Grubhead Posted May 31, 2021 Share Posted May 31, 2021 I'm going to assume the fish will be fine then and give it a go. I'll check every now and then (after rain, a hot sunny day, etc.) to see if I can figure out when the chlorine levels are detectable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted May 31, 2021 Share Posted May 31, 2021 I think the chlorine in my tubs stalled my cycle—when I added fish I had a week or two when the ammonia/nitrite really spiked. But the fish made it through just fine, thankfully! I say go for it. It’s usually what I do, for better or for worse. 😄 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grubhead Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 It rained last night so I tested the water again. The Aquarium Coop strip shows 1.5ppm. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the "free chlorine" on the pool testing strip may be showing 1pmm, but it's hard to tell. Odd...I don't think it is possible for there to be chlorine in rain, and usually rain makes chlorine levels drop in a pool, so I do wonder what is going on. I have some baby ricefish in there that seem fine. Plants are doing well too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Static Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 I'm glad I found this thread to prove that I'm not going insane. I'm also running into this exact situation for my patio ponds that are housed in Home Depot HDX totes. When I set up the ponds last summer, I noticed that the Aquarium Coop test strips were always showing chlorine levels of 3.0ppm. I had a couple of Rice fish die but overall they all survived & I shrugged it off to an issue with the test strips. After the summer, I set up a 25 gallon tank in my house & I've never seen an issue with the test strips & their chlorine readings. I always use either Seachem Prime or Fritz Complete before adding water into the bucket for filling a tank/pond. Which brings me to now where I'm setting up the patio pond again & I'm seeing the test strips reading chlorine levels at 3.0 ppm no matter how much dechlorinator I add. Another data point to add is that I have a 2nd pond using an Edge Plastics 21 Gallon Big Tub that doesn't have this issue. This makes me suspect the HDX totes are leaching chlorine into the pond water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyxxl Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 Home Depot has a pond liner and totes that are plastic that a few people have threads on here if you search stating that they leach chlorine into the water.It is unfortunate that they also claimed the pond liner was safe for fish when it was leaching toxic levels of chlorine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Static Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 After some more testing, it doesn't look like the HDX totes are leaching chlorine into the pond water. From what I can tell, using the Aquarium CoOp test strips outside in direct sunlight will give a false positive chlorine reading. To confirm this, I took a sample of water from the pond & did back to back water tests, 1 outdoors & 1 indoors. The outdoor test read 3.0ppm chlorine. The indoor test read 0 ppm chlorine. Hope this info will help others. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anodyne99 Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 Just had the same experience with the test strips (Spring 2024). I hope the coop will consider adding a note somewhere on the packaging or website so others don't go through this! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD Aquatics Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 Found this thread after a mini shock with all my outdoor tubs showing 3.0 chlorine on the aquarium co-op test strips. I was in a bit of a panic wondering what was going on, (did prime degrade somehow and not work was a thought running through my head...) I repeated multiple tests indoor and outdoor, pre-treatment and post-treatment with prime, straight from the tap, and covering the test strip vs exposing to sunlight. Thank you chemistry degree coming in handy... I can confirm that the same exact water sample (confirmed with 0 chlorine) will show 0 chlorine on the aquarium co-op test strip when covered, and 3.0 chlorine when exposed to sunlight (can even happen in the shade, doesn't have to be direct sunlight). For what it's worth, none of the other squares showed variation with/without sunlight exposure. I agree @Coryand the team should consider adding a note to the label that chlorine levels may appear to be falsely elevated if the test strip is exposed to sunlight and recommend that the test strip be covered for the 60 second waiting period or done inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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