Does this meeter suggest high free ammonia?

[Ballyhoo]

i'm not sure what to make of this, because a couple of days ago i bought this meter and placed in the sump it was absolutely yellow . But then I wanted to test it as I saw video on that topic so I took it out and exposed it to an open bottle of glass cleaner and the meter immediately darkened. to blue or black . I'm like "oh it works" and I put it back in the sump. That was 48 hours ago and I'm not sure if it's never gone back yellow or if now i have ammonia in the tank. I'm not sure why my ammonia would go up in two days. I just water changed yesterday; but I did add a couple of small blue damsels .

 

[RockRash]

I've never used one. I assumed they were a one and done. In other words once it changes it doesn't go back. Hopefully others will be here shortly that know for sure.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Yes it does change and go back unless you damage the meter physically or it’s directly exposed to something it shouldn’t be. I love the meters and they work very well imo.

 

[Ballyhoo]

then I placed the meter in a cup of distilled water and this is what it looks like, waiting about an hour

 

[Saltyreef24]

IME, these work well until they don’t. The exposure to the glass cleaner likely damaged it and is skewing your results. Do you have an alternative way to test for ammonia?

 

[Ballyhoo]

IME, these work well until they don’t. The exposure to the glass cleaner likely damaged it and is skewing your results. Do you have an alternative way to test for ammonia?

i just bought another one. thankfully, my tank is |free] ammonia free. I have something far more problematic in my tank than ammonia:, blue damsels.

 

[MERKEY]

How old is your tank?

 

[Ballyhoo]

6 weeks.

 

[Malcontent]

This happened to me years ago but in freshwater. I never bought another.

 

[jag10016]

Get a test kit like salifert.

 

[Ballyhoo]

I have plenty of test kits but this one I think is good for testing free ammonia.

 

[Garf]

I have plenty of test kits but this one I think is good for testing free ammonia.

Indeed. And when you add livestock they often indicate a little free ammonia for a while. They do not try and trick us by sensing the livestock by any means other than free ammonia. That said, you can always damage them or get a crappy one, lol.

 

[Glowurm]

i'm not sure what to make of this, because a couple of days ago i bought this meter and placed in the sump it was absolutely yellow . But then I wanted to test it as I saw video on that topic so I took it out and exposed it to an open bottle of glass cleaner and the meter immediately darkened. to blue or black . I'm like "oh it works" and I put it back in the sump. That was 48 hours ago and I'm not sure if it's never gone back yellow or if now i have ammonia in the tank. I'm not sure why my ammonia would go up in two days. I just water changed yesterday; but I did add a couple of small blue damsels .

It move forward quickly (as in it will detect spikes fast) but then rolls back slowly, which i assume is a feature which enables you to pick up on any spikes if and when they occur.

Wondering if exposing it to a high level of ammonia has caused lasting damage. Maybe wait a couple of days to see if it falls back to zero.

Edit - Personal experience suggests they do drop back to safe once a spike has been detected. I used one close to the end of my cycle and it has since fallen back to yellow, used a salifert test in conjunction with it and those test refelcted the same changes.