself and i thought i would do it wrong. but we will see. thanks alot for such a quick reply

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nah it's easy enough to follow

 

[alysonpeaches]

nah it's easy enough to follow

I found the API dip stick tests a bit useless. I bought API liquid based tests for just ammonia and nitrite as I couldnt afford the master test kit - they are #25 (pound sign gone missing). They are easy to use, and easier to read. The colours are more distinct.