ACO Ammonia Test Strips

[TMartins]

I recently bought the ACO ammonia test strips for the first time and can’t get the color on the pad to change, it stays the original yellow color.  I’ve followed the directions, dipping the pad in and out of the tank water for 30 seconds and even just leaving the pad submerged for the entire 30 seconds.  I’ve tried the test strip on all of my 3 tanks and used up about 10 test strips in all.  I double checked with the API liquid test and it’s showing no ammonia.  I wanted to check with the forum before contacting customer service.

Edited March 13 by TMartins

[Galabar]

I believe that yellow (original color) means no ammonia:

Edited March 13 by Galabar

[Whitecloud09]

Yes, yellow means no ammonia, u should be fine, I would not stress it but if u want clarification u can get the API master test kit if u want.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Were you under the impression that your tanks would have ammonia, and you’re surprised they don’t? Are the tanks established?

 

My only other suggestion would be to leave the pad submerged for the 30 seconds, and gently swirl the strip instead of taking it in and out of the water for 30 seconds. 

[TMartins]

On 3/13/2024 at 6:05 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Were you under the impression that your tanks would have ammonia, and you’re surprised they don’t? Are the tanks established?

The tanks are pretty well established (2 1/2 years) but I was using the ACO multi strips and had a hint of nitrite, so I wanted to rule out any ammonia.  I wanted to try out the ACO ammonia strips since I just got them and was running low on the API liquid ammonia test.  Also a Cory Cat was missing and I couldn’t find him so that may have caused the nitrite to show up.  The super red pleco that was in the tank was very aggressive and I feel he may have  killed and eaten the Cory…I’ve since taken him out and given him away.

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Heard that. Makes sense. In my experience, the ammonia strips are pretty good. I still prefer the API test, but don’t always wanna go through all the steps and wait 5 minutes. 
 

My guess is that whatever caused the ammonia spike, the ammonia was already converted and showed up as nitrite when you saw it. Glad it wasn’t anything super crazy for you. 

Edited March 13 by AllFishNoBrakes

[Pepere]

One of our members on the forum did some testing of the ammonia test strips.

 

I had reported finding the reported ammonia levels with the test strips being substantially lower than api test readings.  I had purposely dosed water with 4 ppm ammonia using Fritz Fishless fuel ammonia.  The API was reporting consistent with dosing and the co op test strips was reading much lower.

 

Bottle 1 of the API test kit is apparently a base to raise the ph of the test water so all ammonium will convert tofree ammonia to give a total ammonia level.

 

when the member, and I forget exactly who it was, but ifmemory serves me correctly it was @Biotope Biologist,tested a sample with the co op test strip that had base sufficient to convert all ammonium to free ammonium iirc the two tests correlated well with each other and with dosed ammonia.    That evidence tends to argue the Co op test measures free ammonia and not total ammonia.  The problem is that the amounts listed on the label and the advice is for total ammonia and not free ammonia…

 

I havent heard if the co op ever followed up on this question..

 

all of the above is from memory of the thread, and at 58 years I am starting to trust my memory less than I used to.

 

For myself, because the API test results correlate nicely with water dosed with a known amount of Ammonia it is the one I trust and use.

[KaitieG]

All of my ammonia test strips are pre-light greenish yellow before they ever come out of the bottle.  They aren't a nice fresh yellow, even before I use them.  I have been figuring that if they don't change, I'm still pretty good.  It's yellow-er than the lowest ammonia reading color on the bottle label, but they're also greener than the yellow 0 ammonia on the back of the bottle.  But overall, I'd say having it read at 0 is good 🙂

[spokanejared]

Just went through this same thing and tested it on all three of my tanks. The indicator didn't change when I put it into my 150 planted tank and I thought the same thing you did. I tested my oscar tank and my goldfish tank and my goldfish tank indicated ammonia so on that basis I'd say your good and have negligible ammonia levels in your tank.