Seachem Ammonia Alert

Many people have had problems with this product. I sure didn't! It's important to note that this product can read 0ppm Ammonia, even while a salicylate test kit reflects plenty of ammonia. "Total ammonia" measures ammonium and "free" ammonia. The former isn't so bad, the latter is. More on this below, if you're really interested.

When my kids came home from a school carnival with 6 goldfish, I figured we'd wing it. A few days later we lost our first fish. Another few days, and another fish lost, and I bought the Seachem based on positive reviews I read elsewhere. At the same time, I had the water tested at Petsmart. The petsmart test said ammonia was high, and after letting the Seachem adjust overnight, it agreed. A few partial water changes later, and the level was dropping, but still not zero. I ordered an API test kit, and it reflected just what the seachem did. Finally, I got some filter media from a friend's tank, and the nitrifying bacteria got going properly. Ammonia dropped to zero, and the seachem reflected this too!

I had no luck with the "quick start" and other products that allegedly contain live bacteria. Only the filter media seemed successful in seeding the tank with the good bacteria.

All in all, the Seachem functioned perfectly, and it really helped as a visual indicator and daily reminder that things were not going well in the tank. I'm now quite confident that the seachem will indicate if ammonia levels rise again.

Now for the nitty-gritty: I believe so-called "ammonia remover" products bind ammonia into ammonium. While I tried these, I never saw a substantial drop in ammonia from it. My thinking is that these products attempt to reduce ammonia, but the problem is that ammonium breaks into ammonia at higher pH, and higher temperature. I'm not sure if there's anything you can do about that. I've read on the Internet that the salicylate test does not reflect "total ammonia" (a term that refers to ammonium + ammonia), but it really does both according to the API instructions and by looking at the chemistry, the test creates conditions to convert all ammonium to ammonia. It measure the total. The seachem measures purely free ammonia according to their site.

First off, remove the plastic covering the sensor disk! I saw one of these in a friend's aquarium where they hadn't done that so they assumed the "safe" readings they were getting meant their tank was doing great.. not so! I guess they figured it looked so simple they didn't need to read the instructions first, but that's a fairly obvious thing to overlook!

Second, this is the exact same sensor material used in Seachem MultiTest Ammonia Test Kit. That test only tests for harmful free ammonia (NH3), but to be honest the test is a bit of a pain with having to time the test.. I never liked pulling it out, having to deal with the tiny little disks in the container, and waiting 15 or 30 minutes for the results.. but this alert is already ready to read (the color scale is not the same however, because of the longer "exposure" time).

Third, kits like the API Ammonia Test Kit measure TOTAL ammonia (NH3 and NH4). If you have chloramines in your water you WILL have tend to have false positive readings because of the ammonium formed when you use dechlorinator on your water (such as Seachem Prime. It doesn't mean you water is dangerous, it simply means that the chloramine has been converted into ammonium, and the API test can't tell the difference. I've had my tap water test as high as 2ppm for "ammonia" with the API test right after a water change the Seachem test would show 0. The doesn't mean the Seachem test is wrong or inaccurate, it's just more specific just like this alert disk.

Because of the issue with chloramines in my tap water cycling a new tank is a frustrating experience trying to use the API kit. I would constantly see positive "ammonia" readings while I could see my nitrites had spiked and had gone to 0 and I was seeing increasing amounts of nitrates, but using these disks simplifies the process. A partial WC can be done as the disk starts to turn blue in a fish-in cycle (or if you are dosing ammonia for a fishless cycle, you can add ammonia a little at a time until the disk turns dark blue), and the effect can be seen quickly as the disk changes color from blue to green (or even almost yellow). I think it's one of the best products available when you can't rely on the total ammonia readings from the API kit.

Buy Seachem Ammonia Alert Now

I used the ammonia alert to cycle my new aquarium (29g planted) with raw ammonia. Ten drops was enough to get it to show green(alert). Once I started getting nitrites, I cut it back to five daily drops. The indicator would go from green to yellow in approx. eight hours. Once the aquarium cycled, it has stayed yellow despite gradual addition of fish population. This has been verified by numerous ammonia tests by my fish store whenever I bought more fish. One caveat on use: Be sure to remove the plastic strip on the back before putting in the water. It would be easy to overlook.

Read Best Reviews of Seachem Ammonia Alert Here

If your like me your tap water has ammonia in it already, when using a water conditioner the ammonia is turned into a less harmful version, however it still shows up on water tests. This little reader can tell the difference between that and "free" ammonia, which is the most harmful version. In fact, some of the negative reviews stating that their ammonia levels were off the chart when checked with a test kit probably are seeing the conditioned ammonia and not the harmful ammonia.

IMO this is well worth it in your aquarium.

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Save your money and just go with the regular water testing strips. It's not only cheaper, but it also works. The label says that it takes a few days for it to adjust and give out accurate readings, but I've had it since last week and it still reads "alarm". I, panicked, kept constantly changing 25% of the water and after a few days of this with no change in the reading I decided to bring out my strips and use those. Sure enough my water quality wasn't lacking and is just fine. So I wouldn't trust this product. It would be nice if it was effective but it hasn't been proven anything to me.

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