ammonia.....

[twflys]

My test kit for my new Nano came with an ammonia tester; Free and total, what's the difference? Which one is more important? And, which one are most people referring to when talking about ammonia?

 

What the heck, I'll throw an algae question in here while I'm at it too. Brown algae, that looks like dirt scattered on the substrate and on some of the rocks? I'm guessing this is the big, bad, brown algae that everyone wants to avoid?

 

Thanks for the help!

[Acoustic]

1) Free ammonia or total ammonia does not matter it should all say ZERO!

 

2) Don't worry about the brown stuff it will get worse and worse and then go away.

[twflys]

Thanks, strange thing is....... my tank has been cycling for about a week now, and my tests last night were almost identical to the test I ran last week, no changes. The only thing I can think of, is that I bought my salt water from the same store that sold me the live rock. Maybe there just isn't much cycling for this tank to go through? And, here are the tank readings if you are curious;

 

Temp: 78 deg

Ammonia: .02 (free) & 0 (total) (dropped a little from last time)

Nitrite: 0 (same)

Nitrate: 1.5 (down from 2.0 last time)

Alkalinity: 4.5 (same)

PH: 8.08 (same)

Salinity: 1.024 (same)

 

I also ran a comparision test to make sure I was testing it correctly, and it turned out okay too.

[Satchmo]

Seachem kit? Use the one (I forget which it is) that uses the little disk + the drop of reagent. That's the commonly accepted ammonia test.

 

You're looking pretty good. The dirt-like algae is probably diatoms. Like Acoustic said, you're going to go through cycles of this and other algaes in a new tank, don't worry about it.

 

If the rock was fully cured when you bought it, and it was transported quickly to your tank, there would be very little die off and a short cycle.