What test kit are you using? What copper treatment are you using?
If you are using Cupramine or any other amine copper treatment and using a Nessler style test kit (Salifert, Elos, etc) you will get a false ammonia reading because those test kits can't differentiate between ammonia and the amine used in Cupramine. If you use a salicylate style test kit (API, SeaChem, etc) you will get an accurate ammonia reading provided you read the test when you are supposed to, of you let it sit too long it will read like the Nessler kit.
If you do indeed have ammonia present that will harm the fish, you can use Prime with Cupramine, but you have to be very careful to not overdose Prime because it will make the copper 10x more toxic by changing the Cu2+ ions to Cu+.
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~ Mindy
SPS fanatic.
Last edited by Myka; 11-08-2010 at 02:58 PM.
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