Ammonia high, nitrite and nitrate at low

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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false reading. called it 1st :)

I wanna see how many predictions we can get into place before any pics or details are given:

-true ammonia events are rapid, happen with a few hours, and are ALWAYS accompanied by something we can see in the tank having nothing to do with a test. cloudy, smelly water, fish breathing horribly due to gills burnt/no way to excrete ammonia via gills etc.

Reefs are too hungry for free ammonia to leave out a trace amount unoxidized, and not once in the history of digital measuring for ammonia (seneye and friends) did .25 true happen in a running reef tank with fish thats been running with fish longer than 12 hours. the tank either dies due to inability to oxidize waste in 12 hours, or it all acts normal and -only- the test kit shows the ammonia


***but what if this tank isn't cycled and someone added fish day 1, we dont even have pics yet?

-most people posting in the chem forum wont do that they know better ha :)
-even if thats the case, a .25 wont be reported there's no way someone intercepts the hardcore loss cascade right at .25 before fish doom to report it. Youd have a totally purple API vial
 
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brandon429

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using the additive Prime just once causes these readings and other misreads for nitrite etc, many factors align to show consistent low level ammonia but it doesnt happen in reefing unless possibly in the rare situation of a quarantine tank lacking surface area. that you have nitrate at all either means you added bottle bac and thats why things are safe, or the reef has been running past a month (meaning its cycled, they're all done by 30 days) and that nitrate is due to normal running.

the nitrite doesnt even factor at all, we dont need to test for it nowadays at any stage in reefing. nitrite testing is rife with errors even worse than ammonia, so we kick it out.

ok post tank pics we deconstruct the predictions.
 
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Malifry97

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false reading. called it 1st :)

I wanna see how many predictions we can get into place before any pics or details are given:

-true ammonia events are rapid, happen with a few hours, and are ALWAYS accompanied by something we can see in the tank having nothing to do with a test. cloudy, smelly water, fish breathing horribly due to gills burnt/no way to excrete ammonia via gills etc.

Reefs are too hungry for free ammonia to leave out a trace amount unoxidized, and not once in the history of digital measuring for ammonia (seneye and friends) did .25 true happen in a running reef tank with fish thats been running with fish longer than 12 hours. the tank either dies due to inability to oxidize waste in 12 hours, or it all acts normal and -only- the test kit shows the ammonia


***but what if this tank isn't cycled and someone added fish day 1, we dont even have pics yet?

-most people posting in the chem forum wont do that they know better ha :)
-even if thats the case, a .25 wont be reported there's no way someone intercepts the hardcore loss cascade right at .25 before fish doom to report it. Youd have a totally purple API vial
My tank has ran for 2 months. Also I dosed with seachem stability
 
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Malifry97

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using the additive Prime just once causes these readings and other misreads for nitrite etc, many factors align to show consistent low level ammonia but it doesnt happen in reefing unless possibly in the rare situation of a quarantine tank lacking surface area. that you have nitrate at all either means you added bottle bac and thats why things are safe, or the reef has been running past a month (meaning its cycled, they're all done by 30 days) and that nitrate is due to normal running.

the nitrite doesnt even factor at all, we dont need to test for it nowadays at any stage in reefing. nitrite testing is rife with errors even worse than ammonia, so we kick it out.

ok post tank pics we deconstruct the predictions.

My tank is 2 months old.
 
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Malifry97

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false reading. called it 1st :)

I wanna see how many predictions we can get into place before any pics or details are given:

-true ammonia events are rapid, happen with a few hours, and are ALWAYS accompanied by something we can see in the tank having nothing to do with a test. cloudy, smelly water, fish breathing horribly due to gills burnt/no way to excrete ammonia via gills etc.

Reefs are too hungry for free ammonia to leave out a trace amount unoxidized, and not once in the history of digital measuring for ammonia (seneye and friends) did .25 true happen in a running reef tank with fish thats been running with fish longer than 12 hours. the tank either dies due to inability to oxidize waste in 12 hours, or it all acts normal and -only- the test kit shows the ammonia


***but what if this tank isn't cycled and someone added fish day 1, we dont even have pics yet?

-most people posting in the chem forum wont do that they know better ha :)
-even if thats the case, a .25 wont be reported there's no way someone intercepts the hardcore loss cascade right at .25 before fish doom to report it. Youd have a totally purple API vial

My tank does have a slight cloud to it but that’s due to a small bacterial bloom that is getting better
 

brandon429

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agreed that prime would've protected, adding the bottle bac is ok. Id just do a water change for basic care, oxygenation, a 2 mo old tank can be going through rock curing etc but in no way is a cycle the concern, its cycled. This thread is now linked to the microbiology of cycling thread where we solely discern ammonia off biological conditions and # of days underwater. thanks tons for posting!@

a seneye reading for ammonia would read normal/thousands level in comparison. I dont know if prime affects seneye yet, they're new pretty much and that info hasn't circled back around yet.

Those api kits are still handy, to indicate large changes in ammonia like when a fish dies. low level not so much
 
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Malifry97

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agreed that prime would've protected, adding the bottle bac is ok. Id just do a water change for basic care, oxygenation, a 2 mo old tank can be going through rock curing etc but in no way is a cycle the concern, its cycled. This thread is now linked to the microbiology of cycling thread where we solely discern ammonia off biological conditions and # of days underwater. thanks tons for posting!@

a seneye reading for ammonia would read normal/thousands level in comparison. I dont know if prime affects seneye yet, they're new pretty much and that info hasn't circled back around yet.

Those api kits are still handy, to indicate large changes in ammonia like when a fish dies. low level not so much
Ok so you’re saying it was a false reading and I shouldn’t be concerned?
 

brandon429

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yep, and this w be confirmed or denied tomorrow morning, if the fish are alive or totally dead...any true ammonia event (if that clouding is ammonia and not sand silt clouding or rock curing or feed/additive bac bloom caused) will kill them overnite.

so that means either all this barely started hours ago and we're in the middle of a loss cascade, or its been like this for a couple days and the clouding is just new tank stuff.

if you google "api .25 reading" you will see 20 years of misreads and me posting in about 79% of the search returns, exactly this same diatribe above ha lol.

In all search returns, not anyones tank had real ammonia/death and loss. none of them, out of like a million search returns.

Seneye is never, ever, ever part of a .25 constant low level claim its literally always api or red sea.

its a good idea to change water as a habit, in reaction to tank concerns, bc that might export other contaminants we may not know about. check for any dead snails or crabs too if applicable

The #1 reason you don't have ammonia is because the reading isn't compounding by the hour...its holding. No mechanism exists in reefing for that. You'd have to have a dead carcass leaking more than 4 ppm ammonia into the tank, since we know cycled tanks can oxidize well past 2 ppm. you don't have a source of rot that powerful in your tank whatsoever.
 
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Malifry97

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yep, and this w be confirmed or denied tomorrow morning, if the fish are alive or totally dead...any true ammonia event (if that clouding is ammonia and not sand silt clouding or rock curing or feed/additive bac bloom caused) will kill them overnite.

so that means either all this barely started hours ago and we're in the middle of a loss cascade, or its been like this for a couple days and the clouding is just new tank stuff.

if you google "api .25 reading" you will see 20 years of misreads and me posting in about 79% of the search returns, exactly this same diatribe above ha lol.

In all search returns, not anyones tank had real ammonia/death and loss. none of them, out of like a million search returns.

Seneye is never, ever, ever part of a .25 constant low level claim its literally always api or red sea.

its a good idea to change water as a habit, in reaction to tank concerns, bc that might export other contaminants we may not know about. check for any dead snails or crabs too if applicable

The #1 reason you don't have ammonia is because the reading isn't compounding by the hour...its holding. No mechanism exists in reefing for that. You'd have to have a dead carcass leaking more than 4 ppm ammonia into the tank, since we know cycled tanks can oxidize well past 2 ppm. you don't have a source of rot that powerful in your tank whatsoever.
Ok thanks I’ll monitor through the night and in the morning. Should be fine though.
 

brandon429

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ok how are they!
if they're goosed ill start packing my bags now :(
 
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