Nh3, Nh4, Salifert And Api

[upsy daisy]

I am confused! Yesterday I tested my tank water with Salifert ammonia test 3 times, all three times it came out at 0. This morning I tested the tank with Salifert again and again it was on 0.
Just out of interest I decided to test with API ammonia test and guess what it, it turned green, about 1ppm!

I checked the Salifert expiry date -2012, so that's not it.. I have never been great at chemistry, so can you explain, why does the Salifert test on the box says "NH4", but the bottle inside says "NH3". What's going on?

 

[JoshuaA]

I wonder if your Salifert can detect both NH3 and NH4.

NH4 is Ammonium and is less toxic/not to fish, NH3 is Ammonia and is toxic to fish. Normally your tests will be pick up both, but be unable to distinguish the difference between them.

I know for a fact the API can detect and display both which is a bonus. I don't believe there is anything to be happy about if your tank is full of Ammonium.

I'm unsure about the Salifert test so we'll see what some other people who have the test kit will say.

What water conditioner do you use?

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Josh and UD,

I would be surprised if the Salifert ammonia test was specific to NH3 or NH4 as opposed to just giving you the sum of both. Getting the sum of both is the most common type of ammonia test used by freshwater aquarists.

Salifert tests, made in Holland, are widely considered to be the most highly respected brand of test kit in the hobby, short of doing all-out laboratory-grade testing. API and Nutrafin, in my mind, are kind of the next quality tier down, followed by other liquid kits that are possibly on lesser tiers, followed finally by paper strip tests, which we don't recommend.

Salifert tests are usually described as a little more expensive and complicated than the usual liquid test kits, so that's perhaps one of the reasons we see members choosing among the different brands. One of our members, Truck, swears by Salifert kits and has had some tests done once that he feels make a strong argument for their use. I have never used them myself but certainly would like to at some point. I've wondered at times whether it might not be a good idea on cycles that get long and possibly problematic to get some more input from a different and possibly better kit. It may be, for instance, that some water chem situations make it easy for any test brand whereas other situations might benefit from a supposedly better test technique.

Of course, any comparison we find on forums like ours or any other forum would still carry the usual "forum" issues, like someone not actually following all the directions or having a one-time bad kit or various such things.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[upsy daisy]

I use API Stress Coat+. I have made sure again and again that I am following the Salifert instructions to the letter. What surprised me that Salifert test bottle doesn't have any kind of safety seal, so there is no way to tell if it had been tampered with. I have been e-mailing the company I purchased it from but obvioously they think that I am doing something incorrectly and that my API test is wrong.

"I take it you are testing your nitrate and nitrite to see when the cycle has completed? It normally takes us 4-5 days to get a tank cycling so your 2 months seems unusual. Would you like to let us know your process and perhaps we could offer some advice to help get you going? "


"The results from the kit do rely on the interpreter matching the results upto the correct colour and to the exact instructions. "