Regular Member CountryLovah Posted July 16, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted July 16, 2008 I've seen a few people say that they've had good experience with this ammonia monitor. (One I believe was Vickie). I decided to purchase one and see how reliable it is. I'm not using it as a replacement for drop testing. Just as a backup, or extra warning. I have it in my Orandas 10 gallon QT tank right now. So far I am pleased with it. I like that the colors indicate such a small change, and I like that it measures free ammonia. I believe I am going to try one on Angel's tank as well. I think these would be helpful to use during tank cycling and I believe I will keep one on both of my QT tanks as an extra measure against ammonia. My only dislike it that when the light is off, it looks a LITTLE green and I start to panick that the ammonia has creeped up. But with the light on it is clearly still yellow and safe. I also dislike that mine has a little speck on it but you aren't supposed to touch it to clean it. I have OCD and it BUGS me!! LOL 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spanky_ Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I was thinking of getting one of those. Why do they not make them for nitrite and nitrate too? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member CountryLovah Posted July 16, 2008 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 16, 2008 I know!! I was looking for that!!!!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Acupunk Posted July 16, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted July 16, 2008 Their quality control on these things must be spotty. I know that Rick Hess at Goldfish Connection recommends them, so I bought one a few months back and have found it absolutely worthless. The color on the spot has never changed AT ALL from the "safe" yellow, even when I've had them on cycling tanks with high ammonia. It is good to hear that you are finding it useful, however. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member CountryLovah Posted July 16, 2008 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 16, 2008 Hmm well see thats the thing.. I have it in an uncycled tank.. So it shouldn't have any ammonia. Know what I am going to do? I am going to go stick it in a bucket with untreated tap water. My tap water is around 0.50.. If that doesn't change the color then we know there is a problem! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member CountryLovah Posted July 17, 2008 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 17, 2008 OKay well I did a few tests.. (you know me of course that was coming). Yellow is safe less than 0.02ppm. Green is Alert 0.05 ppm. Light Blue is Alarm 0.2ppm. Dark Blue is Toxic 0.5ppm. In the oranda tank it never changed from yellow. GOOD because that tank is cycled so it shouldn't! Then I tried in a bucket of tap water.. It turned Green. Now I find that strange because my tap has 0.50.. Can tap water have BOUND ammonia?! Either way, it says if you want to test it, hold it over a bottle of ammonia. It should turn dark blue. So I did, and it did turn dark blue. Then it says it takes at least 4 hours to come back down after a high reading. This morning it was back to green for the tap water bucket. Then I added Prime. The color started changing to a light green. It's getting lighter and closer to yellow after the addition of Prime. So for now, it appears to be working. Again, I won't rely on it. I trust the drops.. If anything I am using it in the way that if I see a color change i will do EXTRA water testing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Acupunk Posted July 17, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted July 17, 2008 I have been experimenting on mine too. I think that mine is a lemon. Currently it is on a tank that I'm doing a fishless cycle on. I know from the drops that there is 2.0 ppm ammonia in the tank -- on the API test it makes a dark green. The Ammonia Alert is still yellow. Grrrr... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member CountryLovah Posted July 17, 2008 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 17, 2008 That's ANNOYING. However, in some ways it's better than it's just one, and not a product that over all is bad. Do the thing I did, and hold the sensor over a bottle of ammonia and see what it does. Mine turned blue sooooo fast. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spanky_ Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 Right, i'm going to buy one now for my puffer fish tank! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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