Hi Folks! I'm new to the forum so forgive me if this is a common subject or not the right place to talk about it. I have quite a few tanks, some with tropicals and some with my fantastic fantail goldfish.

My older daughter (17) recently upgraded to a ten gallon guppy tank and it was neatly progressing through the cycling process when suddenly the ammonia test came back blue. Yes, blue. It's the API master test kit and the same test run on my tanks produces only normal results. When we run the test on her tank, it sample rapidly changes through all the stages of green and stops when it become a lovely turquoise color. Of course, I freaked when this first happened thinking there must be 50ppm of ammonia in the tank and promptly did a 75% water change. The test came out exactly the same. We've done this a couple of times and there is no change in the test results. That said, there are still about 8 guppy adults and 5 guppy fry living happily in the tank with no signs of ammonia poisoning. So my question is this: has anyone had this happen before? If it's something screwing up the test, what could it be? Any thoughts?

Thanks so much in advance!

- Anne

I'll go retest the rest of the stuff and post it, but yes I am definitely sure I am using the correct solutions. Like I said, the same test run on any other tank in the house comes out exactly on the expected scale.

How old is your api test kit? Make sure you store it properly and out of direct sunlight or heat since it can speed up the breakdown of the chemicals in the test kit. A very old test kit or one that has been improperly stored can give false readings.

Since you have already have several established tanks , you can use some of the gravel and filter media from these tanks and put them in the guppy tank. That way the 10 gallon guppy tank doesn't have to go through the cycling process at all, because all the nitrifying bacteria will already be present.

I don't see how such few number of guppies can put out such a large bioload (according to the test results) after  several large water changes.  Since you said don't use amno lock or similar type chemicals, then perhaps something is wrong with the test kit.

Do know someone with a test kit you can borrow or maybe you can buy a another one? Also if you bring a sample of the water to the pet store, they can perform tests there also, which should give you a better idea whether or not your kit is accurate.

Since the nitrite and nitrate is showing, I don't think you need to worry about ammonia anymore
At most, you could try buying some liquid bio-filter booster, also called beneficial bacteria in a bottle There are lots of different brands out there, and it's a really good thing to have in stock, just in case I use one called "fluid filter media" made by EasyLife, I definitely recommend it since it made cycling my tank that much easier Even if it's cycled it may be good to add some of it now and then. You don't need to add any other water conditioner when using this one!