Test Readings- confusing?👀

[Lennie]

Hey guys,

I got my new test kits delivered as I ran out of the ones I have last week. I got me a Sera Ammonia/ammonium Test kit and Tetra 6in1 as they were the only ones I could find and trust. Will we ever have Aquarium Coop products in Turkey?😶‍

I'm not familiar with test kits, and I have never used tetra test strips but some other ones before. Would love to hear about your opinions about readings below as they kinda got me confused.

Tank info:

*The tank has been running around 2 weeks by now, started dosing stability in a quite low dosage 3 days ago just in case, but I already have established media on hand. I just wanted to see the situation of the tank with plant growth and 3 days of very low stability dosing. After all the testing done today, I've transferred lots of established media from 1 y.o HOB to this one. I will keep testing to see how everything will be with the established media. So all test have been done without 0 established media added.

*All plants have been dipped to Alum for 4 hours, as I couldn't find any seltzer water for RR. I'm not sure any bb lives with 4 hour 1tablespoon to 1g water dip.

* There is a lot of Tropica Aquasoil on bottom, which has conflicting opinions on whether it leeches any Ammonia.

😼Ammonia/Ammonium test kit readings:

I feel like it has been sitting more on yellowish side, but has some sort of green involved. So def close to 0.0 rather than 0.5. what do you think? Idk if it is the decaying plant matter or potentially the soil.

Info chart and stats:

 

 

 

 

Tetra Test strips:

Here the issue is, the app seem to read different than what I personally read. It says 0 nitrate, but I can personally clearly see the nitrate. I'm even dosing lots of Equilibrium and enough flourish. Idk how my hardness can be so low after all the Equilibrium from days ago with every water change in 2-3days? Also it shows nitrite, which I assume can be only coming from a cycle beginned itself. But alum dipped plants, and only 3 days of stability? Interesting.

 

Where does all this Equilibrium go? JBL strips also showed less than 3 gh. so it has been checked by 2 strips. It is interesting really.

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Lennie

[Colu]

It looks like you might have a bit of ammonia as your test kit tests for NH 3 and NH 4 total amount of NH 3 much lower and the toxicity depends of the pH level he's a chart 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Colu
Stupid autocorrect

[Lennie]

On 1/31/2023 at 4:45 PM, Colu said:

It looks like you mite have a bit of ammonia as your test kit tests for NH 3 and NH 4 total amount of NH 3 much lower and the toxicity depends of the pH level he's a chart 

Thanks Colu. Yea I think so, I looked at the chart as well. I wanted to share test strip too, as it says PH of 8.5. Bu tbf I still think it is lower than 8.5 in person, but still sits around 8.2. Normaly, I was reading 8.0-8.2 with JBL. The ammonia amount is probably low, but due to high ph can be a lil toxic I bet. I think it mostly came from decaying plants or possibly from the Tropica aquasoil. The tank is has no stocking anyway.

I haven't been cleaning decaying plant matter to let it have some ammonia for bacteria, and potential snack for future shrimps. I've added handful  established matrix into the new HOB this morning after the testing. Let's see how it rolls. I believe it would handle the ammonia and nitrite pretty fast as the media is coming from a well seasoned overstocked tank.

Any Idea why am I having this low gh readings after dosing lots of equilibrium for the past two weeks? It is confusing. 

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Lennie

[Colu]

On 1/31/2023 at 2:06 PM, Lennie said:

Any Idea why am I having this low gh readings after dosing lots of equilibrium for the past two weeks? It is confusing. 

I have never used equilibrium not very familiar with it   if you haven't done a water change in two week coupled with the decaying plant that can cause your GH and KH to drop I would assume that equilibrium only has a temporary effect of your GH some one correct me if am wrong 

[Remi de Groot]

Isn't the aquasoil the cause of all your questions?

As far as I know most soils will leech little bit of nutrition when new in the tank. Most of them not that much though that it causes any issues. But the numbers you have are those kind if small, not peoblematic, numbers.

Also the other way around it may take some of the kh/gh out of the water into the substrate itself.

The ph is different during the day, with other readings in the morning then in the evening. That might explain the difference there.

[Lennie]

It is my first time using aquasoil. I've tried everything before, gravel, sand, clay based, dirted bottom, but not aquasoil. I knew of their buffering affect, changing from a brand to another, but I've read so many conflictive opinions everywhere tbh even for each brand really. I just got it for plants as it can only tickle my ph and kh I assumed. I was right 😄 

Tropica says the following:

"Aquarium Soil is further an active bottom layer that lowers the pH value and slightly affects the water chemistry.

We recommend that you change 25-50% of the water min. twice a week during the first 4 weeks after establishing the aquarium."

I have been doing water changes up to %50-60 every 2-3days. It has a guide for 90 days to tell you to do whatever you need to do. Like lighting period adjustments, fertilizer amounts, water changes, stocking, etc. I've been taking the recommendations into consideration, but mainly acting in accordance with my previous experiences.

On 1/31/2023 at 5:35 PM, Colu said:

I have never used equilibrium not very familiar with it   if you haven't done a water change in two week coupled with the decaying plant that can cause your GH and KH to drop I would assume that equilibrium only has a temporary effect of your GH some one correct me if am wrong 

Equilibrium is normally supposed to buff your gh based on the dose, and you gotta use it with every water change, not while topping. It basically has potash, iron, calcium, magnesium and manganese. It works perfectly fine for my other tanks.

But maybe aquasoil is sucking the gh  stats as @Remi de Groot mentioned. It must be the aquasoil then. I really don't know, it does not say anything related about sucking nutritions. I've just noticed it has a claim to make the water "soft" on the package tho. Idk how it has a capability to destroy all gh but let kh and ph stable, when it is normally supposed to decrease ph 😄

 

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Lennie

[Lennie]

Update:

I've added established media yesterday morning and made a water change with Equilibrium today.

• Test for ammonia/ammonium was gold yellow this time. So established media clearly cleaned any hint of green from yesterday. So there was indeed some ammonia on the abovementioned readings because the color yellow was very obvious this time.

 

• Gh is 9 after dosing Equilibrium with water changes. It probably supports that, the aquasoil gradually sucks it up or somehow neutralize it after some time. I will test again in a few days to see if it drops.

 

• Ph was 8.0 as expected, which is my normal ph number. The color scheme changes pretty quickly while trying match them in the app, especially if you cut strips in two just like me! 😄 

[Lennie]

@Pepere thanks for your opinion!

I make around %20 water changes in my tanks at least once a week even tho nitrate does not build up due to densely planting. and I dose some equilibrium every time, mainly for plants, shrimp and snails. But surely will be closely checking on parameters since it is a new tank, and my no experience with aquasoil!