Ammonia test kit results
I am having trouble working out the colour chart for Ammonia Test Kit A7855. My Ph is 6.2 Ammonia results are 0.6 (light green). I can't relate these results to the colour chart (red, yellow, green).Could you explain to me how to read the chart?
I am having trouble working out the colour chart for Ammonia Test Kit A7855. My Ph is 6.2 Ammonia results are 0.6 (light green). I can't relate these results to the colour chart (red, yellow, green).Could you explain to me how to read the chart?
The ammonia in an aquarium is not a single compound, in fact it has two separate entities, ammonia and ammonium. Ammonia is toxic to fish, ammonium is not. There are no viable commercial test kits that can read the concentration of ammonia alone - separate from ammonium. It can only be read as part of the total of ammonia compounds; so a reference chart must be used to determine how much toxic ammonia is actually in the water when the results of the test are obtained. The amount of ammonia in water is directly related to the pH of that water. The lower the pH (the more acid) the more ammonium and less toxic ammonia is there. When the pH rises above 7.0, there is usually more ammonia than ammonium, and the water becomes toxic to fish swimming in it. Your reading, .06, would be borderline toxic if it consisted completely of toxic ammonia, but since the reading is actually the combination of ammonia and ammonium, you use the chart to determine how much actual toxic ammonia is in the aquarium at the pH you have determined - 6.2 (which is very acid). By using the chart at the back of the Nutrafin Ammonia Test Kit leaflet, you will note that pH is listed on the vertical (Y) axis and combined ammonia/ammonium - the results of the ammonia test - is on the horizontal (X) axis. In your case, your pH reading corresponds to the second lowest level on the vertical axis, and your reading is not even included on the horizontal axis. This case has no toxicity from ammonia present in your tank. You would have to have a pH above 7.0 and concentration of combined ammonia at 7.3 before any toxic ammonia could be concentrated enough in your aquarium to cause problems - this is where the first yellow square is seen. When the reading falls in a green square, the water is safe for fish, yellow squares could be causing problems for delicate and sensitive fish. When the combination of pH and ammonia reading falls in a red square, the water is not safe for fish to live. In the present case, you should be watching nitrite closely. Nitrite is toxic no matter the pH reading and will naturally rise during the maturation of a new aquarium; until it falls suddenly to zero when enough beneficial bacteria are available to use it as soon as it is produced by the beneficial bacteria breaking ammonia down to nitrite and energy. Ammonia in both its forms is an inhibitor for the bacteria that exploit nitrite, so they will not be as robust or active until the ammonia levels do fall to zero as a result of the bacterial populations reducing the ammonia production. Once the ammonia and the nitrite levels fall to zero, the biological filtration is established and both should remain at a zero reading in a healthy aquarium.
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