Ammonium and Free Ammonia.

[tetra]

This post is related to the other post I made about the Corydoras flashing. But this time, I got Seachem Ammonia Alert to test for free ammonia. Because I learned that the API test kit test for total ammonia, which is a combination of ammonium and free ammonia. I wanted to test strictly for free ammonia, cause that was significantly more toxic compared to ammonium. So After an hour or so of letting the test sit in the water, the test showed “0.02 < Safe” which meant that my water is nontoxic to fish. But according to the API test kit, it shows I have about 0.25ppm of ammonia or less. (I said or less because it’s almost yellow, but not quite there.) But the Corydoras still flash, but not significantly. Maybe the API test is detecting ammonium? If so, is ammonium toxic at those levels? Nobody in the tank is acting out of the ordinary, except the dojo loaches but they’re naturally weirdos.

The substrate could be a possibility, maybe it’s causing irritation to their gills or something?

[face]

The ammonia to ammonium ratio is down to ph and temperature the higher the temperature and ph the more ammonia you can find all kinds is charts on this 

As for api ammonia test they raise the ph of the sample to a very high degree so all the ammonium is ammonia so it tests for total ammonia 

the problem with only ammonia testing is if your ph goes up because of let’s say plans you could have trouble and not know why but I wouldn’t suspect that little bit of ammonia to be a huge problem 

[tetra]

The Ph in my tank is 7.4 and the temp is roughly 22C. So the percentage of un-ionized ammonia (free ammonia) would be around 1.14%

[face]

On 3/31/2024 at 1:07 AM, tetra said:

The Ph in my tank is 7.4 and the temp is roughly 22C. So the percentage of un-ionized ammonia (free ammonia) would be around 1.14%

Yep in theory