Ammonia Reading from Tropic Marin Salt… Why

[k2reefer]

Ok I know this has been covered a time or 10 over the years. I also should add I have had reef tanks for almost 20 years so I am not new to the hobby.. I also will add I use Rubbermaid Brute Grays to mix new salt. I used to use Tropic Marin Bio-Actif salt. I thought that I was having ammonia issues in 2 of the 3 Tanks that I have. I switched back to instant ocean and the problems seemed to correct themselves, or so I thought. In one of my 250 Gallon Systems I have been collecting some high end SPS corals and thought, I want to switch back to TM Salt but this time I am going to use the Pro Reef. I recently bought 3 new Buckets of Tropic Marin Pro.

With a new batch of RO water ran through a 6 stage with dual Carbon and dual resin from a Well l, with a TDS in reading of around 125 and 0 out, and then TM Salt added and mixed I am getting an Ammonia Reading of .08 from a Red Sea Test. With the same exact water I can then mix a batch of IO Salt and have a zero reading.

What is going on with this salt?? I know a lot of salt mixes do have a small amount of Ammonia that will read and then the tank will take care of it.

I thought the problem was coming from the Brute Trash cans which it is obviously not the case since the water tested today directly out of the RO and was put into clean and sterilized Glass canning jars..

Is this normal for TM salt to have this kind of reading when all other sources of ammonia contamination have been eliminated??

I just can’t believe with the price of TM salt and the high reviews and the amount of people that use it, it would have this kind of reading.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It's not unusual nor any significant concern for salts to have some ammonia.

I do not know if that 0.08 ppm is accurate or not, but I'd not worry about it, assuming it is a total ammonia test result.

 

[Garf]

Ok I know this has been covered a time or 10 over the years. I also should add I have had reef tanks for almost 20 years so I am not new to the hobby.. I also will add I use Rubbermaid Brute Grays to mix new salt. I used to use Tropic Marin Bio-Actif salt. I thought that I was having ammonia issues in 2 of the 3 Tanks that I have. I switched back to instant ocean and the problems seemed to correct themselves, or so I thought. In one of my 250 Gallon Systems I have been collecting some high end SPS corals and thought, I want to switch back to TM Salt but this time I am going to use the Pro Reef. I recently bought 3 new Buckets of Tropic Marin Pro.

With a new batch of RO water ran through a 6 stage with dual Carbon and dual resin from a Well l, with a TDS in reading of around 125 and 0 out, and then TM Salt added and mixed I am getting an Ammonia Reading of .08 from a Red Sea Test. With the same exact water I can then mix a batch of IO Salt and have a zero reading.

What is going on with this salt?? I know a lot of salt mixes do have a small amount of Ammonia that will read and then the tank will take care of it.

I thought the problem was coming from the Brute Trash cans which it is obviously not the case since the water tested today directly out of the RO and was put into clean and sterilized Glass canning jars..

Is this normal for TM salt to have this kind of reading when all other sources of ammonia contamination have been eliminated??

I just can’t believe with the price of TM salt and the high reviews and the amount of people that use it, it would have this kind of reading.

Can you post a pic of the actual kit? I didn’t think they went down that low. I know they do a kit that would read 0.8, now that would be quite high, but not unheard of.

 

[brandon429]

Neither of the tanks you have had ammonia issues. It's not possible as an extended issue in reefing, you're either reading the tests with wrong expectation (thinking any ammonia above zero means broken cycle) or they're misreading

Reefs don't run at zero ammonia, the rule set you were using for reefing likely needs updated. It would have literally saved you money to use updated cycling science here vs old cycling science/ any ammonia at all means bad.

There are no reef tanks with ammonia problems, that's a testing issue. Only a fish kill drives up ammonia, and when carcasses are removed the reef tank resolves it in ten minutes

 

[brandon429]

You simply shouldn't bother testing for ammonia after a cycle, trusting that no reefs can have an extended ammonia problem, and that would have saved you all this time and effort.

The only thing you need to do to keep ammonia safe is ensure your fish are alive. Ammonia rising doesn't precede a fish kill, a fish kill precedes rising ammonia.

The minor differences in readings from non digital kits are making you take reactive measures out of cycling fear, that's the essence of the matter. A cycle does not get undone, weakened, starved or stalled in a running + stocked reef tank like you have, it doesnt occur.