Ammonia Spike.. 27 year well established tank...

[k2-]

Try adding bacteria Microbacter 7 (or anything that boosts bacteria - my go to is KZ products) - Looks like nitrogen cycle is out of whack. This should not have any -ve effect and Ammonia should be broken to nitrates. - Did you check your nitrites ? (Just a strip test should atleast give you an idea if the Nitrites are there).

 

[brandon429]

it is not possible for a post cycle reef tank to lose ammonia control.

 

[k2-]

Brandon - Reading is saying Ammonia is not converting (or slowly) - so that will be my first suspicion (besides wrong reading which seems like OP stands by).

 

[brandon429]

that is the owner making an interpretation of a non digital test kit and relaying it to us which is the most unreliable representation of bacteria in reefing.


there is only 1 time a display reef can't control ammonia: while a full fish kill is rotting in the tank. source for claims: ten thousand seneye posts

ammonia cannot rise out of control in a running display reef, only a full fish kill left to rot can overpower it. not even a partial fish kill will overpower it...a total fish kill. all reefs can absorb a tang or two without crashing.


we cannot know what bacteria do without non digital testing in a reef tank


and until we get that type of reading, we defer to the dynamics found in tanks that do employ digital means, we don't break the rules of filter biology to fit the nuanced guesses from non digital kit owners.


I need a tank pic here too when we can

it will show normal corals, healthy fish, clean water, high surface area/that does not allow ammonia noncontrol it reinforces it.

these are simply folks using old cycling science (expects ammonia to be zero, it's not ever zero, see any seneye post) and non digital test kits.

we even have several instances of aged reef tanks stating they're at 8 ppm ammonia and posting the api reading as dark green to prove it/mis testing.

only fish left to rot in a tank, multiple fish/all of them, can overcome a tank's natural ammonia control. anything debating that is an api or a red sea non digital test, it will never ever ever be a calibrated seneye owner feeling that way.

 

[brandon429]

@Delatedlotus we need your pics here too, they will show a normal reef tank in every way because at no time did your ammonia rise to a dangerous level.

 

[brandon429]

here's what happened in DL's thread

his test kit may show zero at times as the nh3 is running in the thousandths ppm normally

ammonia goes up and down in reef tanks, even a high feed input day can rise it a little (enough to trigger an nh4 nondigital kit) but the fact of being cycled means the cumulative water flow and active surface area will 100% prevent toxicity from developing in every case. fish only setups can carry slightly higher nh3 levels than a fishless nano reef for example but neither go toxic due to current and surface area scrubbing waste. natural variances are expected, ammonia is not zero in a reef tank, and no bad ammonia spike happened here or in any display reef, they're all non digital test kit assumption posts.