Cheap ammonia testing thing?

Cleaning liquid testing tube?

• Can i clean my API ammonia testing tube with chlorinated tap water or will it affect my future test results? Should i dechlorinate some water in a recipient to use it to rinse the tube? Also, I put my guppies in the tank yesterday, starting a new cycle. I plan on keeping ammonia and nitrite low to not affect them too much. The thing is, ammonia is only at about 0.25 (im going to do a water change tonight to lower it), and 2 of my fish seem lethargic. Is it only an adaptation period? Why are they lethargic...Can't already be ammonia stress at a low concentration like that, right?

• Answer:

  Ammonia can start harming fish at any reading from what I've always known. "At a level of level of 1 ppm or 1 mg/l, fish are under stress, even if they don't appear in acute distress. Levels even lower than that can be fatal if the fish are exposed continuously for several days. For that reason it is critical to continue daily testing and treatment until the ammonia drops to zero. When ammonia is elevated for a long period, it is not unusual to lose fish even after the ammonia levels start to drop. " - http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ammoniapoison.htm A lot of fish used to cylce, don't make it. It's hard and stressfull. They aren't going to adapt to it. It's toxic for them. A lot of people opt to do fishless cycle's. That's what I've always done. It's cheap, you dont have to buy any fish and watch them die. All your tank needs is a source of ammonia. Just look at the names given here for fish cycle "When setting up an aquarium, buy some cheap, hardy fish and get the cycle started. These fish have been given names like starter fish, suicide fish, disposables, and so on." http://www.algone.com/aquarium-articles/technical-aquarium-information/fishless-cycling Anyways, I've always just used tap water with no dechlorinater to clean the tubes. Just dry them out if I have to use that same tube while I'm testing. I've never had any bad effects on test results. http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=79822