Water temp 26C, smells just fine (i.e. nothing), looks totally clear,
Dupla O2 test says 5.5 mg/l, nitrites 0.0, pH 7.6
But ammonia test (2 checks) shows about 1ppm
Fresh out of the house tap tonight is also 1ppm ...
Ammonia test kit is Aquarium Pharm salicylate (2 reagents) ... but does
the complexed Prime-ammonia give a false reading which makes it not
useable ?
OK get out with the Seachem Multitest kit which isn't supposed to false
with Prime
3 tests of tank water with 3 yellow tabs - one very positive 2ppm free
ammonia, 2 others not much. Tab that's positive had been used before
....
TTap water (tonights) 0.5 for one , nothing for the other !!
Bloody seachem - tabs behaving differently - argh !!! Inconclusive but
circumstantial evidence of free ammonia ex Mt Crosby treatment works
(thanks Brissy City Council)
This is what www.seachem.com says about their ammonia Multi-test
****************************
This kit measures total (NH3 and NH4+) and free ammonia (NH3 only) down
to 0.05 mg/L and is virtually interference free in marine and fresh
water. Free ammonia is the toxic form of ammonia (vs. ionized Ammonia
NH4+ which is non-toxic) and thus it is much more important to keep an
eye on the level of free ammonia in your system. This kit is based on
the same gas exchange technology that is used in the Ammonia Alert™ and
thus is the only kit on the market that can read levels of free ammonia
while using ammonia removal products such as Prime™, Safe™, AmGuard™
and any similar competing products. The other kits (salicylate or
Nessler based) determine the total ammonia by raising the pH of the
test solution to 12 or greater. At this high pH all ammonia removal
products will breakdown and rerelease the ammonia, thus giving you a
false ammonia reading.