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  • Results 1 to 17 of 17

    Thread: Ammonia reading

    1. #1
      daniel95 is offline Member
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      Ammonia reading

      Hi all,

      Have recently bought the Hanna digital(?) ammonia low range checker, as I can not tell the colour difference between the API test kit.

      After testing my water it has come back over the days between 0.03-0.06ppm.

      Most of my reading says we need 0ppm ammonia - but as I am detecting these low readings is this something to be concerned with? Obviously with the API colour drops it'd read yellow, which is safe. Or am I just being very paranoid

      Thankyou!

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    2. #2
      Paul Sabucchi is offline Senior Member
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      Have you tried the Hannah checker with distilled water? I have found the API liquid test to be quite accurate for our needs (while their nitrate test had it's well known issues)

    3. #3
      daniel95 is offline Member
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      Have just checked with distilled water and reading is 0.00ppm.

      API is good! I just wanted to measure more precisely as sometimes I struggle to tell if it’s yellow or lime green.

    4. #4
      Paul Sabucchi is offline Senior Member
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      I have a similar experience with the Sera ammonia test, it always looks a little greenish yellow while API, NTlabs and Prodac all are unequivocally pure yellow. Makes you wonder if there is some cross reactivity with some other substance so distilled water shows as 0 but water with no ammonia whatsoever but some other substance can cause a weak false positive. Suppose only way would be to take it to a lab and have the water tested by photometry?

    5. #5
      Paul Sabucchi is offline Senior Member
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      One way to have a more accurate reading of the results of liquid tests would be by using a colorimeter, there are some affordable and quite reliable ones like the IO Rodeo or even some open source ones. Downside is there are not many colour curves readily available to use with them. I think there were curves available for the LaMotte reagents to use with the IO Rodeo but they were very difficult to get here in Europe even before Covid. I tried to involve Sera and JBL but never got an answer

    6. #6
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      I guess working with what I have, is the reading of 0.03ppm- 0.06ppm anything to be concerned about? Assuming just monitor and if it rises anymore it might be an issue? But if it drops, it means my bio filter is working?
      Last edited by daniel95; 09-11-2021 at 07:07 AM.

    7. #7
      Paul Sabucchi is offline Senior Member
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      Keep in mind that ammonia toxicity is not absolute as it increases with temperature and pH so you should always read the ammonia results in relation to these other two parameters
      https://thefishsite.com/articles/ammonia
      Last edited by Paul Sabucchi; 09-11-2021 at 07:15 AM.

    8. #8
      daniel95 is offline Member
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      The link was very helpful, thankyou! Not being the best at math it also threw me. My ponds PH is run at 8-8.2 with temp between 22-25 Celsius depending on weather.

      So…. 0.06ppm is 0.059mg/l…. 0.059x0.676 = 0.003. Or have I misinterpreted the formula �� if my results are correct this means there’s barely any toxic?

    9. #9
      Paul Sabucchi is offline Senior Member
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      0.036 or thereabout at the most, low enough but 0 would be better

    10. #10
      icu2's Avatar
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      Is the Hanna meter reading free or total ammonia? I know NH3 -N has to do with the molecular weight
      but I've never understood what correlation it has to ionized and unionized ammonia, or if it does at all?
      --Steve



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    11. #11
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      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      Is the Hanna meter reading free or total ammonia? I know NH3 -N has to do with the molecular weight
      but I've never understood what correlation it has to ionized and unionized ammonia, or if it does at all?
      Just checked the manual and it reads NH3-N. Not sure! I’m trying to understand all the lingo with reading but it all goes beyond my skill level.

      https://www.hannainstruments.co.uk/a...o-3-00ppm.html

      So should I be increasing my bio? Currently I have a SC - 2 sand and gravel filters to a 330g bio tote filled with strapping. Perhaps I can add a moving bed with K1?
      Last edited by daniel95; 09-11-2021 at 08:46 PM.

    12. #12
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      I wonder instead of just adding more you could increase the efficiency of what you have. Could you replace
      the strapping in the IBC tote with K1 (or similar) and add air to it? I don't think the strapping is working as well
      as other media could be.
      --Steve



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    13. #13
      Roddy Conrad's Avatar
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      Quote Originally Posted by daniel95 View Post
      Just checked the manual and it reads NH3-N. Not sure! I’m trying to understand all the lingo with reading but it all goes beyond my skill level.

      https://www.hannainstruments.co.uk/a...o-3-00ppm.html

      So should I be increasing my bio? Currently I have a SC - 2 sand and gravel filters to a 330g bio tote filled with strapping. Perhaps I can add a moving bed with K1?
      The meter reads total ammonia.

      in the table in the link above at 25C temperature and 8.2 pH the toxic portion is 0.07 or 7% of total ammonia. So 0.07 times 0.06 ppm gives 0.004 ppm unionized toxic ammonia.

      In the link provided, notice it stated the unionized ammonia toxicity BEGINS at 0.05 ppm unionized ammonia and at 0.06 total ammonia, pH 8.2, and temperature 25C you water has unionized ammonia at 0.004 ppm, when toxicity begins at 10 times that value.

      Meaning you have nothing to worry about, no need to increase filtration, relax.
      Last edited by Roddy Conrad; 09-12-2021 at 08:58 AM.
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    14. #14
      icu2's Avatar
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      My elementary grade understanding of this was that a measurement of NH3 was free ammonia and
      NH3 and NH4 was a measurement of total ammonia and needed to be converted with the chart to get
      the free ammonia number. How does NH3 -N relate to these (or does it)? When a measurement is said
      to be NH3 -N, is that always going to be "total ammonia"?
      --Steve



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    15. #15
      Paul Sabucchi is offline Senior Member
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      NH3-N is when ammonia is measured only in relation to the atomic weight of the nitrogen atom it contains while total ammonia unless otherwise specified is considered as total weight of the molecule included the 3 hydrogen atoms (so works out about 1.2 times the NH3-N quantity). The NH3-N measurement comes in handy when comparing the nitrogen content of different substances.

    16. #16
      Roddy Conrad's Avatar
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      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      My elementary grade understanding of this was that a measurement of NH3 was free ammonia and
      NH3 and NH4 was a measurement of total ammonia and needed to be converted with the chart to get
      the free ammonia number. How does NH3 -N relate to these (or does it)? When a measurement is said
      to be NH3 -N, is that always going to be "total ammonia"?
      In a word, YES!
      Your koiphen chemist and environmental scientist.

    17. #17
      daniel95 is offline Member
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      Good to know everyone! And thankyou for the responses. I think because usually I use the API measurement which says zero, but once I saw a number I immediately panicked.

      Roddy, your advice to relax is the best response I needed!

      In turn I would like to replace my strapping filter to MD purely for footprint size, but good to know it can wait.

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