Ammonia reading of 0.8ppm in already cycled tank

[Samkay90]

I've cycled my tank months ago using bottled ammonia and dr.tims one and only and have since added coral with 1 Astraea Snail.

Not sure why, but I just decided to test for ammonia while doing all the other tests and it returned a reading of 0.8ppm. Everything looks fine though, coral look healthy, snail is alive and cruising the tank.

Could this be a false reading? It's the red sea test kit. I googled and searched other threads here but not sure on what to do next. I don't have any fish yet. Just the snail and corals.

 

[fushi]

I've cycled my tank months ago using bottled ammonia and dr.tims one and only and have since added coral with 1 Astraea Snail.

Not sure why, but I just decided to test for ammonia while doing all the other tests and it returned a reading of 0.8ppm. Everything looks fine though, coral look healthy, snail is alive and cruising the tank.

Could this be a false reading? It's the red sea test kit. I googled and searched other threads here but not sure on what to do next. I don't have any fish yet. Just the snail and corals.

If everything is looking good it may be a false reading. You could bring a water sample to your lfs to have them double check.

You can also dump a bottle of dr tims one and only, microbactor xlm or my favorite prodibio biodigest in the tank.
They are all nitrifing bacteria so you can not really overdose them, however other bacterias can be overdosed and cause a bloom so stick with nitrifing bacterias l listed above.

 

[vetteguy53081]

What test kits are you using?
Also, if you are testing almost soon after water change, you will for sure have false reading

 

[Garf]

I've cycled my tank months ago using bottled ammonia and dr.tims one and only and have since added coral with 1 Astraea Snail.

Not sure why, but I just decided to test for ammonia while doing all the other tests and it returned a reading of 0.8ppm. Everything looks fine though, coral look healthy, snail is alive and cruising the tank.

Could this be a false reading? It's the red sea test kit. I googled and searched other threads here but not sure on what to do next. I don't have any fish yet. Just the snail and corals.

Can you try it again, but make sure there are no particles in the sample?

 

[brandon429]

It means the tank is great, reef tanks dont run at zero so the fact it shows ~ .003 ppm nh3 (your number above converted for reef tanks, we don’t use .08) means the reading aligns with the visual tank presentation.

in this last year of heavy test analyses we see the trend isn’t that the kit misreads but that we were once told to expect zero ammonia and per expensive kits like seneye, they don’t run zero. We expect low level ammonia reads on cheap kits in running reefs and that also explains why benchmarking the test on distilled water and getting zero doesn’t matter, we’d expect zero there.

now if your kit shows .08 on distilled water, it’s wrong lol

and we do have posts showing that error. The cheap kits can misread, we have too-dark reads weekly on know cycled tanks where everything runs normally, but in this case above your kit is showing exactly correct given the layout in the tank.

 

[Samkay90]

What test kits are you using?
Also, if you are testing almost soon after water change, you will for sure have false reading

I done a water change 2 days ago. Tested today. So it wasn't directly after a change.

 

[brandon429]

The reading isn’t false so this test looks fine so far. We do not expect zero ammonia in stocked and running reef tanks, sharp setup there all perfect. That’s a good test kit you have, not a bad one. If you reported 2 ppm hung then it’d be a bad kit.

 

[Samkay90]

It means the tank is great, reef tanks dont run at zero so the fact it shows ~ .003 ppm nh3 (your number above converted for reef tanks, we don’t use .08) means the reading aligns with the visual tank presentation.

in this last year of heavy test analyses we see the trend isn’t that the kit misreads but that we were once told to expect zero ammonia and per expensive kits like seneye, they don’t run zero. We expect low level ammonia reads on cheap kits in running reefs and that also explains why benchmarking the test on distilled water and getting zero doesn’t matter, we’d expect zero there.

now if your kit shows .08 on distilled water, it’s wrong lol

and we do have posts showing that error. The cheap kits can misread, we have too-dark reads weekly on know cycled tanks where everything runs normally, but in this case above your kit is showing exactly correct given the layout in the tank.

Sorry. I'm kind of new to all this. Just want to make sure I'm getting this right. 0.8 is a reading of nh3+nh4 ? So the correct reading would be 0.003 for nh3 only?

Also I actually tested my distilled water and the reading was 0.

 

[Samkay90]

Can you try it again, but make sure there are no particles in the sample?

Yeah sure, I'll have to do it tomorrow though. It's currently 2:30am.

 

[brandon429]

yes to all, and the reading zero off water we expect to be zero means the test is fine, your reef is perfect, concern no more, its not a misread at all its a perfect read.

this reef never needs to be tested for ammonia or nitrite ever again, as long as it stays wet, those params cannot undo without a bunch of fish dying and being left in the tank to rot and it doesnt take a cheap test kit to see that happening. only rotting dead fish can spike ammonia. an ammonia spike will never, ever come before the fish loss unless someone does atypical things like get a whole bottle of feed placed in the tank at once-again something no ammonia test kit is required to prevent.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sorry. I'm kind of new to all this. Just want to make sure I'm getting this right. 0.8 is a reading of nh3+nh4 ? So the correct reading would be 0.003 for nh3 only?

Also I actually tested my distilled water and the reading was 0.

Can be a reading of ammonia or phosphate
Assure it’s an ammonia and not pi4 reading you are referring to

 

[Samkay90]

yes to all, and the reading zero off water we expect to be zero means the test is fine, your reef is perfect, concern no more, its not a misread at all its a perfect read.

this reef never needs to be tested for ammonia or nitrite ever again, as long as it stays wet, those params cannot undo without a bunch of fish dying and being left in the tank to rot and it doesnt take a cheap test kit to see that happening. only rotting dead fish can spike ammonia. an ammonia spike will never, ever come before the fish loss unless someone does atypical things like get a whole bottle of feed placed in the tank at once-again something no ammonia test kit is required to prevent.

Oh what a relief. It's 3am and I can finally stop googling lol.

Thanks for the info, always great to learn new things!

 

[brandon429]

new cycling science eases headaches


old cycling sciences causes them, constantly, always, and over sells bottle bac by the ton to folks who were trained to think the slightest insult did the kill of the initial bac, which doesn't happen.


bottle bac sellers rely on old rules to keep making redundant sales and forum peers drive that notion home by keeping the doubt alive that bacteria can be dead or insulted in a fully running wet reef tank-they do just fine each time we change the inspection rules to match newer findings and patterns.