Conversion of mg/L to PPM

[scubalady]

I read in your instructions on the TBS web site, that you should do a water change if the ammonia gets above 1 ppm. However, my test kit (Instant Ocean "OceanMaster" test kit) gives results in mg/L . Right now, my ammonia is reading 0.2 mg/L. Does this correspond to 0.2 ppm?? And if so, I don't need to do a water change yet, right? The scale on my test kit only goes to 0.8 mg/L, so I'm guessing the ammonia has to be REALLY bad before I do a water change?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HowardW]

Yes, mg/L and PPM are the same.

A nice and inexpensive item when cycling new tanks is the Seachem Ammonia Alert which goes inside the tank via a suction cup and reads ammonia 24/7. Seachem also makes an excellent product for accelerating the cycling process called Stability, I use it every time I start a new tank and when doing water changes too.

It's been my past experience that Instant Ocean test kits are not very reliable, I like either the Salifert or Seachem test kits for accurate results. I would start doing 10-15% water changes when the amm. hits .5 and try to keep it well below 1.0 if possible.

 

[scubalady]

Thanks - I thought they were the smae, but wanted to check for sure. I never heard of the "ammonia alert" product, but you can be sure, i will look for it at the LFS! So I guess I am OK at 0.2 mg/L for now? I also us "Stability" in the tank every day. I just hope it really helps!