Is this 2.0 ammonia

[Country joe]

 

[Country joe]

I noticed this yesterday my eyes might not be the best, but I was sure it was 2.00 ammonia.
Did a 25% water change and dosed the tank with Seachem Stability, will carry on dosing for 7 days, as instructions, this is a well cycled tank must be over feeding, it's 200 litres with a Fluval 407 filter.

 

[Country joe]

I noticed this yesterday my eyes might not be the best, but I was sure it was 2.00 ammonia.
Did a 25% water change and dosed the tank with Seachem Stability, will carry on dosing for 7 days, as instructions, this is a well cycled tank must be over feeding, it's 200 litres with a Fluval 407 filter.

When I held it up to the window, It looked slightly more yellow, maybe the usual panicking about nothing.

 

[Fishkeeper123]

From the picture it looks like 0.2 ammonia which means your tank is likely not cycled.

 

[Country joe]

From the picture it looks like 0.2 ammonia which means your tank is likely not cycled.

This tank has been running for 6 months with no problem, was cycled when fish were added

 

[seangee41 21]

Do you use Seachem Prime? That can give a false positive.

 

[Country joe]

Do you use Seachem Prime? That can give a false positive.

Yes, every weekly water change

 

[TwoTankAmin59]

I will offer three observations here.

The first is there is a decent chance your reading is a false one. This would become evident if it persists at this same level for a few days. This is something not uncommon in tanks which have been cycled properly and running fine for some time.

Second, it is one of the greatest urban aquarium myths that any reading of ammonia means one must do immediate water changes. Ammoisain water turns mostly into ammonium which is much less harmful. There is a good explanation of this here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/ read the section on Ammonia. There are a number of things that can make ammonia tests give false readings, iron is one, but there are a few more.

Third, imo the best place to put Stability is in a porcelain bowl with a handle or button on it. All homes have at least one of these. If one needs to add the proper nitrifiers to a tank, one should use Dr' Tim's One and Only or Tetras Safe Start. These both contain Nitrospira bacteria which are patented and can only be found in these two products. Dr. Tim's also contains the ammonia oxidizing Archaea. (I do not know it this is the same case with Safe Start.) But, most importantly, the nitrifying bacteria reproduce by binary division, they do not form spores. Read the label on Stability and you will see that what it contains are spores.

The bacteria in Stability™ are alive but not active. They exist in a spore form. They can withstand extreme temperatures and do not require food to survive. When you add them to your aquarium they become active due to dilution.

 

[Country joe]

Seachem products appear to get good reviews from many aquarists, tetra products i can get hold off Dr Tims no, so are you saying I should add Tetra Safe start, they also do a product that contains bacteria called filter active

 

[seangee41 21]

Was there a reason for testing?
I don't bother testing cycled tanks unless I suspect a problem.

 

[Country joe]

I did notice a few green neon tetras, travelling up and down corner of the tank, not going all the way to the surface, no other fish were doing this, and just thought it was a while since I did a test so i did, ph was 7.5,and nitrite was nil.

 

[TwoTankAmin59]

.Anecdotal evidence does not mean anything and that is what is quoted by SeaChem users.

Just look at the science. The nitrifying bacteria do not form spores. Do you own research if that will satisfy you. Here is the thing. SeaCehm knows better but they have no choice if they want to sell starter bacteria of the wrong kind. How do I know that SeaChem knows the real facts? But they do not want to make them easy to find. http://www.seachem.com/Library/SeaGrams/Biofiltration.pdf

This article was written before it was generally accepted that the nitrite oxidizers in aquarium were not Nitrobacter winogradskyi but were Nitrospira. The actual bacteria in tanks were identified by Dr. Hovanec and other scientists while Dr. H. was earning his doctoral degree for the first paper proving what was thought to be in tanks wasn't there. Subsequently his participation in two more peer reviewed published papers identified The nitrite and then the ammonia bacteria actually in tanks.

During the entire time he was employed as the chief scientist at Aquaria Inc. Think Marineland who share int eh nitrite bacteria patent. When Aquaria Inc, was acquired by a conglomerate with a Pet division. That division also owns Tetra. So the production of bacteria was transferred to Tetra who named their product Safe Start. It is the only other bacterial stater product which contains Nitrospira.

I have actually read all 3 of Dr. Hovanec's papers as well as the patent application for the Nitrospira. I have read a number of papers by other scientist on this subject as well. As a non scientist this stuff is not an easy read. Since the three papers were written it was discovered that there are also Ammonia oxidizing Archaea which are also in our tanks. I do not know about Safe Start but I do know Dr. Hovanec adds these to One and Only. The Archaea

Have a read here https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/blog/nitrifying-bacteria-mixtures-work-provided/

Nitrifying bacteria can live in a bottle for a while. Many think that nitrifying bacteria cannot live in a bottle and will say the reason is because nitrifying bacteria don’t form spores like other bacteria. This is a half-truth. Nitrifying bacteria don’t form spores, but that doesn’t mean they can’t last in a bottle (think about it – if nitrifying bacteria could not survive poor conditions, how would they have survived for millions of years?) They can live in a bottle but under optimal conditions, and the time period is about one year. The nitrifying bacteria don’t die in the bottle; their activity level drops and eventually it becomes so low that there is little measurable positive effect when they are poured into the aquarium water. Provided the nitrifying bacteria in the bottle were not subject to bad environmental conditions (see the next paragraph), they can last about one year in a bottle.

No special preservation chemical or substance has been demonstrated to extend this time period. Refrigerating the bacteria is the only thing that has been shown to measurably extend their shelf life.

 

[Colin_T]

When checking the colour on liquid test kits with phials, you put the phial on the white chart next to the colours and look down at the colour.

 

[Essjay70 185]

they also do a product that contains bacteria called filter active

According to Tetra's website, FilterActive contains the same bacteria as Safe Start but

also contains sediment-reducing cleaning bacteria. The new formula reduces cleaning effort because sediment does not need to be removed from the filter as often.

A mature tank will already contain these additional bacteria.

 

[Country joe]