Live meter

[neo-fight]

What do you know about the "4-6 week live meter" by Mardel? I just bought one because I am lazy and didn't want to mess with the chemicals. (All that shaking and such can be quite tedious LOL) Anyway the meter shows that the ammonia level is at the safe level while my chemical shows a reading of between 2 and 3. Which one do I believe? By the way, I have nitrites.

[AABatteries]

I'd go with the chemical one.

[Crispy]

I was wondering if these things actually work... are they as bad as the stick-on thermometers??

[AABatteries]

The stick on thermometers I have on two of my tanks are within 1° of the glass ones in the tanks.

[TazManiac]

My stickon thermometers have always been atleast reasonably accurate. Not a bad option for a quick glance at the temp.

[Northernguy]

If you have nitrites you should be doing a water change!
Daily water changes will get rid of them.Once a week is the norm.
Once your tank is cycled you should test your tank once a week.Twice if your worried about anything.
I like the liquid test kits. It must be the exercise!:hmm3grin2orange:

[lovleeko]

They suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Throw it away. It will only screw you up. One day they read you have ammonia nit etc and you dont. One day they read you dont and you do. I will never buy one again. Plus the ammonia ones only go up to like.40 I have been meaning to throw mine away and haven't gotten around to it. It is reading safe now when my liquid is reading ammonia at 1. 0 in one of my tanks.

[JimTheBetta]

Ive had multiple live meters, and as the others have said, they suck. I still keep one in my bettas tank not because i use it, but because he loves messing with it.

[oraeanast]

Purchased a Mardel Master LiveMeter (the one with pH,temp,and Ammonia tests) the other day at petco. I HATE the thing. the temp display is totally inaccurate.. the pH color chart colors are so silimlar, i cannot tell if my pH is at 7.0, 7.4, or 8.2! Waste of 18 bucks.. and i highly recommend to anyone thining about purchasing one of these.. DONT! get a TetraTest Laborett Master test kit.. those are relatively inexpensive, and test for all the main stuff. Thanks!

[lovleeko]

Well figured out why the ammonia meters seem inaccurate. They read only NH3 and not both NH3 and NH4 together like the api liqid drops do. So that makes a lot of sense to me now.

[Taurus]

Well figured out why the ammonia meters seem inaccurate. They read only NH3 and not both NH3 and NH4 together like the api liqid drops do. So that makes a lot of sense to me now.

This is true..they read live ammonia (NH3). NH4 is the less toxic ammonium.
The API kits read NH3 and NH4 together. IMHO not as accurate as the live meters. I use the Seachem Live ammonia meter and love it. It's very handy especially if you use Prime or Amquel+ water conditioners. Prime and Amquel detox live ammonia (NH3) by turning it into ammonium (NH4) . The biofilter will convert both forms into nitrites, then into nitrates.

[terrapin24h]

This is true..they read live ammonia (NH3). NH4 is the less toxic ammonium.
The API kits read NH3 and NH4 together. IMHO not as accurate as the live meters. I use the Seachem Live ammonia meter and love it. It's very handy especially if you use Prime or Amquel+ water conditioners. Prime and Amquel detox live ammonia (NH3) by turning it into ammonium (NH4) . The biofilter will convert both forms into nitrites, then into nitrates.

While the above is true, i come from the opposite approach. If there is *ANY* measurable ammonia in the water I wanna know about it, regardless of if it's toxic or not, because the processing of it *WILL* result in something toxic, nitrite. So if i see a bump in ammonia(due to a bump in nh3 or nh4), i prepare and watch for the bump in trite, which is arguably more toxic than free or bound ammonia. When i see a bump happen i immediately look for what changed and start daily 10% changes(or more as required) until i find the cause of the problem. What if your ph was 6.8 and something in the tank died and started rotting? The live meter may not show anything and then 4 days later the nitrite spike hits. Sure the cycle(assuming it is healthy) will catch up, but there could be fish loss in the interim. Bad mojo IMO

--chris

[Taurus]

Good point Chris. Do you test for ammonia daily with the API kit?