Ammonia Alert Failure- Water Change Fire Drill

[Keko21]

Woke up this morning to check on my little guys in quarantine and my ammonia alert was just a touch darker than the yellow "safe", but by no means giving me an alert. I noticed my goby was a little darker and his stripes very prominent- I decided to check ammonia and thank god I did ammonia was off that charts! 2.0+ from Red Sea test. Immediately did a 50% water change which brought it down to like .8. I'm out of salt and will have to run out at lunch to get more so I can do another water change this afternoon. As soon as I changed the water the goby's color changed and the activity from my fire wish was way better.
The spike was definitely from part of an uneaten frozen cube. Bad on me for not taking that out last night. Lesson learned.... But still pretty upset the ammonia badge didnt work.

 

[EricR]

I've been trusting the Seachem ammonia alert badges for several invert QT stints and haven't had a problem yet but,,, yeah,,, I always kinda wondered how reliable they are.
*I know they allegedly monitor for toxic ammonia vs test kits that test total ammonia (or so says their literature).

Hopefully you caught it in time ... good luck

 

[Garf]

Woke up this morning to check on my little guys in quarantine and my ammonia alert was just a touch darker than the yellow "safe", but by no means giving me an alert. I noticed my goby was a little darker and his stripes very prominent- I decided to check ammonia and thank god I did ammonia was off that charts! 2.0+ from Red Sea test. Immediately did a 50% water change which brought it down to like .8. I'm out of salt and will have to run out at lunch to get more so I can do another water change this afternoon. As soon as I changed the water the goby's color changed and the activity from my fire wish was way better.
The spike was definitely from part of an uneaten frozen cube. Bad on me for not taking that out last night. Lesson learned.... But still pretty upset the ammonia badge didnt work.

Depending on the water pH, it may have been working.

 

[Dan_P]

Woke up this morning to check on my little guys in quarantine and my ammonia alert was just a touch darker than the yellow "safe", but by no means giving me an alert. I noticed my goby was a little darker and his stripes very prominent- I decided to check ammonia and thank god I did ammonia was off that charts! 2.0+ from Red Sea test. Immediately did a 50% water change which brought it down to like .8. I'm out of salt and will have to run out at lunch to get more so I can do another water change this afternoon. As soon as I changed the water the goby's color changed and the activity from my fire wish was way better.
The spike was definitely from part of an uneaten frozen cube. Bad on me for not taking that out last night. Lesson learned.... But still pretty upset the ammonia badge didnt work.

What was the pH and temperature of the water when you discovered the 2+ ppm total ammonia?

 

[Keko21]

PH is on the low side 7.8ish

 

[Dan_P]

Woke up this morning to check on my little guys in quarantine and my ammonia alert was just a touch darker than the yellow "safe", but by no means giving me an alert. I noticed my goby was a little darker and his stripes very prominent- I decided to check ammonia and thank god I did ammonia was off that charts! 2.0+ from Red Sea test. Immediately did a 50% water change which brought it down to like .8. I'm out of salt and will have to run out at lunch to get more so I can do another water change this afternoon. As soon as I changed the water the goby's color changed and the activity from my fire wish was way better.
The spike was definitely from part of an uneaten frozen cube. Bad on me for not taking that out last night. Lesson learned.... But still pretty upset the ammonia badge didnt work.

The Seachem alert was probably working OK. A total ammonia reading of 2 would only be around 0.05 ppm free ammonia, that is a touch darker than yellow on the Seachem alert badge. Gill damage can start occurring at this point. i would say everything has worked.

 

[Keko21]

Well in any case QT got a nice big water change this afternoon and everyone seems ok.

 

[Keko21]

Yesterday I did a 50% water change in the am. Ammonia went down to .08 (Red Sea). At Lunch I did another 80% water change. Ammonia down to .04. Did another 50% this morning. Ammonia still hovering at .04. How is this possible? I used a turkey baster to take out all uneaten food.

 

[Malcontent]

Fish are constantly producing ammonia. Something like 85% of nitrogen excretion from fish is ammonia diffusing through the gills. Even fasting only results in a moderate reduction in ammonia excretion.

 

[Spare time]

Add a bottle of cycling bacteria and biosponges

 

[Garf]

Yesterday I did a 50% water change in the am. Ammonia went down to .08 (Red Sea). At Lunch I did another 80% water change. Ammonia down to .04. Did another 50% this morning. Ammonia still hovering at .04. How is this possible? I used a turkey baster to take out all uneaten food.

0.04 total ammonia is practically zero, lots of fresh salt water mixes read higher than that, if indeed the RedSea kit is a total ammonia test.

 

[Keko21]

0.04 total ammonia is practically zero, lots of fresh salt water mixes read higher than that, if indeed the RedSea kit is a total ammonia test.

.04 toxic. .4 total...unfortunately

 

[Garf]

.04 toxic. .4 total...unfortunately

What does freshly made salt water test at? The RedSea total ammonia test has an accuracy of 0.2 ppm (whatever that means in practice).