The Puffer Forum

I'm currently in the middle of a fishless cycle (30g BW tank, 3 weeks in). The SG is around 1.0004, but 1.0008 is my goal. Basically, I'm just wondering what kind of testing kit I should purchase since I'm tired of those testing strips. Should it be for fresh water or salt water? or does it even matter? I just currently bought one of those $30 API ones, but concerned that my test results are skewed by the salt. Also, what type of kit would give me the best results?

I always use API liquid kits - good for FW, BW & SW.

I believe the PH solution is different on the API kits in regards to SW and FW. Everything else works on both. I use the FW kit for my BW.

JRC3 wrote:I believe the PH solution is different on the API kits in regards to SW and FW. Everything else works on both. I use the FW kit for my BW.

I just did two tests for ammonia levels twice. First one using API freshwater liquid test and readings came out around 8ppm. The second one was API for fresh water/saltwater liquid test and the reading was 0ppm. So that's pretty confusing. I'm not so sure about using the freshwater testing kits for brackish water. I'll try it once more just to make sure.

That is confusing. You might try mixing the bottles up by tapping them on a hard surface fo 30 seconds or so. This especially applies to the nitrAte solutions and more time is better.

Just about everyone I've seen buys the FW master kit for their BW.

JRC3 wrote:That is confusing. You might try mixing the bottles up by tapping them on a hard surface fo 30 seconds or so. This especially applies to the nitrAte solutions and more time is better.

Just about everyone I've seen buys the FW master kit for their BW.

JRC3, I just tried it once more. I think you are right. I agitated the bottles and got consistent readings this time of 0ppm. I was hoping there was a difference though. It's taking forever for the nitrate/nitrite levels to go down.

Thanks for ur help

Well you're cycle is getting there. And you want to see the nitrAtes...Just means your nitrItes will be dropping soon. From here on out you should always show nitrAtes.

How much ammonia are you adding daily?

FW and SW give different results with the same chemicals in certain test kits. With increasing salinity, the result must be modified to compensate by the amount of the increasing mixture of other ions in the solution. This means that the colors read will change with increasing salinity. There are kits using the same chemistries for both FW & BW, but the scales we read may be different. For low BW, the FW scales are likely (but not always for all brands) be different from full SW, but more accurate for low-BW (no more than 1.008 specific gravity).

It is confusing.