Ammonia in the mixing bucket!

[barry cuda]

On a hunch, I tested the water in my saltwater mixing bucket this afternoon, and found an ammonia reading of .25! It's clear some organic material has found its way into the bucket and started to decay. I've got about 20 gallons of saltwater in there that now have to be thrown out, and I'll obviously need to clean the bucket thoroughly as well. #$#@%!%#!#!!!!!!!!
This leads me to a question, though. Do you experienced people out there empty your mixing buckets before mixing more salt? I've been adding salt & water 5 gallons at a time whenever I noticed I was getting low. This could be the problem, I think. The bucket never gets emptied and anything that falls in just sits there and rots. I keep it covered, but obviously I haven't been careful enough.

 

[shanev]

What are you using for your source of water? RO? Tap?
Also are you using salt water as your makeup water when your display tank gets low? If so you only need to add normal RO water as top off, the salt doesnt evaporate, only the water.

 

[nas19320]

You not using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit are you?

 

[shanev]

Nas ,
Not to highjack the thread, but is that Colin Edwards in your avatar?

 

[nas19320]

Sure is, it's amazing that he walked away from that with only a few minor burns, could have been a lot worse.

 

[shanev]

Sure could have, very scary. I went to school with Colin, great guy.

 

[zap800]

so what is wrong with the aquarium pharm test kit? you dont think they are accuarate?tell me, i have a master test kit from them.

 

[gregvabch]

i have an aquarium pharm test kit, (replaced with a better kit), and it tests .25 for ammonia, when there is none. double checked the parameters with my lfs like 3 times, all 3 times ammonia was @ 0 ppm. it's common with that test kit to do that as others on this board have expressed this problem with it as well.

 

[plato]

I had the same problem. It wasn't until I tested "new" water and it had .20 ppm that I knew the kit was not calibrated properly. I got a new test kit and my ammonia magically went away!:jumping:

 

[barry cuda]

I am in fact using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals kit. I have a Salifert kit that I normally use just for tanks that actually contain livestock, just because I don't trust the AP kit 100%. When I get home I'll have to test again w/ the Salifert kit and see what it says. Nitrite was 0, so if I'm indeed getting ammonia it's just at the beginning of the process. It'd be kind of a relief to discover that was a bogus reading.
Shanev - Yes, I'm using the salt just for water changes. I'm using RO for topoff.

 

[tervman]

Had the same problem with a Mardel test kit...tested .25 when it really was 0ppm. I had two LFS's (including the one who sold me the kit) test for me, and they both came out 0ppm. Even the store that sold me the kit didn't use it for their own tests, but they were willing to sell the kits to unsuspecting newbies, like me....

 

[nas19320]

The reason I asked if they had a AP test kit was the reason everyone has stated. I used several different ammonia test kits and always got .25 ppm when I knew it was -0-.

 

[saltymist]

I've had the same problems with the AP master test kit. I did a write up on the differences between the results of multiple test kits a while back on some forum (dont know if it was here or elsewhere).
Also if the water really does have amonia in it (after you test with the salifert kit), then just use some amquel in the tub, instead of throwing it all away, this will neutralize amonia immediately, I think it's actually called, Amquel Plus, then you havnt wasted anything.

 

[barry cuda]

Well, at this point it's looking like I in fact have a bad SALIFERT kit, and the AP kit seems fine.
I have gotten in the past, and continue to get, 0 readings from the AP kit when testing against my display tank. This is the same kit that is now consistently reading .5 when used on the mixing-bucket water. My Salifert kit tests 0 and has never shown anything but 0, against any water from any source.
Based on this, it seems an almost inescapable conclusion that I do in fact have decaying organic matter of some kind in the mixing bucket, and that the Salifert kit is either bad or I'm not using it right. Frustrating. I'm tempted to take a sample to the LFS to get confirmation on my results, but I'm ready to just pitch the water, clean the bucket and start over.

 

[bkh_sd]

Are you using seperate buckets for drainage then the ones you use to pre-treat you water? Oh and you never use these buckets for anything else right?
I throughly rinse my bucked with hot water after use and dry them out with a towel. Otherwise there is always some residue left over.
But yeah like the guys said use Amquel Plus or Prime to remove all ammonia from the water... I've used it for years... Does a great job..
Oh and I do have one complaint about the AP Test kits.. The dang caps always leak when you shake up the tube good. Fun when your using chemical tests that can cause burns... I want one of those like 5-10k electronic water testers that some big aquariums use.. That would rock. Anyone wanna donate to the brian tank supply funk charity?

 

[cgrant]

I would make sure no-one else used that bucket for something, Our cleaning lady used one of my mixing buckets for cleaning and put pinesol in it, I was about to use the bucket for the fish tank and luckily smelled something in the bucket, I called our cleaning lady and asked if she had used the bucket and she said yes.
So Now I have 5 - 5gal buckets that say "fish only" on them.
I am lucky I caught it, that probably would have ruined both my tanks (55 & 210) not to mention would have killed everything.
Long story short only use the buckets for the tanks and make sure no-one else is using them, I actually store them under the 210 now.

 

[92protruck]

there was a long thread on another forum about several salt mixes that show .25 amm when mixed. The conclusion was that it was harmless as the biological filter in the tank quickly dissipated the amm. I ran into this myself and was concerned because I was using the new water for an uncycled QT. My new salt mix always shows .25 amm. using Salifert and AP.

 

[gregvabch]

this post died 2 years ago... guess i should unsubscribe from it