Aquarium Pharmaceudical Freshwater master test kit - Strange result - please help

[iwiied]

the test cards shows yellow as 0.0 amonia and it goes up from there.
i did the test a couple times and it shows no color at all, basically a clear liquid, anyone 's had this problem or know how what that means?
thanks

 

[ilikeb00st]

is the kit expired? mine says wait 5 minutes to read the result.

 

[iwiied]

i couldn't find the expiration date on it, but it was made in 2004. the nitrite test worked fine. maybe i should have waited , i tried reading it right after shaking it for 5 seconds. i'll try that .

 

[Scubarod]

maybe its saltwater. i know that the saltwater ammonia test is yellow

 

[gt1009]

That sounds like it's probably gone bad by now. I would grab a new test kit.

 

[iwiied]

ok.. i re-read the instruction it says to compare color right away. so i guess i'm getting a new kit
thanks

 

[bishigirl]

how old is it. it says place 8 drops of #1 and then place8 drops of #2 then shake vigerousley for 5 seconds then wait 5 mins, sometimes that has happend to me and i take to someone else in the house to have a look at because yellowy greens are sometimes abit hard for me to read and my daughter has trouble with the colour red/orange. so just get a second opinion and see what they say

 

[Danger_Chicken]

Here is the shelf life of a few test kits (I didn't complile this, it's from another site)

How many of you have ever wondered how much time your test kits have left and what their shelf life is? If you are like me and you test your water parameters then you have probably wondered the answer to this question. To answer this question, I decided to e-mail three of the most well known companies for test kits and here are the responses. Keep in mind this may change at any time and I assume no responsibility for any of these products.

The first company is Aquarium Pharmaceuticals:

The second company is Hagen:

All of our test kits have a shelf life of four years. Each package is marked with an expiration date. Please reply if you have any further questions.
Thank you,
Sharon Emond, Customer Service Dept.
Rolf C. Hagen (USA) Corp.

The third company is Tetra:

The kits have a five-year shelf life. Once you open them you should discard them after a year. If you would like us to trouble shoot further please call 800-526-0650 option 1 M-F 8-5.
Regards,
Tetra Consumer Relations

 

[SCGeordie]

Couldn't find an expiration date on my API FW test kit either, but the copywright notice on the instruction manual is from 2009, I would say yours is more than likely out of date. If you just bought it make sure the place you bought it from replaces it free of charge (I would demand compensation for all the lost fish caused by the bad readings as well, but that's me I hate being 'taken' by stores that sell out of date goods!).

 

[Anna Robinson]

i couldn't find the expiration date on it, but it was made in 2004.

There is no expiration date on API reagents; the lot number on the top of the bottle shows the month and year of manufacture (as Chicken's post indicated). The shelf life for API ammonia reagents is 3 years (most API reagents last 3 years; some 4, and some 5). So if your ammonia reagent was really manufactured in 2004 it would have expired by 2007

It's also recommended that, once open, the reagent is discarded after 12 months regardless of the expiration date.