8.0 Ammonia for almost two months

[Vic73]

I am officially frustrated. Started a 55 gallon saltwater tank with five live rocks, 20 lbs of live sand and sands I've collected from around the world. After a Marineland canister malfunction switch out keeping the media, I am now three weeks into the new Fluva canister with the old media and I am still at 8.0 ammonia, all other readings are zero. I've done multiple water changes, put bottles of bacteria start up, and now recently seeing I hope is a bacteria bloom after having pretty clear water for a couple of weeks. Any guidance is welcomed.

 

[Vic73]

I am so frustrated with this new tank. 55 gallon saltwater with five live rocks, a canister type filter that was switched four weeks afterwords from MarineLand to Fluval (media transferred to Fluval), 20 lbs of live sand and 20 pounds of sand collected from around the world.

I've put at least five bottles of live bacteria start up, done at least five 25% or more water changes and just seen no or little movement to the ammonia testing at 8.0 with all other levels at zero. Any help would be appreciated. It looks like a bacteria bloom is happening the past 48 hours after some pretty clear water the past couple of weeks.

 

[Irishman]

IMO you need more rock. General rule of thumb is 1-2 lbs of rock per gallon. What type of media did you transfer over into the new canister?

 

[Xanthurum]

Hold off on water changes until the cycle is complete. Ammonia spikes followed by nitrite then nitrate. Once the tank has stabilized then do a water change. You gotta give the bacteria time to colonize before you change the water.

 

[Calpoly2103]

Are you dosing ammonia ? Did you dose it up to 8 ppm?

 

[Pdash]

8ppm is crazy high, bad test kit maybe, or perhaps you aren't using your kit correctly? Your local fish store will usually test your water for you.

 

[RobW]

What are you using to test the ammonia?

 

[Pdash]

IMO you need more rock. General rule of thumb is 1-2 lbs of rock per gallon. What type of media did you transfer over into the new canister?

He is saying he has 5 rocks, so we have no idea how many pounds he has, besides having a small amount of rock has nothing to do with having 8ppm ammonia.

 

[Calpoly2103]

Yeah i thought either bad test kit....or dosed accidentally up to 8.0 PPM. I know the bacteria bottles say not to go above 5ppm or else it stalls the cycle. For me, bacteria bottle or not, it still took about a month to cycle my tank.

Can you please provide some more information? When did you add the first bottle of bacteria? Where did the ammonia come from? (rock? dosing?)

 

[RobW]

Do you have any fish or anything in the tank? I'm guessing no, because if you did with ammonia levels that high they would most certainly die. What did you use for "bottles of bacteria?" The only thing I can think of is the rock you got had a lot of dead stuff on it and it continued to die off in your tank. I would just wait it out and keep testing the water every few days to see if anything changes. You might want to pick up a bottle of microbacter7 and follow the dosage on that just like the bottle says. Dont add anything else! Just let the tank do its thing.

 

[RobW]

Also, are you using tap water or reverse Osmosis/deionized water?

 

[tupes]

Can one of the #mods merge his two threads? Seems he created two threads about the same issue when he first joined and he didnt see the 1st one because he wasnt approved.

 

[ChiSox Rabbitfish]

I would try a different test kit make sure the one you got isn’t defected

 

[maroun.c]

Can one of the #mods merge his two threads? Seems he created two threads about the same issue when he first joined and he didnt see the 1st one because he wasnt approved.

Threads merged

I believe this is most likely a testing error.

 

[Rscott]

Tank pics?

 

[BadFish619]

Yikes! 8.0

 

[Vic73]

IMO you need more rock. General rule of thumb is 1-2 lbs of rock per gallon. What type of media did you transfer over into the new canister?

I transferred the carbon balls, white tube things, two foam inserts cut to fit. The rest was new stuff from Fluval.

 

[Vic73]

I would try a different test kit make sure the one you got isn’t defected

The store reads the same. I've had a few hermit crabs last a few days and tried two fish once. Four corals, all have died fast.

 

[Vic73]

Hold off on water changes until the cycle is complete. Ammonia spikes followed by nitrite then nitrate. Once the tank has stabilized then do a water change. You gotta give the bacteria time to colonize before you change the water.

I understand how the cycle should work and I am definitely not interested in more water changes so I will wait longer. It is just frustrating not seeing an end to this high ammonia.

 

[asting]

Hold off on water changes until the cycle is complete. Ammonia spikes followed by nitrite then nitrate. Once the tank has stabilized then do a water change. You gotta give the bacteria time to colonize before you change the water.

FYI, you can have ammonia so high it "stalls" out your cycling. In those instances, a water change is warranted. 8.0 seems way to high, and i would reduce it to 2ppm or so via water changes.

OP: that's what i'd assume is happening. stop adding food/shrimp/anything. complete water changes to get your ammonia down significantly.The beneficial bacteria can't be built with ammonia that high.

Personally i like biospira to reduce cycling (use it for my QT tanks). It sounds like you aren't having luck with that though.