Water Test Results

[CheniseMummy]

I'm worried about my fish, ive been in a mini cycle so i thought. I had two days in which due to being away i could change any water when i returned the tests results were ammonia trace and nititre 0.1 i did small water change yesterday and the nitites went up to 0.3.

I tested this morning and water results were ammonia 0 and nitites 0.3 so i did 50% water change and now results are Ammonia 1.2 is hard to match colour so could be higher.

I just tested my declorinated tap water it came out black and my tap water straight from the tap is 0.6. Previously ammonia 0 tap water.

I think the prime is to blame as ive restested my tap water and its 0. So dose this mean my tank water is safe or should i do another water change but use something like stress coat instead as that worked great before.

My harelquins are swimming nose to the glass and sideways slanted.

 

[CheniseMummy]

Can i overdose on prime.

Whats the best thing to do do another water change?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

CM, are you using a liquid test kit, which give far more accurate results than test strips?

It sounds very odd that fresh tap water is giving a 0.6 reading!

 

[PJPJ]

Hi CheniseMummy,

You may have already stated this somewhere but, could you tell us a few things please?

I don't mean to be pedantic but there are alot of different test kits out there and when you just say black, it doesn't mean very much to me.

Can you tell us what test kit you are using for each test?

Can you give us a reading for all of your tests just before you change your water and then again after and the readings from your tap water before treating with anything? Ideally Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and P.H. Also G.H. and K.H. may help in identifying what is going on. Your K.H. may be very low which is causing the P.H. to go very low during this cycle/ spike. I have low K.H. and have to use crushed coral to help with this a little.

How much in measurement are you dosing of Seachem Prime?

How are you measuring out the prime?

If you have a 90l tank then by my calculations, a full tank dosage would be 2.25ml measured out using a syringe/ dropper from Boots for example. If you are changing out 50% of the water, you would dose 1.12ml in the new water before adding to the tank. Chlorine and Chloramine kills the bacteria in your filter.

In extreme emergency circumstances, Seachem state you can overdose at up to 5 times the stated dose.

In my opinion, the readings you have given do not yet look extreme. Easily controlled with large water changes and Prime at full tank dosage.

I have seen Waterdrop state 1.5 to 2 times the dose, which is fine and I personally have never needed to use any more than that and 99% of the time use no more than the full tank dose if I have a spike.

A mini cycle can last 2 weeks quite easily but this is dependant on your water conditions and how bad this cycle is.

Best Regards

PJPJ

 

[CheniseMummy]

My problems are the prime causing me to have these readings. Ive used full tank dose 2.5ml plus another 2.5ml shared out between the buckets of water ive added. Ive not been able to work out the correct dosage more acuratly for my 10litre bucket water. my tank is 90l.

I'm using the nutrafin mini master kit.

Before water change tank results

Ammonia 0, Nitite 0.3, Nitrate 20
50% WATER CHANGE
1HR later Ammonia 1.2 or higher was hard to match result on chart
Nitrite 0.3, Nitrate 20

Then jug of tap water added 2 drops of prime, tested that results were off the chart black in colour.

then tested another jug of tap water think the syringe was contaminated with the previouse declor water. results ammonia 0.6.

retested tap water result 0

My ph is 7.5 same as tank.

I think the prime is causing me to have false ammonia readings.

I changed 20% last night with stress coat and the test results after were 0.6=A, 0.3 nitrite. The water changes make my results worse and higher which is why im giving up the prime as things were settled down untill i used this stuff. now results are all over the place. The fish now are settled again with no problems think they were just stressed by water change. my bn plec is doing brillently.

My results for nitrite this morning are 0.8 so going to use stress coat on new water.

 

[PJPJ]

It is the Prime that is causing a false positive on your test kit, I know the API test kit does not give a false positive for me at the dosage I use, this wears off after 24hrs. Quote 'Prime works by removing chlorine from the water and then binds with ammonia until it can be consumed by your biological filtration (chloramine minus chlorine = ammonia). The bond is not reversible and ammonia is still available for your bacteria to consume. Prime will not halt your cycling process. '

See here on the Seachem site.

http/www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Prime.html

Using a test kit that does not give false positives is the solution.

StressCoat apparently does not effect test kits.

The Prime dosage for the 10L bucket would be 0.25ml (5ml divided by 200Litres = 0.025ml per litre, Multiply 0.025 by the number of litres you are treating).

A nitrite reading of 0.3 is still too high if that is an accurate reading.

Regards

PJPJ

 

[CheniseMummy]

Thanks any reason as to why its also affecting the nitrite reading? this was on 0 before i started using the prime. Now is at 0.8

Thanks that has helped alot

 

[PJPJ]

I was thinking about that and just looking around for any information concerning false readings caused by Prime for Nitrite. There is no mention of this occurring on the Seachem forums or site.

There are a number of people on various other forums that claim what you are getting but nobody else can verify the results, so it might be your particular nitrite test kit. I seem to remember you were getting strange Nitrite readings by changing out some of the water before you started using prime.

You could test untreated tap water and then treated tap water. The same as you did for the ammonia.

As an aside, I'll PM you a couple of links for gentle reading.

Regards

PJPJ