Ammonia alert badge

Smite · Sep 3, 2016

I put my bio wheel in my sump for 3 days. Filled my qt and added 1 powder brown tang and 5 bartletts anthias. 24 hours in I had light green, or alert on the badge. Ran over to seaside and bought Dr.tims one and only. Did a 50% water change and added the dr tims. Next day still have alert on the badge. I figured maybe it was a bunk bottle of dr tims. Ordered another 4oz bottle next day off amazon prime. Added to the QT yesterday following another 50% water change. Same reading.

I'm starting to question the test. Has anyone had this issue with one of these badges? Good news is the anthias eat flakes and pellets with gusto and the tang ate out of hand from day 1. No heaven breathing but I don't want to start my copper treatment until I'm sure I am dealing with clean water.

Prazi should be out of system by tomorrow so I'm gonna pick up so,e dip test, maybe a second badge pending the results.

mosquared · Sep 4, 2016

I've actually noticed it the opposite in my fry tanks. When its slightly tinted green the ammonia had already climbed much higher... I wouldn't trust it to measure the accurate amount of ammonia in a tank. That said, you don't have an actual ammonia testing kit? IMO the badge should really be only used as an alert to a problem in the tank.

mosquared · Sep 4, 2016

Oh, and I would recommend prime or something similar to help with the ammonia than leaving it up to Dr Tims alone.

newtothis · Sep 4, 2016

You could also use amino lock by API. Don't think dr. Tim's is converting it fast enough

Smite · Sep 4, 2016

Thanks guys. I'll double check it today now that I've been running carbon for a day. I wasn't sure if prazipro would alter test results, I know some medications can.

so if I add prime or ammonia lock does it stay in the water for x amount of time or do I need to do a few large water changes before starting copper treatment? Removable by carbon?

newtothis · Sep 4, 2016

I've used amino lock with cupramine w/o any issues. Ammino lock is just a quick band aid. Cupramine is pretty toxic to your fish. I always broke down the dosage into 4 dosage of the equal amount of the instruction. ie. 10g, 1ml wait 48hrs then another 1ml. I would split up the 2ml in 4 days. .5ml per day. This route will give your fish to adapt to the copper.

newtothis · Sep 4, 2016

Copper testing is a PITA. Not all copper test kit are the same and certain copper uses different blend. if you follow the instruction. You don't need to test.

newtothis · Sep 4, 2016

If you just treated prazi, I would wait a week before doing cupramine

Ammonia alert badge

Smite

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Smite

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