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Water quality check , can anyone read this?

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Hi,

This amonia test kit from Waterlife arrived today, however I cant unscrew one of the bottles, is there a special trick to this? I tried unskwrewing both directions and even pushing down on the lid.
s-l300.jpg
 
Can you post a photo of the bottle please. With some makes there is a safety strip.
 
The lid is sort of two bits and the bottom part has rigid flaps that go against a sort of stairs like groove on the bottle
 
They look like some brands of my eye drop bottles. With them you have to hold the lower strip with one hand and unscrew the top part with the other hand. The lower strip stays on the bottle as a loose collar, though I can usually wriggle this collar off the bottle. Once the seal is broken by parting the top from the bottom strip they open like ordinary bottles.



If that doesn't work, try pushing a sharp knife between the two parts all the way round the bottle. Very carefully. You don't want to end up at hospital like I did earlier this week.
 
essjay said:
They look like some brands of my eye drop bottles. With them you have to hold the lower strip with one hand and unscrew the top part with the other hand. The lower strip stays on the bottle as a loose collar, though I can usually wriggle this collar off the bottle. Once the seal is broken by parting the top from the bottom strip they open like ordinary bottles.



If that doesn't work, try pushing a sharp knife between the two parts all the way round the bottle. Very carefully. You don't want to end up at hospital like I did earlier this week.
Click to expand...

oh what happend to you then? i noted the bottle says it can burn you. would it burn through disposable gloves?
 
well i still cant undo it, in looking at the onebottle i can open it looks like an ordinary screw, totally seperate to the lower collar which was merely just there to stop the screw from accidentally coming undone.
 
I sliced my finger with a stanley knife.

Which is the one that's stuck - the bottle on the left in your photo shows more of the bottle neck than the one on the right.

Most of these chemicals will burn, you just have to treat them with respect. Dispense the contents carefully - make sure the bottle is over the tube before turning it upside down. Don't pour the contents over your hand or splash it in your eyes. Use them somewhere you can wipe up spillages thoroughly (I use them on a kitchen worktop next to the sink, and nowhere near the tank). Put the lid back on as soon as you've added the drops so the liquid won't come out if you knock it over.
 
snailaquarium said:
well i still cant undo it, in looking at the onebottle i can open it looks like an ordinary screw, totally seperate to the lower collar which was merely just there to stop the screw from accidentally coming undone.
Click to expand...
Also remember to wash your hand after every test, sometimes a drop can burn your skin.
 
I forgot to mention that as it's something I do automatically without thinking about it. But I always wash my hands after touching the tank or tank water, and the test tubes contain tank water so it's second nature to me to wash my hands after testing.


On the subject of washing, wash the tubes as soon as you've read the test. Rinse them thoroughly with cold water, leave a minute to drain then dry them with a paper issue. leaving reagent residue in the tube means false results next time.
 
essjay said:
I forgot to mention that as it's something I do automatically without thinking about it. But I always wash my hands after touching the tank or tank water, and the test tubes contain tank water so it's second nature to me to wash my hands after testing.


On the subject of washing, wash the tubes as soon as you've read the test. Rinse them thoroughly with cold water, leave a minute to drain then dry them with a paper issue. leaving reagent residue in the tube means false results next time.
Click to expand...
Can we use soap to clean them? Sometime its smell like a test bottle.
 
I don't but that's just me. When I worked in a chemistry research lab many many years ago we used plain water, very thoroughly. If you do use soap/detergent make sure it is thoroughly rinsed out.



I prefer the smell of a test bottle to some of the perfumes they put in soap and detergent these days :)
 
OK well I finally got the lid off the bottle, you have to squeeze it ridiculously tightly while turning it. The design is a lid within a lid so you need to get friction between the two before it comes off. I think I might super glue it so its easy next time

Anyway the results aren't good so I'll doing a large water change. When viewed from the side it appears to read 1-2 mg/l but when read from the top its more like 5.
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Glad to hear you finally managed it :)

The instructions have a diagram showing an eye above the tube looking down into it, so that's the way you need to read the test. Your readings do indicate you need to do a large water change.


That looks like a Nessler test with those colours, rather than the yellow to green of the salicylate testers (eg API). Both of them measure total ammonia, which is both ammonia and ammonium combined.
Did you repeat the strip test and read it after 60 seconds? If you did, what was the pH reading? The reason for asking is that at pH below 7 most of the ammonia will be in the less toxic ammonia form, though if it's above 7.0 a lot will be in the toxic ammonia form.
 
PH is 7, i have some ph strip paper I just tested it with. i've added two more moss balls and a small plant. So now tank has a medium size and large size moss ball with two more small ones, guppy grass and two different plants.I presume its all the snails making this ammonia them. They don't leave any food to waste once its been added and the shrimp ate some.
 
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