Seney Reef for Continuous Ammonia Monitoring
- #1
After getting over the shock of waking up to 100+ dead clownfish I would like to invest in an ammonia monitor. The seachem badges may be fine for 2 weeks of TTM but long term (months) they don't appear to work. I checked 2 badges and both check out good but given that all these fish were fine last night and dead 7hrs later, ammonia is really all that could have killed them.
I've been aware of the seneye for years but never looked at getting it until now. I'm surprised to see there are so many terrible reviews for it. Granted 99% of reefers are not going to use it for this purpose so maybe I should try and find some freshwater people / fish breeders. That being said if anyone is actively quarantining large numbers of fish they may be using it for this purpose.
Outside of switching to salifert test kits any other ideas for ammonia testing / monitoring?
- #3
I've got half a dozen or so running on tanks at work (commercial shellfish). I find them very useful but they do give weird results every every now and again.
They measure directly pH and NH3 and use these numbers to calculate a value for NH4. If the pH is reading low (which I find they have a tendency to do) then it looks like you've got a whopping pool of NH4 ready to turn back to NH3 when the pH goes up.
Despite their quirks I wouldn't be without them. They are very useful for monitoring trends and as an early warning system.
- #4
There's a cheaper model (~$150), the Seneye Home, which does not include the PAR functionality. The thing about this is that it needs to be connected to a computer or you fork out another $200 to get the wired web server or $286 for the wifi web server. Or you can buy a USB power adapter ($20) and run it in logging mode, where it will store readings until you connect that into a computer. Then you have to pay for disks that you have to change out monthly, $36 for 3 months. The costs really start to add up.
One new development on R2R has been modifying and using Red Sea/API ammonia kits with Hanna checkers (ULR P) to get digital readings of the color changes, then using the results to convert into TAN ppm and/or ppm NH3 (with pH and temp). The numbers on the Seachem alert badges are ppm NH3. I just started testing yesterday and was shocked to see ammonia levels jump by 10-fold in less than 1 day of TTM, from 0.024 ppm TAN (0.003 ppm NH3) to 0.23 ppm TAN (0.03 ppm NH3) for a 1-2 inch tiny borbonius anthias in a 10 g QT by himself. Not sure if this is real or flaws in the testing, but scared me enough to do 24 hour transfers.
Last edited:
- #5
I will also be buying several of these for my QT tanks when I reboot the system. Thank you for starting this thread!
- #6
I've got half a dozen or so running on tanks at work (commercial shellfish). I find them very useful but they do give weird results every every now and again.
They measure directly pH and NH3 and use these numbers to calculate a value for NH4. If the pH is reading low (which I find they have a tendency to do) then it looks like you've got a whopping pool of NH4 ready to turn back to NH3 when the pH goes up.
Despite their quirks I wouldn't be without them. They are very useful for monitoring trends and as an early warning system.
This is exactly the kind of post I was hoping to get. Thank you for replying (everyone else too).
They appear to be out of stock everywhere I normally shop but I am leaving heavily on picking one up. In theory if they work they can potentially pay partly or even fully for themselves by limiting the amount of pointless water changes. Although in my case it appears I'm not doing enough water changes.
I have enough old pc's one of them should be good enough to run it. I could tuck it away in the corner and then have a monitor just displaying it.
- #7
How often are readings taken with the Seneye when connected to a computer? I understand that in logging mode (connected only to power) it only takes readings every hour. Would it be feasible to use it for multiple QT tanks (not continuous, just as a digital tester)? For example, getting a cup of QT water and placing the seneye in it to get a ammonia reading? How long would you need to leave it in the cup to get a reading?
- #8
Mine update every 30 minutes. If I move a sensor into a bucket of water taken from another system it takes 3 or 4 updates before the readings are similar. Our sensors plug into a thing Seneye call a "node". These in turn are connected to a router and I view it on a PC or an app on my phone. Not sure if this makes a difference. The sensors are identical to an ordinary Seneye.
- #10
Are seneye ammonia readings affected by copper?
- #11
I got a seneye the other day and have started to run some tests.
I dosed ammonia into one bucket and took some readings, which came out to around 0.05 ppm (I swirled the seneye around and left it in there for an hour or so). I then transferred a gallon of that ammonia-dosed water from that bucket and put it into another bucket and dosed copper power to ~2.3 ppm copper. When I moved the seneye into that bucket, the ammonia readings jumped to 0.08 ppm, temperature and ph remaining the same (I rinsed the seneye in RODI and then swirled the seneye around in the bucket and left it in there for about an hour). I then moved it back to the copper-free bucket and it dropped back down to around 0.05 ppm. Is this normal? I thought seneye ammonia readings were not affected by copper? Granted my methodology probably is not the most scientific and the seneye might have needed to soak longer.
I also tested other medications (the trifecta - metronidazole, kanamycin, and furan-2), using the same methodology. Water dosed with just metro gave similar ammonia readings as the water without metro. Although Furan-2 colors the water greenish, interestingly, this did not seem to affect the seneye readings. Water dosed with all 3 medications gave similar ammonia readings as the water without the medications. As an aside, the trifecta does not seem to affect ammonia readings using the RedSea ammonia test kit.
Any insight into why my seneye results showed elevated ammonia readings with chelated copper?
- #13
I can't find any info on the margin of error, but the seneye reports NH3 levels, not total ammonia, so 0.03 ppm is enough to bump you from safe to alert or alert to alarm.
| NH3 level | PPM (mg/L) From | PPM (mg/L) To |
| safe | 0.001 | 0.020 |
| alert | 0.020 | 0.050 |
| alarm | 0.050 | 0.200 |
| toxic | 0.200 | 0.500 |
| deadly | 0.500+ |
- #14
I think you need to cary this experiment out multiple times before you can have confidence in the result.
- #15
@Dr.Reef , What was your experience with copper and seneye ammonia readings?
- #16
I ran another test today - not good.
Fresh saltwater, no copper, seneye left in the bucket with heater and airstone for 3 hours. Temp stable at around 76F and pH of 8. Ammonia readings stable at 0.009 ppm for 3 hours. Then added copper power to the same bucket and achieved around 2.21 ppm copper. ammonia shot up to 0.07 ppm right away and remained there for the past 4 hours.
Seneye does not seem to be a reliable way of measuring ammonia in QTs with copper.
Here's what seneye support said: "From what I can see of chelated copper the tablets appear to have a blue colouring to them, this could be having an effect on the NH3 pad as the colouring that appears when there is NH3 present is purple so the blue could be affecting the readings. As they also appear to have an extremely low pH, this could also be affecting the NH3 readings."
Where did we get the thought that seneye ammonia readings were not affected by copper?
- #18
@Humblefish Wait, did he do tests with copper? I thought he only did tests for cycling tanks and riding ammonia with bacteria in a bottle...
- #20
Oh wow, wishing @Dr.Reef a full and speedy recovery.
Yeah, I'm just one seneye user. Hopefully others can chime in with their experiences with copper.
I believe VJV was using cupramine, not chelated copper.
Source: https://humble.fish/community/index.php?threads/anyone-using-a-seneye-for-active-ammonia-monitoring.3758/
0 Response to "Seney Reef for Continuous Ammonia Monitoring"
Enviar um comentário