When to do first tests?

[StarOrbs]

yah its not 100% but thats the name of the bottle. sorry, I'm not sure about the percentage because it's not on the container. Good labels to look for are pure and clear ammonia, 100% Ammonia or Pure Ammonium Hydroxide. Also there shouldn't be any ingredients except ammonia, or in my case Ammonia and Deionized water. Also I live in the states.

 

[lionfishlover]

oh okay, right just did another test and came out again at between 1.2 and 2.4 mg/l. So i have added another 9 drops, hoping this will make it up to 5mg/l. I will do another test in 30mins.

When you have added your next 15 drops tomorrow, could you PM me with the results of the test, i wanted to see if it stays at 5mg/l or increases above that amount and compare it to mine when i add another 18 drops, to make sure i have put enough ammonia in tomorrow.

Cheers Scott.

 

[StarOrbs]

Sure no problem, I'm new at this too.. Anything to help.

 

[lionfishlover]

Just noticed buddy, you said you put in 15ml of ammonia where as chris cows guide on how to do it says to use 5 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons.
Scott

 

[StarOrbs]

Hmm, it worked though.

 

[lionfishlover]

Okay, i have a theory. We both used aquasafe, we both have have to use alot of ammonia to get the reading to 5ppm, maybe it took so much because the aquasafe removed most of the ammonia and then left the correct amount of ammonia to get the water to have 5ppm ammonia. The aquasafe wouldnt be able now to remove any more ammonia, so we shouldnt need as much, i would say for both of us now to use an amount of drops worked out from chris cows experience, which for you would be 15 drops per day, as per his original recipe and i will use 18 drops (as i know my ammonia is only 1/3 as strong as his was)as per his revised recipe, which i can use as i know the strength of my ammonia.

It kind of playing on the safe side as his guide says that it is possible to put too much ammonia in, but too little would be better then too much.

Scott

 

[StarOrbs]

I measured it and 15 drops seems to be almost 1ml, and I put in 15 ml lol. That would make sense though.

 

[lionfishlover]

Well just did another test after having put the other 9 drops in and doesnt seem to have affected the test results, so i have put in another 18 drops, which would make a total of 63 drops, at 15 drops a ml thats 4ml so far, we'll see how much futher i need to go until i get to that fabulous 5ppm.

 

[StarOrbs]

That would mean I put in about 225 drops. By the way how many gallons is your tank? Oh yah are you waiting 5 minutes after you put in the test drops into the test tube?

 

[lionfishlover]

12 gallons, so if i need the same ratio as you i would have to put in 90 drops. Only 57 to go!

 

[StarOrbs]

Yah if it works the same way, tommorow I'll test it before I put the drops in and see where I am. I just did another test and its down to 4ppm vs 5 ppm. So that would be about right if I wait 24 hours to put in more.