Salifert Ammonia test - help please

[Reef_dachs]

Hi,
What does this reading show? I can’t for life of me read this particular test. Frustrating enough when testing new water before putting in my tank it reads about the same or exact same color.
Are Salifert tests for ammonia supposed to be completely clear for a zero reading or can it be cloudy like this?

 

[brandon429]

cloudy can be fine, still mean ammonia is safe zone. this will be easy to fix, we need a pic of your tank not just the test kit

what you want to look for in updated cycling rules is motion down ammonia, from a higher point you created, its not about the hard zero if establishing bacteria is your goal..meaning if the sample was darker a few days ago and arrived here, that motion means cycled provided you have rocks and sand for bacteria doing this work to attach to




with a tank pic and knowing how many days you've had water in it, we will know where you stand.

*if you have a reef tank with fish already in it, and want to know if ammonia is safe, then yes its safe or they'd be dead/fish can't go mere hours in free nh3 and act normally. additionally, the test is as low as it can be per above

to know if you're cycled we must know if the color was recently darker on the test than it is now.

to know if fish are safe, we only need to know if you've had fish in that tank one day then the answer is yes. marine fish wouldnt live that long in an uncycled condition, and Ive never met a reefer who fish-stocked without dosing bacteria or adding them via live rock so its a safe assumption.

 

[Reef_dachs]

These pics were taken just a few minutes ago. The tank is about 7 months old. I bought the love sand and rock when I began cycling and didn’t add anything the first 2 months. I do have the corals and 2 fish you see. I’m just having a hard time understanding the results if they are 0 or .15 I tested last week before my weekly water change and the test appeared to read between .15 & .25 - but again this particular test is very hard for me decipher the colors

 

[brandon429]

the reef is one million percent cycled and ammonia can never drift out of spec in that tank, can retire the test. Your actual ammonia levels are in the thousandths ppm nh3 per pic details, all reefs run that rate if a tuned seneye meter is running and actually your salifert above after tan conversion looks to be as low as that kit can read, all has lined up here

 

[brandon429]

try not running an ammonia test on that reef ever again, no joke, it can't ever drift out of spec.

Calcium, alk, ph maybe but not ammonia or nitrite. Free ammonia won't ever be a problem there

Before we knew a single detail of your tank, we narrowed down only two options because that's how tight ammonia control runs for us all.

 

[Reef_dachs]

try not running an ammonia test on that reef ever again, no joke, it can't ever drift out of spec.

Calcium, alk, ph maybe but not ammonia or nitrite. Free ammonia won't ever be a problem there

Before we knew a single detail of your tank, we narrowed down only two options because that's how tight ammonia control runs for us all.

You’ve been tremendously helpful. I greatly appreciate it.

 

[brandon429]

Hey nice reef really that is running clean, not invaded, balanced it looks like u dont even have to clean the glass on it !

if it helps to reassure the non testing of ammonia I’ve never owned an ammonia test kit and never will, and in the new tanks forum we have a 4 yr running thread called microbiology of reef tank cycling which is testless cycling. From the very start even with dry systems we don’t need to test for it