Weird ammonia situation..

[Mr. Stooge]

Hey guys I was hoping you'd be able to help me out! First a little background, I came home from work today to one of my little clowns laying on its side looking like it's on its last leg so I quickly took it out and put him aside because the crabs were trying to get at him. Anyways once I did that I tested for ammonia levels real quick using the API marine kit. While that was going I made a fresh batch of saltwater. Once the test was done it said 0 ammonia... Curious I ran the test again but this time, I did a side by side comparison with the FRESH batch of saltwater..... Once it was done, the aquarium water read 0 again BUT the new batch of saltwater tested at 0.25! I have a water filtration system in my home which is then ran through an RO system so the water is only RO not RO/DI. any ideas on why it tested this way?

The salt used to makw the new batch was Red Sea Salt ideal for SPS dominant systems.

 

[homer1475]

API kit.

Notorious for showing ammonia when in fact there is none.

The ammonia kit uses the same reagents for FW as it does for SW, which always makes it look like a slight tinge of green. In FW the ammonia kit is bright yellow for 0 ammonia.

 

[Dan_P]

The side by side color comparison of the API test results lends credence to your interpretation. Usually API tests results are very difficult to interpret at or below 0.25 ppm.

There might be a little chloramine from the tap water getting through the RO system which will register as ammonia.

 

[Mr. Stooge]

API kit.

Notorious for showing ammonia when in fact there is none.

The ammonia kit uses the same reagents for FW as it does for SW, which always makes it look like a slight tinge of green. In FW the ammonia kit is bright yellow for 0 ammonia.

That's what's interesting, the new batch of saltwater showed ammonia levels when the aquarium water showed 0. The second round I did them side by side... I'll probably go out and pick up better tests.. I have the salifert for alkalinity, magnesium and calcium. The rest are API

 

[homer1475]

I'm betting what @Dan_P mentioned is a very likely possibility.

Chloramines are ammonia and chlorine combined. You RO/carbon blocks are removing the chlorine, leaving ammonia behind which will get through the RO membrane.

 

[Mr. Stooge]

The side by side color comparison of the API test results lends credence to your interpretation. Usually API tests results are very difficult to interpret at or below 0.25 ppm.

There might be a little chloramine from the tap water getting through the RO system which will register as ammonia.

Thanks for the info!

 

[dankaqua]

Ryan has a nice review of ammonia and ammonium issues with RO and DI:

 

[homer1475]

I just knew someone would throw up a BRS video.

BRS the QVC of the reefing community. Most of their videos are informative, but since they added Ryan into the mix, it's become more of an infomercial then any informative videos.

Ever notice in every recent video they have products that can "help" in whatever topic their talking about?

Listen I get their in business to sell you something, but up until the last 2 or so years, thier videos were informative. Now they just try to sell things in their "infomercials".

 

[dankaqua]

Ryan et al are definitely out to sell stuff. Still, distilling out the information is not a waste of time. Some of the BRS videos are undoubtedly more on the infomercial side of things, but I thought his coverage of ammonia/ammonium with RODI was quite good.