Fish In Cycle

[HM Dragon Devil]

Tests results:
05/26/12

05/27/12

Changed 20l of water today, i'll be happy when the tank as finally cycled.

Dean.

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

Todays results (05.28.12):

Flash enabled:

Dean.

 

[JDs4me]

what does that ammonia look like to your eyes Dean; its really difficult to ascertain on the photo's, good as they are! You seem to be undertaking the 'Tour de France' of cycling!!!!

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

what does that ammonia look like to your eyes Dean; its really difficult to ascertain on the photo's, good as they are! You seem to be undertaking the 'Tour de France' of cycling!!!!

Hey, JDs4me. Yeah that's an understatatment.

Well after 2 days the ammonia test start to give a slight hint of green, which sometimes makes it difficult to ascertain even in person.

The only way I would know for sure would be to hold off the water change on the 2nd day to see if the reading would rise any further which i'm not really comfortable with at this point.

Dean.

 

[TheJ0kerrr]

How long are you letting the ammonia test settle before you attempt to read it? I found mine always has a greenish tint to it until 5-10 minutes later. Then it becomes easier to tell that it's yellow and not green.

Seeing your results for so long now, i wouldn't be worried to go longer without any water change. Just keep on testing and see if ammonia really goes up.

Also, you can try keeping an ammonia test tube full for a day and test again the next day to see if they are any different. I believe it will hold its color long enough. Also, I don't remember if you tested your tap water for ammonia? Would also be a good sample to compare with.

Another option would be steal a little bit of water from a healthy looking tank at your LFS and test it. There shouldn't be any ammonia in that one!

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

How long are you letting the ammonia test settle before you attempt to read it? I found mine always has a greenish tint to it until 5-10 minutes later. Then it becomes easier to tell that it's yellow and not green.

Seeing your results for so long now, i wouldn't be worried to go longer without any water change. Just keep on testing and see if ammonia really goes up.

Also, you can try keeping an ammonia test tube full for a day and test again the next day to see if they are any different. I believe it will hold its color long enough. Also, I don't remember if you tested your tap water for ammonia? Would also be a good sample to compare with.

Another option would be steal a little bit of water from a healthy looking tank at your LFS and test it. There shouldn't be any ammonia in that one!

Hi, TheJokerrr.

Thanks for the tips. I leave the ammonia test for 5 minutes before i read it, and there's no detectable ammonia in my tap water.

Anyways todays tests are looking good, but I changed 20l of water yesterday evening so they are pretty much as expected.

Temp 26.5
pH 8.2
Ammo 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40 ppm.

Cheers,
Dean.

Edit: TheJokerrr I took your advice about keeping the ammonia test for a day to compare it, anyway hours later i had a quick look at it and i'm now seeing a deeper yellow, where as before the color was very pale

This yellow now matches the color chart, and there's no mistaking it at all. The instructions tell you to leave for 5 minutes to allow the color to develop. I think i'm going to start leaving it longer before i take my readings.

Thanks again,
Dean.

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

TheJokerrr.

The ammonia test has an orange tint to it after 24 hours, so this can't be used for comparison. Todays ammonia test looks 0.25 after 5-10 & 15 minutes, but it looks zero after 3 hours!

Test results:
Temp 25.5
pH 8.2
Ammo 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40 ppm

Dean.

 

[TheJ0kerrr]

Would be interesting to see how it looks with higher levels of ammonia after 3 hours. If anyone has some ammonia used for fishless cycle and is willing to make the test, that would be great. Say raise it to 2ppm, test it and let the test tube site for a few hours to see how it evolves.

 

[tmiller]

removed for rethought

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

Would be interesting to see how it looks with higher levels of ammonia after 3 hours. If anyone has some ammonia used for fishless cycle and is willing to make the test, that would be great. Say raise it to 2ppm, test it and let the test tube site for a few hours to see how it evolves.

TheJ0kerrr. Yeah that Would be interesting.

Anyways I changed 20l of water yesterday.

Todays tests: (no pretty pics today)

Temp 25.5
pH 8.2
Ammo 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40

Dean.

 

[JDs4me]

Not an expert but be careful that you are not trying to make the colour fit the reading you want! I found that nitrite was stable over 24 hours plus i.e. no change in colour over the period...Dean seems to be suggesting that over a few hours the colour changed compared to the colour it showed after 5 mins; that suggests that the sample is not stable over that time period...that suggests to me you should only read the levels in the sample after the time stated on the test kit. In other words I would suggest the 0.25 over 5-15mins is the correct one, not the 0 after 3 hours...even though thats what you want - and me, for your sake!

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

Not an expert but be careful that you are not trying to make the colour fit the reading you want! I found that nitrite was stable over 24 hours plus i.e. no change in colour over the period...Dean seems to be suggesting that over a few hours the colour changed compared to the colour it showed after 5 mins; that suggests that the sample is not stable over that time period...that suggests to me you should only read the levels in the sample after the time stated on the test kit. In other words I would suggest the 0.25 over 5-15mins is the correct one, not the 0 after 3 hours...even though thats what you want - and me, for your sake!

Hey JDs4me. Thanks for your concern.

I'm not trying to make the colour fit as this would be false and improper use of the test kit. This was just an experiment and nothing more.


Cheers.
Dean.

 

[JDs4me]

Not an expert but be careful that you are not trying to make the colour fit the reading you want! I found that nitrite was stable over 24 hours plus i.e. no change in colour over the period...Dean seems to be suggesting that over a few hours the colour changed compared to the colour it showed after 5 mins; that suggests that the sample is not stable over that time period...that suggests to me you should only read the levels in the sample after the time stated on the test kit. In other words I would suggest the 0.25 over 5-15mins is the correct one, not the 0 after 3 hours...even though thats what you want - and me, for your sake!

Hey JDs4me. Thanks for your concern.

I'm not trying to make the colour fit as this would be false and improper use of the test kit. This was just an experiment and nothing more.


Cheers.
Dean.

 

[tmiller]

I have noticed the differences in color over time as well...
But as stated the kit says 5 min so 5 min it is. Ok maybe 10 but no longer

I myself took a hole punch to the card and will not only put it beside but also pass it behind the holes (with a proper white background) to give myself a proper view for matching devoid of adjacent colors bleeding ..

 

[HM Dragon Devil]

Todays tests:

Temp 25.5c
pH 8.2
Ammo (showing very slight hint of green)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40

Dean.