Ammonia

[millermilla]

Hiya,

Im having some trouble getting perfect water conditions. I have a 3 stage RO with DI and am getting a TDS reading of 390 before, 19 after 3 stages and 0 after the DI. When I test the RO water all seems fine with zero ammonia but when I make up a salt mix I am getting ammonia readings of 0.25mgl? I had bought a second hand bucket of salt so went out today and bought a new box to see if the salt was in some way contaminated but it's exactly the same with fresh salt aswell. Ive tried mixing it in a different bucket etc but still get slight ammonia readings? Am I missing something here? Very new to marines btw, in fact im just making sure the water is right before filling up the tank for the first time.

Thanks

Keith

[slappy]

Originally posted by millermilla@Aug 26 2005, 22:06
Hiya,

Im having some trouble getting perfect water conditions. I have a 3 stage RO with DI and am getting a TDS reading of 390 before, 19 after 3 stages and 0 after the DI. When I test the RO water all seems fine with zero ammonia but when I make up a salt mix I am getting ammonia readings of 0.25mgl? I had bought a second hand bucket of salt so went out today and bought a new box to see if the salt was in some way contaminated but it's exactly the same with fresh salt aswell. Ive tried mixing it in a different bucket etc but still get slight ammonia readings? Am I missing something here? Very new to marines btw, in fact im just making sure the water is right before filling up the tank for the first time.

Thanks

Keith
What test kit are you using?

[millermilla]

Tetratest

[slappy]

Take a water sample to your lfs and get them to do a test and compare the readings, I've not used Tetratest stuff before so cannot comment on them.

[JasandJules]

Leave the salt for 24 hours aerating before testing. Then try..

[uda]

Pretty much all salts will do this to an extent. The ammonia is a contaminant of the magnesium component used in the salt blend.

Atkinson & Bingman published some interesting results here:

Commercial seasalt study (http://216.168.47.67/cis-fishnet/JAAS/Jaas_8_2.pdf)

If you look at the 'Nutrients' table of results under NH4:N you will see that every salt they tested had ammonia in it at above natural seawater levels.

With Kent the 'worst' at 60'ish times natural seawater levels and Seachem the 'best' at only around three fold natural seawater levels.

Having said that for a reasonable sized water change in an aquarium with a functioning biological filter these levels are pretty much insignificant when compared to fish excretion.


HTH

Andrew (UA)

[Yakdriver]

Never knew that (learn something every day!)

I wonder if when reefers comment that their corals perk up after a good water change, whether some of this is due to the introduced ammonia being a food source for the corals?

chris.

[dod]

perhaps more likely the boost in something else thats also in the water change.
Dod

[richturd01]

Just my advice but I would try to use a different test kit, salifert test kits seem to give the best reading and most problems i've read on different subjects on results is that people tend to get better and more reliable results with salifert kits :wave:

Rich