Almost a month in and still have questions

[W1ngz]

Asking a dumb Question...my Ammonia is still testing high...how do I know if its false?

Salifert Ammonia Aquarium Test Kit

Get accurate, easy to read ammonia test results in minutes! Trusted by discerning reefers for years, Salifert Test Kits feature some of the easiest to read results available. Their test kits include easy to follow instructions and straightforward, accurate results. Salifert test kits are also...

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Ammonia Alert - Continuous Ammonia Sensor

Ammonia Alert is an innovative color indication device for continuously detecting and monitoring toxic free ammonia. There's no need to wait for signs of stress or death in your fish or corals to take action against an ammonia spike. With the Ammonia Alert card, you can always tell at a glance...

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Seneye Web Server

Sit back and enjoy the beauty of your aquarium while monitoring your tanks vital parameters on your Smart Phone, Laptop, or Tablet. The Seneye Web Server allows any Seneye monitor to connect to your homes network, without having to connect the Seneye USB directly to your Laptop. With simple...

www.marinedepot.com

 

[Geonet]

Thanks

 

[MERKEY]

Asking a dumb Question...my Ammonia is still testing high...how do I know if its false?

Stop using prime and you will be able to tell immediately if ammonia is in your system by the way the clowns act.....

After you stop using prime if your clowns start to breath very heavy and rapidly and go to the top then there is ammonia in your system.

If your clowns behave as they have been then you are cycled.

Lets say you still have ammonia in your tank (which I dont think you do) the only way to get the ammonia out is to let the cycle finish or add a large live wet rock from your LFS and that will add the biological bacteria you need to eat the ammonia.

By the looks of your numbers, the picture, and your addition of live bac I believe you are cycled.

Add the clean up crew as suggested and tell your lady it will get pretty soon.

Heres ours and it's just about 5 months....so the uglies dont last too long if you are on them!!

 

[Cell]

Asking a dumb Question...my Ammonia is still testing high...how do I know if its false?

Not a dumb question, but I would listen to the advice of all the experienced reefers you came here for. Or google API .25 false positive and read all the well documented accounts for yourself. Or look up how Prime works and understand it does not remove ammonia, but only changes it to a non-toxic form. Or look at the health of your fish and understand they would be dead or struggling if that ammonia was truly present.

 

[Malifry97]

The tank has been set up for a month with daily beneficial bacteria dosage? You have no ammonia, the 0.25 is a common misread on the API, you have nothing to worry about. You can stop bacteria dosing. @brandon429 will confirm this.

 

[Geonet]

I'm trying to figure it all out. This is one heck of a Hobby..lol
PH is easy...Nitrites are easy...Ammonia is a misnomer

And now I have Algae....But I'm ok with it.
Its kinda brown...

 

[Cell]

Rest assured, everything you are experiencing is perfectly normal, even the API ammonia reading.

 

[W1ngz]

And now I have Algae....But I'm ok with it.

Some algae is normal for the first few months, it's what takes hold first as the biodiversity develops and it's part of the extended cycle.

You don't have to be ok with it, you can attack it head on. Cleanup crew will take care of a lot of it as it grows, but once it gets too much they won't eat it. It's best to let it go unless it gets too unsightly and long.

When you do a water change, take a rock you find unsightly and put it in the bucket of old water (watch out for overflowing due to displacement if the bucket is too full). Use a hard brush to scrub off the algae. Best to get a new brush, you don't want to use what's under the kitchen sink as it will likely have residue from cleaning products on it.

 

[brandon429]

Cool cycling fact: 100% of the time you can visually cycle any reef tank that has new benthic growths of any type /pigment/ early stage uglies as fully cycled for nitrifiers. Simple order of operations already known eighty years for marine substrates has known this. Reef deposition order of ops, which organisms plant in what succession


It's not possible to have nitrifier-incomplete substrates if there's new scum or algae growth, they come after.


without seneye you'll never get an accurate reading across tests, although titration tests show spikes pretty well


seneye shows reef tanks never keep ammonia in the tenths, but always hundredths or thousandths ppm. It is not possible to have sustained .25 ammonia in any cycling setup using rocks and sand. Once these tests hold at a given amount, that's calibrated zero or additives like Prime have skewed. Either way, no ammonia concern here don't bother testing for it unless you have a missing animal.


Free ammonia status can be predicted accurately off pics (surface area) and known history of submersion and boosters


On seneye, this reef would show hundredths ppm at most, likely thousands ppm max. which is any reef at high feed time... safe zone reached, can't be undone.


Ammonia moving down from a prior set point is the confirmation, only ammonia matters. No hard zero reading required, to allow for test kit drifts. Double proof: add bioload, it lives as if the tank is cycled

 

[brandon429]

When evaluating cycles it's my new favorite starting date measure to ask the forum posters how macna reef conventions always have their demo reefs started on time. They didn't get a month lead up before the show, they had one day to setup and stock


500 of them, perfectly compliant cycles for full reefs with fish ready day one, a mix of wet and dry starts. It should set off practicality alarm bells if 100% of forum cycles are stated to take weeks and weeks, we'd miss the convention start date by a long shot.

Convention cycles are not weaker than month long cycles. The date at which your system can endure a 100% water change and still oxidize test ammonia is the proven allowed start date (completed cycles can't be undone by water changes)

Dr Reefs thread on 100% changes shows bottle bac working in 24-48 hours until passing change test. You're days beyond that here.

 

[Geonet]

Sounds Like I'm stuck in a Country Western Song..lol

Taking the advice though