Ammonia 8ppm

[Chrisv.]

Couldn't there also be real NH3/nh4? I'd still be doing a WC, adding a heap of bottled bacteria, etc as posted above.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Couldn't there also be real NH3/nh4? I'd still be doing a WC, adding a heap of bottled bacteria, etc as posted above.

Of course, I have moved enough tanks in my life to know that if OP didnt rinse or use new sand (if tank is 2+ years old and deep), let the rock dry out, ect that you can get a small spike but its unlikely much and far less than 8 ppm. The lack of nitrite readings and physical symptoms of ammonia issues all point to a misread. A 60% water change would have set him on the right path if OP had an ammonia issue. I trust API about as much as I trust Fedex to deliver livestock to me alive.

 

[Malcontent]

@coralcoralcoral10 proof that prime messes with readings. Sample is from my established tank and 5 drops of prime in 50 ml sample.. test is white/grey.

Not saying your ammonia is zero, im saying that if nothing is dying them your nitrification cycle will take care of it.

I think that's a 190X overdose. Try adding 13 microliters to 50 mL.

I've tested before and after the addition of Prime at the correct dose using a Hach DR/900 and it results in a slightly lower ammonia reading. It also doesn't bleach the sample.

The ammonia salicylate method is prone to interference from amino acids which result in off-the-scale ammonia readings.

 

[hikermike]

Why are you adding Prime? It removes chlorine but if you're using RODI then there's no need. Also, you only use it by adding to the fresh tap water you're adding, there's still residual in the tank. It's simply sodium thiosulfate which is the fixing agent we used to use when developing B&W film. (Remember those days.) The result is a salt. Also, shouldn't need to add so much bacteria. Fritz is rumored to be the best but it's expensive and we don't have it around here so I have excellent results with Biospira. I used store brands before and they didn't seem to do a thing. Also, live sand and rocks or some dirty filter floss will get things going well.

 

[Garf]

Hello it’s coral again. Today I tested my water and my ammonia is 8ppm and possibly over. Most of my coral didn’t make the tank transition. 3 weeks ago I transferred my 46 gallon 3 month old tank to a new 144 gallon tank. Parameters are PH-8 Nitrates .2. Nitrites 0. Ammonia 8ppm. Temp 79. Salinity 1.025. Is it possible to have these Ammonia levels so high with Nitrites at 0. All my fish are alive and accounted for. Same with inverts. I have been dosing Microbacter 7 and Prime daily. How can my fish be alive in water testing over 8ppm. I’m new to this and any information would be helpful. 6 days ago i preformed a 60% water change and ammonia levels were still high

I’ve gotta believe this is a testing malfunction, unless you’ve peroxided/bleached all your rocks and sand during the transfer. Assuming you haven’t done that. I seem to remember food particles, detritus etc affecting the ammonia tests. It’s actually very refreshing to see folks quoting the confirmation of this by a zero nitrite reading. A tank pic would be great. @Lasse

 

[Just a Wrasse.]

It is true that prime will bind the ammonia and detoxify it for 24 to 48 hrs but it will still show up on an ammonia test kit. I’d suggest staying on your current path of dosing the bacteria and prime and investing in a different test kit. The api test kits are known for being very inaccurate

Freshwater test kits are great, but saltwater is a whole new story. I'd recommend red sea test kits.

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

Does Prime actually "Detoxify" free ammonia, NH3?

This started when @Dan_P was looking at measuring NH3 with seneye and was curious about performance near zero NH3. I suggested trying Prime to artificially zero out the NH3 sensor, and the results were weird... so I checked with my seachem kit. Prime by Seachem is commonly used to treat tap...

www.reef2reef.com

Unpopular opinion but prime isn't doing anything but messing with you head and there are dozens of explanations for a API ammonia kit reading.
1. Known misread issues
2. Test kit was contaminated
3. Doing the test wrong
4. Prime is screwing with test results

If you fish are not stressed and your inverts have not been impacted then your nitrification cycled isn't breaking. Think about this critically.. You are using a poor quality test kit known to have issues, you performed a 60% water change without impacting the ammonia reading (which is impossible), your fish are fine and doubtful prime does anything to actually reduce ammonia (its snake oil), 0 nitrite readings and the visual queues in the reef for ammonia poisoning are not present (gasping).

If you give me a walk through of how you did the move I can say with a high certainty whether you nuked your tank. A pic of the tank and walk through of the steps you took provides more information about your system than a fairly useless test kit.

@brandon429 has walked me through my 3 tank move with zero losses. He might have insight.

Ok so I’m still new to this my tank transfer was done by my LFS. Basically they moved all animals and rocks with my water to buckets and then added their water to the tank. Placed my animals in the tank then added my water to the sump and left over to the tank itself. 1 week after I then bought 2 fish and 3 coral. The Coral all died. And I only have 3 pieces barely hanging on left. Then after that week ammonia spiked to 5ppm. So I did the water change. No changes. More coral
Died so I removed it. I had 2 starfish die in the past 2 weeks and 1 slug got eaten by a Nero 5. All removed quickly
Except serpent starfish that was decaying in the tank a bit but that was removed 2 weeks ago. All animals are accounted for. Here is a video. Thank you for your help. But I keep losing coral now I’m down to 3 peices about to be 2. 4 neros. 2 5s 2 3s running 70% for the 3. 65-% for the 5s. 4 ai primes running 70 70 80 80 3 3 3 3 16

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

Ok so I’m still new to this my tank transfer was done by my LFS. Basically they moved all animals and rocks with my water to buckets and then added their water to the tank. Placed my animals in the tank then added my water to the sump and left over to the tank itself. 1 week after I then bought 2 fish and 3 coral. The Coral all died. And I only have 3 pieces barely hanging on left. Then after that week ammonia spiked to 5ppm. So I did the water change. No changes. More coral
Died so I removed it. I had 2 starfish die in the past 2 weeks and 1 slug got eaten by a Nero 5. All removed quickly
Except serpent starfish that was decaying in the tank a bit but that was removed 2 weeks ago. All animals are accounted for. Here is a video. Thank you for your help. But I keep losing coral now I’m down to 3 peices about to be 2. 4 neros. 2 5s 2 3s running 70% for the 3. 65-% for the 5s. 4 ai primes running 70 70 80 80 3 3 3 3 16

Why are you adding Prime? It removes chlorine but if you're using RODI then there's no need. Also, you only use it by adding to the fresh tap water you're adding, there's still residual in the tank. It's simply sodium thiosulfate which is the fixing agent we used to use when developing B&W film. (Remember those days.) The result is a salt. Also, shouldn't need to add so much bacteria. Fritz is rumored to be the best but it's expensive and we don't have it around here so I have excellent results with Biospira. I used store brands before and they didn't seem to do a thing. Also, live sand and rocks or some dirty filter floss will get things going well.

It’s not that prime it’s prime for conditioning water. Not for chlorine removal.

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

It is true that prime will bind the ammonia and detoxify it for 24 to 48 hrs but it will still show up on an ammonia test kit. I’d suggest staying on your current path of dosing the bacteria and prime and investing in a different test kit. The api test kits are known for being very inaccurate

Thank you I have and it should be coming today i ordered the ammonia sticker

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

I’ve gotta believe this is a testing malfunction, unless you’ve peroxided/bleached all your rocks and sand during the transfer. Assuming you haven’t done that. I seem to remember food particles, detritus etc affecting the ammonia tests. It’s actually very refreshing to see folks quoting the confirmation of this by a zero nitrite reading. A tank pic would be great. @Lasse

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

Thank you I just posted the pics above i went to show them here aswell but I didn’t save them. Thank you all for your help. I’m still so new to this and I don’t want to sound like a broken record but I’m busting my butt to make this work and this is my first big road bump.

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

I’ve gotta believe this is a testing malfunction, unless you’ve peroxided/bleached all your rocks and sand during the transfer. Assuming you haven’t done that. I seem to remember food particles, detritus etc affecting the ammonia tests. It’s actually very refreshing to see folks quoting the confirmation of this by a zero nitrite reading. A tank pic would be great. @Lasse

I didn’t do that with my rocks and the sand is new.

 

[Chrisv.]

Of course, I have moved enough tanks in my life to know that if OP didnt rinse or use new sand (if tank is 2+ years old and deep), let the rock dry out, ect that you can get a small spike but its unlikely much and far less than 8 ppm. The lack of nitrite readings and physical symptoms of ammonia issues all point to a misread. A 60% water change would have set him on the right path if OP had an ammonia issue. I trust API about as much as I trust Fedex to deliver livestock to me alive.

I'm down with not trusting api... But he said all of his corals died. I was thinking that the dead corals could have raised ammonia if they were decent sized corals.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I'm down with not trusting api... But he said all of his corals died. I was thinking that the dead corals could have raised ammonia if they were decent sized corals.

Yeah, after rereading things its entirely possible. Based on his description of the tank move it sounded pretty good... You are likely right something triggered an ammonia spike. My bad on assuming.

 

[Chrisv.]

Yeah, after rereading things its entirely possible. Based on his description of the tank move it sounded pretty good... You are likely right something triggered an ammonia spike. My bad on assuming.

Totally understand why you thought that! 8 ppm is pretty high! Could still be partly a testing issue. Ammonia test kits have always been hard for me to buy. Once a tank is established you should never ever need them. Hate spending money on a fancy version of something I will essentially use only a few times.

OP, how's the tank today? Any luck? Did you do a WC?

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

I'm down with not trusting api... But he said all of his corals died. I was thinking that the dead corals could have raised ammonia if they were decent sized corals.

The decent sized ones died last week and were removed a week ago. Some smaller ones were just removed yesterday. I was hoping to save some but doesn’t look like it now i down to 3. Could those big pieces removed a week ago still keep the ammonia that high?

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

Freshwater test kits are great, but saltwater is a whole new story. I'd recommend red sea test kits.

Thank you

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

Totally understand why you thought that! 8 ppm is pretty high! Could still be partly a testing issue. Ammonia test kits have always been hard for me to buy. Once a tank is established you should never ever need them. Hate spending money on a fancy version of something I will essentially use only a few times.

OP, how's the tank today? Any luck? Did you do a WC?

I haven’t done a wc for a week now. The LFS told me not to after the 60%. I’ve dosed with microbacter and prime. Tank is ok. Corals aren’t making it. I want to qt things but I just spent a lot of money on this tank and only have a 5 gallon with no filter in my closet. I want to stop dosing prime but I’m to worried that all the coral death did raise the ammonia but also fish are fine. So confusing. Down to 3 corals i may have to remove them but they don’t seem to be dead yet. Or they are and I don’t know what I’m looking at.

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

I'm down with not trusting api... But he said all of his corals died. I was thinking that the dead corals could have raised ammonia if they were decent sized corals.

List of dead corals and removal. Large- 1 torch 1 trumpet 1 bigger LPS. Removed a week ago. Small- 1 mushroom 1 Zoe removed 2 days ago. Medium- 4 fireworks clove 1 mushroom rock removed last night. What’s left is a large fan. Medium fireworks close and small gsp. I’m thinking of removing them soon but the gsp had aptasia with super glue. Aptasia hasn’t come back since but I want to remove that last if possible to not spread that awfulness

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

What started to decline first? Did corals start declining immediately or did you find a fish dead first? Few paths to explore.... Corals got stressed, died and caused ammonia which cascades quickly. Fish could have gotten stressed from the move, gotten sick and died causing the ammonia. Not sure exactly but the fact that the LFS used new sand and the rock was established indicates something fishy might have happened. Reefing conventions, dozens of threads from @brandon429 has collected and personal experienbce indicate something happened and we are missing a piece of info. Either way, I would redo the transfer... Remove rock and fish to buckets, do a massive water change and remove the dead inverts and retransfer. How much rock lb wise did you have before and after the move?