Feeling Discouraged 😞

Essjay said:

Ammonia in tap water is likely to be from chloramine. This is an ammonia and a chlorine joined together. Dechlorinators split it up and remove the chlorine part but leave the ammonia part in the water. In a cycled tank, the bacteria should remove this ammonia within a few hours; or in a planted tank, the plants should remove it even faster. Water conditioners which contain an ammonia detoxifier will keep this ammonia in the 'safe' form until it has been removed.

But you have ammonia in your tank well after it should have been removed by the bacteria/plants. Why?
When you do the ammonia test, what is the lighting in the room when you read the chart? it is a well know fact that fluorescent lights (tubes or compact fluorescent bulbs) can make the liquid in the tube look greener than it really is. The best lighting is bright daylight, but not direct sunlight.
What is the pH of the tank water? The toxicity of ammonia varies with pH. It is in the non-toxic form below pH 7, but at at higher pH more is in the toxic form. If you have a low pH, you do not need to worry about 0.25 ppm ammonia, but if the pH is over 7 it is more of a concern.

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Coolysd said:

I did the large wc like 75% on the 18th due to the amon being at 1ppm the day before.

I live in an apartment complex where the water is brought in from local resources.

I feed them once a day in the evening and usually have them fast 1 day a week. Here's what they have been fed:
10/14 frozen brine shrimp
10/15 tubi worms
10/16 flakes
10/17 had them fast
10/18, 19, 20 pellets
10/21 algea wafers

I also use testing strips and they have been consistently reading at Amon 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10

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Naughts said:

Well the strips and the API can't both be right then. Most on here wouldn't trust test strips but I've never had an issue with them, like you, I also use liquid tests and both have been in the same region. I'd be inclined to think the API reading was wrong as the tank otherwise seems healthy and without any obvious issues.

Hopefully @Essjay will explain the water report info.

On the day the ammonia was up you used flakes. Do the fish like the flakes? If they don't get eaten they may produce ammonia as they rot.

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Coolysd said:

Ya know now that you mention it, I don't think that they like the flakes. Of course the Dojos will eat anything, but the Tetras not so much.

I'm getting ready to test the water here in a few, I'll post the results. Right now I have some brine shrimp defrosting for them.

As stressful as all this is, I'm just happy that I haven't lost any fish!

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Coolysd said:

Okay I have attached the results of the API kit, Tetra and Hygger strips.
I took a pic of the Amon and PH right after the 5mins were up for the Amon. Then a pic of all of the tests right after the Nitrate one. They were taken outside. I wasn't able to get the Tap water tested before it got dark.
I also attached what I read the results to be (pardon the chicken scratch lol)

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AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

No one could ever accuse you of not testing your water!! Wow, you have all the tests! And I really don't blame you for being confused!! You appear to be doing everything you possibly can, and those conflicting results definitely have me confused as well! I can totally see why you're frustrated and confused! I always found my API Master test kit to be reliable, so I trusted it - and yours is definitely showing a reading of around 1-2ppm ammonia - but usually with an ammonia reading that high, I would have expected fish to be dropping dead if it were accurately reading ammonia... Also confused about zero readings for nitrAte at this point, when I'd expect there to be something.

So I'm somewhat confused, but I'm sure @Essjay or @Naughts will be able to make more sense of it! Honestly, I'd be inclined to say not to rely too much on test kits (I rarely test my tanks now, honestly, just rely on maintenance and test if I suspect there may be a problem, or there's a big difference in bioload and I want to see if I need to adjust my maintenance routine on that tank, for example) and just rely on observation and water changes - if we knew your source water was safe. But since we don't know that yet, and I also remember relying on my test kits a lot more when I was new to the hobby and learning - hang on to them for now, but don't panic, okay? The results are odd, but a puzzle to be solved, not sounding as though you're doing anything wrong! So see what the others say, but if the fish look alert, not fin clamped, gasping, getting red streaks or dying, then don't panic.


For the sake of scientific enquiry, I'd definitely want to test some samples of different water with the API ammonia tester, like the tap water and some rain water, to see what results pop up.

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Essjay said:

The water quality report seems to give two sets of reading - those at the plant and those at the customer.

Chloramines - 0.2 to 3.5 mg/l at the plant, not required at customer so not measured.
This does suggest that the level of chloramine leaving the treatment plant can be quite high, and I would assume that those homes near the plant will have a higher level coming out of the tap than those further away. It's such a pity they don't measure it at the customer end, so there's not much that can be ascertained from their data.

The pH confuses me as well - very low with the strips and very high with the liquid tester. However, it is hard to judge colour accurately on a screen. Does the pH read 7.4 or higher? What is the pH with the API standard range pH tester? If it's below 7.4, it will still read as 7.4 with the high range tester.
The pH is very important. At the level measured by the strip, all the ammonia will be in the non-toxic form, but at the pH with the high range liquid tester, a lot will be in the toxic form.

Please can you test the pH with the API bottle labelled as just "pH".







Nitrate is listed on the screenshot as ND - none detected. (Note that the standard of 10 ppm is in the unit mg/l NO3-N while our test kits use NO3 - nitrate, and that 10 ppm converts to 45 ppm with our test kits)

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Essjay said:

Can I just make sure (grasping a straws) - you are following the ammonia test to the letter, adding the right number of drops from both bottles?

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Essjay said:

Do you have any live plants in the tank (you've probably already mentioned it but I've missed it).

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