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Cycling my system

Can anyone help me figure out why I cannot get a reading from my API kit when testing for ammonia. I have nice clean food grade totes, filtered water ( ran through a Brita to make sure it was not my tap water ) and have been adding a half a teaspoon at a time. I am up to 6 teaspoons in 75 gallons of water and still no reading. Any suggestions

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Permalink Reply by George on February 8, 2012 at 5:24pm

Possibly the thread link below will be of use. Good luck.

http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/humonia-ammonia-test-ki...

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on February 8, 2012 at 6:59pm

Perhaps this blog post of Sylvia's will help.

So what are you dosing by the 1/2 teaspoon? The Ammonium Chloride I have here says it only takes 1.13 grams to bring 100 gallons to 1 ppm of ammonia.

Are you using both reagents with the Ammonia test kit?

Did you let the ammonia mix into the system before testing?

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Permalink Reply by tony pitchley on February 8, 2012 at 8:09pm

Hmmm...both reagents,is that why there are two bottles of ammonia testing solution in the API kit...you use them both!!! If this is true...then I will gladly accept my dumbass of the month award and move forward

TCLynx said:

Perhaps this blog post of Sylvia's will help.

So what are you dosing by the 1/2 teaspoon? The Ammonium Chloride I have here says it only takes 1.13 grams to bring 100 gallons to 1 ppm of ammonia.

Are you using both reagents with the Ammonia test kit?

Did you let the ammonia mix into the system before testing?

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on February 8, 2012 at 8:24pm

No worries, it is not as uncommon a mistake as you might think.

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Permalink Reply by George on February 9, 2012 at 8:19am

Welcome to the club. On the bright side, you probably have plenty of ammonia in your system.

tony pitchley said:

Hmmm...both reagents,is that why there are two bottles of ammonia testing solution in the API kit...you use them both!!! If this is true...then I will gladly accept my dumbass of the month award and move forward

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Permalink Reply by claude saunders on February 9, 2012 at 8:32am

Tony - I did exactly the same thing, and wound up overdosing my 60gal system. I did 3 complete water changes and still read 8ppm+. I think the ammonia was leaching out of the hydroton for a while, so I had to change water repeatedly to flush it out. On the other hand, if you're doing fishless cycling, the extra ammonia will eventually get converted.

What kills me is I'm an engineer who just loves reading manuals. I guess I got swept up in the excitement of starting up my system, and skipped over the API test-kit details :)