Regular Member BriansMom Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 (edited) The past 3 times I have tested my ammonia in the past few days the coloring is pretty off. Instead of turning on the greenish end, its turning a golden yellow and if I let it sit awhile, eventually turns orange. Why is it doing this? I keep making sure I'm not getting the bottles mixed around, I tried shaking the bottles, right amounts of water and drops and still is doing this. I NEED to know the ammonia obviously so anyone know why it is doing this? My other ones are fine... Does salt or prazi pro affect it? Edit- it changed over night because it was perfectly fine before. It didn't gradually turn more orange over the past few tests... Edited November 4, 2010 by BriansMom 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member kukana d Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 When you say 'if you let it sit a while.....',how long are you talking? Mine turn kind of an amber color,but mine sit for days b/c I have so many t. tubes. That being said,last week 1 of my ammo test bottles was messed up and kept saying I had ammo-naturally,the test was the last culprit I thought ofI had already switched to a1 new test bottle,and once I switched out the other 1-ie,2 new test bottles-everything was good. Let's see what others say.............. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member ashlee18 Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 I once had an expired test, which was pretty annoying. It said my tank had highly toxic ammonia, even after I did 75% water changes every day for two weeks. It was an understocked angel tank with three filters on it so there was no way the ammonia was that high. That and the tank had been cycled for a year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Kerstin Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 I'm totally no expert, but aren't you supposed to let them sit for 5 minutes before reading the result? I might be wrong there though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member devilduck Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 You do need to let them sit for a while, but not too long. I've had mine before where it looked safe after a few seconds and then when left for a minute or two was showing 0.5ppm ammonia (QT tank), so where I'd decided there wasn't a problem initially there actually was. Mine do go odd colours if left too long though, the ammonia one tends to go colourless I tend to dismiss any result after 10 minutes basically... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member BriansMom Posted November 4, 2010 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 They usually turn a goldish yellow maybe 2 minutes after I finish putting the drops in and by the time the 5 minutes are up, you can definitely tell its not doing what it should and has a orangey tint. I just think its weird that it was testing perfectly fine the day before. I hope it being just a little off yellow means my ammonia is just a little over 0. I wish they had expiration dates on the bottles. So frustrating and I can't get to new drops for awhile so I'll just have to do extra changes until then to be safe. Makes me nervous with a pretty sick fish though! I am just hoping its not something that got into my tank that shouldn't be there thats causing it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Migaloo Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 Are you usung you finger to cap the tube when you shake it? That could give an off result? Could the tube or the lid be contaminated with something you may not be aware of? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member zeobee Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 I've been having a similar problem with my API drop kit too. No matter what water I test (tap, aged water treated with Prime, aquarium, etc) it keeps reading .25ppm. Like you said, this happened to me over night and originally thought it was human error. Now I think I need to replace my bottlr but so far I've only been able to find the ammonia drops paired with the Nitrite drops and I really don't need both since all my other drops are working fine. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member number20121 Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 I wonder if after using that tube the last time, it wasn't cleaned out well enough? Maybe some residue from another of the test drops is still in it or in the edges inside the cap? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member BriansMom Posted November 4, 2010 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 (edited) Ok, now I am kinda stumped because I tested my tap water to see if that would be a different color then it's usual .25 and its exactly the way its always been! Now I am worried...... I have had a fish at the bottom for a few weeks now and today he even looked "pale". I hope there isnt something in my water!!! The picture doesn't really show the colors very well but the orange is more orange than it appears. :/ Edited November 4, 2010 by BriansMom 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member flutterbudget Posted November 4, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted November 4, 2010 That is weird, but I'm definitely no expert. It doesn't look very orange in the picture, but I know even the zero reading on my kit has a slightly green tint, so I think orange is definitely off. When I had salt and prazi in my QT tank my readings never did anything like that. What water conditioner are you using? Is there anything else in there? Are your other parameters still testing the same? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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