Fish: [tropical fish club] Connie's Tank 10-30-12

Tank is 9 weeks old tomorrow.
29 gallon freshwater tank.
2 guppies, 1 platy, 2 small Cory cats, 4 neon tetras all happy as came be.

Last dose of Prime was Friday 10-26-12
Sunday, 10-28-12, PWC of 3 gallons.

API tests:
Ammonia holding at 2.0 reading
Nitrites holding at 0
Nitrates holding at 30-35
PH holding at 8

SeaChem Free Ammonia test:
Free Ammonia: .15
Total Ammonia: 1.0 down from 2.0 on Saturday

Just talked to the SeaChem person again.
They are aware of the false positive readings for ammonia
that you can get using Prime and the API test kit.
She explained the chemistry behind that...but that was over my head.
LOL!
She also said the the effectiveness of Prime lasts 72 hours tops.
And I also discussed with her whether Prime, after 72 hours, is
still physically in the water to cause the false positive.
Again she explain things I didn't fully understand and said after
72 hours there would not be a false positive, but the ammonia
in the water would mostly be the less toxic form of ammonia.
And the toxic form would slowly build up again if there is not
bacteria to eat it.

I told her that Dr. Tim said it would take several water changes
to get all the Prime out of the water to have a zero ammonia reading.
She disagreed with that.

She suggested that perhaps I need a bio media for the bacteria
to grow on in my filter box.

So I am going to try to get some Bio Media in the filter box today.
And I am still confused about the ammonia readings.
LOL!
Connie

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