Test kits (Alternatives to API)

[TwoTankAmin]

I am not going yo argee my points any longer in terms of the difference in needs when one is cycling a tank of if one is dealing with and established cycled tank. However, what I will suggest to to the OP who wrote this in his recent posting

If I see nitrite in the water, knowing how MUCH is there is probably less relevant than it IS there, and I can take appropriate measures to get rid of it (i.e. water changes).

And I will tell Pygmy he has not real clue about all of this yet. Specifically i would be he/she di not read the things i suggested.
So here is the last thing I will post in this thread in one final attempt to be helpful.

SOME FACTS ABOUT NITRITE

This too is a problem and it is important to understand how it affects fish in order to know how you can deal with it.

“Nitrite enters the bloodstream through the gills and turns the blood to a chocolate-brown color. Hemoglobin, which transports oxygen in the blood, combines with nitrite to form methemoglobin, which is incapable of oxygen transport. Brown blood cannot carry sufficient amounts of oxygen, and affected fish can suffocate despite adequate oxygen concentration in the water. This accounts for the gasping behavior often observed in fish with brown blood disease, even when oxygen levels are relatively high.”2


SIGNS OF NITRITE POISONING
Fish will not behave as they normally do. Because their blood is not carrying oxygen, fish will behave as if they are suffocating. They may hang just below the water surface or near filter outflows trying to get air. What you will not see is any outward sign of bodily damage nor damage to the gills of the fish.


HOW TO MANAGE NITRITE POISONING

Fortunately, there is an effective way to blunt the harmful effects of elevated nitrite that doesn’t involve changing lots of water- you add salt (sodium chloride) to the water. The chloride in the salt acts to” block” the ability of nitrite to enter though the gills of the fish and thus to cause the harm inside the fish it might. So it is possible to manage elevated nitrite over the short term using salt in relatively small amounts.

“Sodium chloride (common salt, NaCl) is used to “treat” brown blood disease. Calcium chloride can also be used but is typically more expensive. The chloride portion of salt competes with nitrite for absorption through the gills. Maintaining at least a 10 to 1 ratio of chloride to nitrite in a pond effectively prevents nitrite from entering catfish.” 1

It should be noted that the Merck Veterinary manual suggests a lower ratio of chloride:

“In freshwater production ponds for channel catfish, a ratio of 6 parts Cl to 1 part NO2 has effectively prevented or treated methemoglobinemia caused by nitrite exposure.” 2

Since the amount of salt needed to produce either 6 or 10 times the chloride as nitrite is minimal, this author prefers to use the higher ratio of 10 to 1 in order to be more certain of obtaining the needed relief. One should also be aware that studies indicate that, whether one changes water or uses chloride to counter the effects of nitrite toxicity, it will still take between 24-72 hours for nitrite already inside fish to be completely eliminated. Preventing further nitrite from entering usually solves the problem.


WHAT SALT TO USE
Plain old table salt is just fine for use here. Do not worry if it says Iodized or if it says it contains Anti-caking agents. The amount of either of these in the salt is so minimal one would pickle their fish long before these ingredients would be doing any harm. Read here for facts about table salt and fish: http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/The_Salt_of_the_Earth

The article continues with step by step instructions for how to calculate exactly how much salt is needed to counteract any given level of nitrite. So, it is important to have a fairly accurate reading for nitrite levels to get the amount of salt right. If one want to use test strips I would not use cheaper ones. I would want something like these, which are not cheap. Hach makes laboratory quality testing supplies and equipment.
https://www.hach.com/p-nitrate-and-nitrite-test-strips/2745425

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The amount of nitrate is not a guess. I know the maximum amount ofnirtite and nitrate one can have as the result of any ammonia reading. It is not rocket science but rather chemistry and math.

There are two scales used to measure ammonia.nitrite/nitrate. The first is called the nitrogen scale and all it measure is the the nitrrogen aka N, invovled . So 1 ppm of ammonia = 1 ppm of nitrite = 1 ppm of nitrate.

The other scale and the one most common in hobby test kits and it measure all the atoms in the these things. This allows for the creation of the math to convert form one scale to the other.

NH3 = NH3-N * 1.21589

NH4 = NH4-N * 1.28786

NO2 = NO2-N * 3.28443

NO3 = NO3-N * 4.42664

The firs thing to know is most of the ammonia in water is ammonium. So Total ammonia can be considered to be 1.28. This means yhat when a scientist measures total ammonia and gets a reading of 1 ppm on the nitrogen scale out test kits should read 1 x 1.28 = 1.28 ppm
When the scientist measures 1 ppm of nitrite out test kits will rea it as 1 x 3.284 = 3.28 ppm. An the scientists 1 ppm of nitrate is our 4.426 ppm.

So we cnah do some math and know if out test kit reads 1.28 ppm for ammonia, that the most nitrate that might become is 3.284 ppm. Divide that 3.284 by the 1.28 and you get 2.565. So the most nitrite 1 ppm of total ammonia on an API type kit can become is 2.565 ppm. and the most nitrate that might become is 4.426/1.28 = 3.458 ppm.

What we have just done is to determine the multiplier for each stage to be able to calculate the highest level the next step could be bosed on what the prior level's reading is/was. However, things are rarely perfect in a tank. For one ammonia is a gas and can evaporate. So it is possible to lose some of it before it ois turned to nitrite and the number could be lower, but never higher.

The other factor here is how fast each of the 3 types of bacteria involved can multiply to double their numbers if conditions are optimal- which the never are. For ammonia it is about 8 hours and for nitrite 12-13. But the reality is it takes longer, sometimes a lot longer.

It is not common for a tank which was fully or even partly cycled to have no bacteria at all. So when a problem happens which spikes ammonia and hence nitrite to follow, it should be able to be corrected by the bacteria multiplying to address the imbalance.

Moreover, how we have to deal with an unexpected ammonia or nitrite incident in a tank ia not the same. We can block j=nitrite for getting into the fish using a bit of salt. For ammonia only water changes and/or ammonia detoxifiers will help. At least from a practical standpoint.

One last observation. Even if you have a 0 ammonia reading you can have nitrite. But how nitrite harms fish is easy to see.

Nitrite enters the bloodstream through the gills and turns the blood to a chocolate-brown color. Hemoglobin, which transports oxygen in the blood, combines with nitrite to form methemoglobin, which is incapable of oxygen transport. Brown blood cannot carry sufficient amounts of oxygen, and affected fish can suffocate despite adequate oxygen concentration in the water. This accounts for the gasping behavior often observed in fish with brown blood disease, even when oxygen levels are rela-tively high.

So if you should see fish gasping at the surface and/or near filter outputs. It is a sure sign of nitrite poisoning. At this point you would need a nitrite test kit because adding salt will block the nitrite from entering the fish. But, to calculate the amount of salt one needs requires knowing the reading in ppm for Nitrite.

I do not have cycling related issues. But I do run a bio-farm when I need to cycle multiple filters. I only use an ammonia test kit and a hand held TDS meter for this. I cannot hurt or kill fish all I can do is stall the cycle if there is too much ammonia or nitrite present. I also know to be doing water changes on the bio-farm to prevent this and to run crushed coral to prevent a pH crash due to a drop in KH. I have the API GH/KH tests as well but do not use them often.

During a cycle we do not want ammonia or nitrite to exced 5 ppm on the Nitrogen scale but on an API test those numbers become 6.4 ppm and 16.4 ppm.

 

[lottabubbles]

Ya know, since I'm staying home because of all the snow and salt on the roads, I decided just for giggles to try to use the soil PH testers on the city water
I checked online and it stated that Yes You can Certainly use that for the ph test on H2O.
my soil testers are the bi-metal ones.
both testers showed almost the same reading, one 6.5 and the other 6.6 and the API test kit shows to head for the High PH drops.
before last year I'd used those testers to gauge my garden soil and all was good except for the real soil test I had performed in early 2024 it showed
that my PH was way high. So I guess they are all wet on the use of the soil test on aquarium water.