Quote:
Originally Posted by gingerinaustin
Today I did a 50% water change and, as usual, treated the tank with a double dose of Prime before refilling the tank. I noticed afterwards that my SeaChem Ammonia Alert showed a positive ammonia level. I double-checked the result with a Mardel ammonia test strip which confirmed the result. The ammonia level is now returning to normal. I am assuming the ammonia spike is due to mulm at the bottom of the tank being stirred up during the water change (although I do my best not to stir things up too much). I do not want to expose my fish to any appreciable ammonia levels. Is there a trick to keeping this from happening? How hazardous is this to my fish? Since my plants are doing so much better (i.e., not rotting away), there's not much stuff to vacuum up. Any ideas appreciated.
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I too have noticed a nh3/4 spike after a water change, after switching to Prime, spoke to the lfs operator and he confirmed it is a correlation with the Prime, as he has done water changes (both large and small %) tested immediately and got an ammonia positive test. I did however note that after a hour there is NO measurable NH3/4.
This unnerving episode happened about 6 months ago and no fish casualties of yet. I don't believe this product produces/contains ammonia, but rather has something to do with the test reagents. I have left a post on seachem.com's forums awaiting a reply to confirm this. Hope your fishies are doing well, I have noticed no ill effects of the "positive" NH3 test results after h2o changes (50%weekly + 10ml of prime)
Tom, Vaughn, Greg:
what do you think?