AMMONIA RISING!

Erink · May 18, 2020

36 Gallon reef:
No fish
1 CB
1 Anemone Shrimp
1 HC
1 Sally lightfoot
1 run of the mill purple anemone
1 urchin (which sadly is on his way out after all this trauma)
2 Hammerheads
A few mushrooms

Yesterday- May 16

Ammonia: 0.25
Ph: 7.8
Alk: 4 meq/L
Sal: 1.024
N02: 0
No3: 0
Po4: 0.25
Mg: 1130
Temp: 79°

Today- May 17

Ammonia: .50
Ph: 7.8
Alk: 3.5 meq/L
Sal: 1.0245
No2: 0
No3: 0
Po4: 0.25- has been for last 8 months or so
Mg: 1230
Temp: 79°

APR 25: I couldn't get the ammonia to maintain after a week of water changes. 3 in 6 days so I started acourse of bacteria "stability by seachem" (3.5 caps) for 7 days. Then another 7 days using 1.75 caps.

By Apr 28 ammonia was on the low side of zero then stayed there for the next week of bacteria at half the amount.

On May 7 I did a 10G water change
Tested next day, ammonia at 0.25.

On May 8 I did another 5G water change

May 11:
Sal: 1.023
Alk: 4 meq/L
Mg: >1500
Temp: 79°
Ph: 7.8
No2: 0
No3: 20
Ammonia: 0
Po4: 0.25

I added chemiclean for cyano, hand fed and added phyto/zoo plankton

May 15 I moved rocks around (urchin knocked them over) and did a good cleaning. I added a wave maker

May 16: glued rocks together with DD Construction Epoxy. Added bacteria
And see parameters above.

Today: rookie mistake- I added phyto/zoo plankton before checking parameters.

Should I do another water change? Have I doomed my children to death?

Rjukan · May 18, 2020

How much rock in the system, when did you start it?

What test kit are you using?

Cell · May 18, 2020

Peobably using API ammonia test and getting false positive. Any other symptoms other than a struggling urchin?

W1ngz · May 18, 2020

Unless something died or you have a dead spot that accumulates lots of food, ammonia shouldn't rise that much at all in a system with no fish that's been running for 8 months.

Are you putting food in this tank, or just letting the inverts feed on growth on the rock?

My first guess is testing error.

Erink · May 18, 2020

I have tons of live rock Could doing another course of bacteria so close to ending the last one raise the ammonia?its been up and running for over a year with no blips. I hand feed directly to each invert.

brandon429 · May 18, 2020

In no way does this tank have free ammonia, they've called it correctly above.

We are getting fast on these team

post pics, your animal distribution and behavior and other factors will prove no ammonia, other than what a non-seneye ammonia test kits reads.

You have no ammonia rising. you dont need to remedy it in any way.

the day you have the slightest ammonia rise, you wake up to a dead tank and no testing is needed to see impacts

You haven't done anything to kill your animals, cause cloudy water or stench; you haven't done anything that adds a new source of uncontrolled ammonia to your tank, you simply have a test kit trying to read normal conversion rates and reporting low levels as best it can Ill bet, unless there's something dead and wedged in the rocks leaking out.

twin thread, both have no free ammonia.

Ammonia spike in a 7 month old tank

IDK what is going on I've had an ammonia spike going on for over a week maybe 8 days. About three weeks ago I upgraded from the red sea max (130D) stock skimmer to a tunze 9001 that I still can't get tuned in correctly but that is another story/post. Also put in an "intank media basket". I...

www.reef2reef.com

W1ngz · May 18, 2020

Erink said:
I have tons of live rock Could doing another course of bacteria so close to ending the last one raise the ammonia?its been up and running for over a year with no blips. I hand feed directly to each invert.

Nah doesn't sound likely to me. You'd have to add LOTS of already dead bacteria and phyto/zoo to create detectable ammonia. If anything, the phyto and zooplankton is primarily what's been feeding your biofilter as it breaks down.

Any other additives you're using besides the Seachem Stability? According to this it's not known to cause false ammonia readings.

I'd post the brand, and the expiry date of the test kit. If it's API, I'd consider upgrading to a salifert or a red sea kit. If you want to go all in and have continuous ammonia monitoring, a seneye would be a good tool to add to the war chest, but getting up and running with one needs considerably more $ than a new test kit, as well as a PC nearby the tank, or their rather expensive wifi web server module. I chose a dirt cheap windows tablet to run my seneye and as an apex front end display.

Erink · May 18, 2020

Hmmm...thank you...I've lost a CB somewhere in the tank so the ammonia is probably on it's way up anyhow I've looked everywhere! Do you think a sally lightfoot, anemone shrimp and hermit crab could have eaten it in one night? He was about 1.5 inches

brandon429 · May 19, 2020

A dead cb shrimp won't spike ammonia, it's not on way up. Our tanks process minor loss just fine, without a spike.

We have seneye data tracking the action of an entire fish degrading in the system, ammonia stayed in the thousandths

Can you post a tank picture for us

All the animals listed would be dead if you have uncontrolled ammonia.

Instant Tank Cycle

Set up my tank Friday. Placed a sizeable chunk of frozen brine shrimp into the filter sock to stop it messing up the tank. Saturday PM Ammonia is 0 Saturday PM added another chunk of frozen brine shrimp different area of sump. Added seeded live rock from other tanks also. Sunday PM Ammonia...

www.reef2reef.com

that thread is 20 tanks like this one, all had no free ammonia

dvlpr · May 19, 2020

Test for free ammonia, not ammonium (what the API does) - my tank showed ammonium (and still does at about 0.05) for a long while after the free ammonia (which is harmful) was gone. Thanks to my LFS owner to opening my eyes to the difference (and a few other interesting facts too).