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Review on πŸ§ͺ Accurate Ammonia Testing Made Easy: Seachem MultiTest Ammonia Test Kit by Christine Rogers

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Works for free ammonia, total ammonia readings are inaccurate.

I've had fairly good results testing free ammonia with this kit. It was more sensitive than my Seachem Ammonia Alert Disc and I noticed a change in the free ammonia results after using Prime and doing water changes. However, the overall color index of ammonia is completely absent. I have tested this with both tap water and tank water. My rims are painted in shades of purple, which is totally off the color chart. I have relied on my API test kit for total ammonia levels which appear to be accurate for both tap water and tank water. For reference, the attached figures show total ammonia readings. The same water shows 0.25 to 0.5 ppm on my API test set, which seems much more accurate. I'm not sure if I have bad hard drives or not. Two confusing notes on instructions. First it will say "Empty Drives" when done. It is not specified which water to flush. I only use my fridge filter water which is not distilled but is better than tap water. After emailing Seachem they said distilled water is ideal, but a spill is fine if that's all you have. Second, testing for total ammonia is said to add a drop to the water being tested. It doesn't say if this is to be done before or after dropping the disc on the disc or if the disc should be submerged in water or not etc. To be on the safe side I add a drop after the disc but not on it and let the disk levitate naturally. I wish the instructions were more specific. Edit: After emailing Seachem, they said to add a drop after the disc, not on the disc, and "spin" the disc to submerge it in water. Diving and whirlpools aren't included in the instructions so I wanted to share them. In general, I'm grateful to have a free ammonia test, but I wish my kit was accurate for total ammonia as well.

Pros
  • ACCURACY: This kit measures total (NH3 and NH4+) and free ammonia (NH3 only) to less than 0.05 mg/L and causes virtually no interference in marine or fresh water.
Cons
  • Expensive