Confused with test kit readings

[got2lb]

Okay here's the situation

I have a Red Sea Test kit.

I put roughly 30lbs of base rock in a friends tank and let it sit there for about 2 months to "cure" it. I then transferred it over to my tank. It was out of water for maybe 2 hours. I've been testing stuff for the last couple weeks and I'm confused. At first I was testing with an old test kit and was getting an ammonia reading of 6ppm. But then found out the kit was expired.

I went and bought a Red Sea Test Kit. And started testing again. It's showing the ammonia reading as 0.25ppm But it's been at the same reading for the last 3 weeks. I was told that the ammonia should hit 0. I can't imagine it should take that long seeing as I basically put "cured" rock into my tank.

I also tested nitrites with the same kit and came up with 0.05ppm and was also told that should be 0 as well.


Is my tank cycled? Neither of these readings have changed in the last 3 weeks.


Please help.

Thanks

 

[Dubbin1]

I think I would try another test kit.

 

[got2lb]

It's brand new, I just bought it!

 

[tsutherland]

I second that. It's a new kit but that kit still may no be accurate. I don't really like red sea items IMO.

 

[got2lb]

Well that sucks! I just bought it because that's the one I was told was a good one to buy!

Okay besides the test kit not being good. Would you think the tank is cycled?

 

[rememberme]

Salifert Kits in my opinion are great.

It may be cycled or there could be something in the rock that is causing ammonia. It's hard for anyone to say yes to your tank being cycled! Three weeks with cured rock should have been enough time - but there is no strict rule to say that it WILL cycle in that time.

Take out some of the rock and give it a really good sniff. Smell of eggs and it needs to cure. Smell of the ocean and you're good to go. What other filtration do you have? Sand? Canisters?

Dried sand or even livesand in abag needs curing time, so if you have put the cured rocks in with that, you will need to sit through a cycle.

 

[miztic]

test water that you *know* doesn't have ammonia and nitrites, like freshly mixed salt water, or straight R/O

 

[bobt2]

all my red sea kits went in the trash! they were all so far off as to be useless.

 

[Anemia]

I'm a salifert believer. I had an old red sea test kit that I decided to test against my Salifert stuff when I found it (before I threw it out) and the salifert kits are MUCH easier to read. The resolution of the red sea kits left everything to guess.

 

[got2lb]

Well the rock doesn't smell like eggs. Never been to the ocean but it smells like a fish tank! Not sure if that makes sense. :lol:

Here's some specs:

100 gal tank with a hob overflow going into a 55gallon sump. In the sump there is a ASM G-2 skimmer then overflows into the fuge. Nothing but some rubble in there right now. Then it runs through a couple baffels with some carbon in a filter sock in between the baffels. Then from there it goes to a Mag 12 and returns up to the tank.

 

[tsutherland]

I use SeaTesT and also find them easy to use and to read.

 

[got2lb]

Well I just tested my RO water with the same kit. And guess what. THE SAME READINGS! Ammonia 0.25 and Nitrites 0.05

I guess that means that the kit isn't really that accurate!

Assuming the RO and the Tank water have the same readings that should mean that the tank is 0 RIGHT????

 

[tsutherland]

Ro water should have 0 nitrates and no amonia. With a purity tester RO water should read between 6&12TDS where as RO/DI water should read 0. So assuming that the water it still good then your test kit is crap.

 

[got2lb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6484822#post6484822 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tsutherland
So assuming that the water it still good then your test kit is crap.

So do you think that if the RO water is testing the same as the tank that the tank is cycled? Or maybe possible hasn't even started to cycle?

I had about 30lbs out of 120 sitting in a friends display tank for 6-8 weeks. That should have been long enough to seed it with some bacteria so that the tank should start to cycle right? The rock that I got out of his tank is green and it's also starting to grow purple coraline algae on it. It's got to have something "alive" on it.

My skimmer is also pulling out quite a bit of gunk so something has to be going on. I would think!

 

[tsutherland]

If your skimmer is pulling stuff out then there has to have been some sort of cycling taking place. And yes since they are reading the same and you know that the test kit is off I would say that your tank is where it should be which is nil to none on the nitrate side. How long has your tank been running to start with?

 

[got2lb]

I put the rock in 4 weeks ago. Yeah I have a ASM g2 skimmer and the cup has about 3/8" of skimmate in it every 24hrs and it's pretty dark green and STINKS!!! Also the rock was in my friends tak for at least 6 weeks before that. I figured it had to get some live stuff on it in that amount of time.