Ammonia spike! Please help.

[khittik]

My red shrimp blood died today and 2 clowns look weak. They seem like to gasp for air at the surface. I have just done the tests. I think the cause is ammonia spike. Why the ammonia in my tank is never going down? How do I reduce this? I just dosed Ammonia Lock. Is this okay? My PH also seems low. Is this the cause too? See the attached pictures.

I also have 4 corals. Green Star Polyp, Zoanthid coral, hammer coral and Duncan. Both Duncan and Hammer are doing good. But GSP and Zoanthis are not opening for few days now.

Tests as below:
Salinity: 1.026sg
Temperature: 25C
PH: 7.6ppm
Ammonia: 8.0ppm (not sure it includes NH4 or not)
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
Magnesium: 1350ppm
Calcium: 450ppm
KH: 10.52dKH

Filters I use: Filter sock, 2x bio sponge, bio balls, charcoal, Biohome ultimate marine, Seachem denitrate.

Thank you.

 

[fishguy242]

hi ,what size tank ?
how long been running ?
1st thought water change , add airstone

 

[Subsea]

@khittik

I have looked at a few of your threads for a tank thread to better understand your start up,

That ammonia concentration is alarming. How did it get that high. Please describe your tank cycle.

PS. Ammonia lock in a reef tank is not a wise use of this product. A conventional cycle would have introduced bacteria to process ammonia.

 

[Hoodstream]

I would immediately do a 50% water change. The ammonia that high is insane. The Nitrate and Nitrite being 0 is odd having so much ammonia.

@khittik

I have looked at a few of your threads for a tank thread to better understand your start up,

That ammonia concentration is alarming. How did it get that high. Please describe your tank cycle.

I second Subsea in is the tank completely cycled?
Also is the tank being maintained with water changes regularly?
How much do you feed?
I would for this time cut back to one feeding a day with only enough flakes to be eaten by all fish immediately.
Did you add uncured rock?
Is there potentially dead fish/invert carcass/carcasses in your tank?

 

[Hoodstream]

Api test kits also are notoriously inaccurate so the PH might not be that low.

Either tank isn’t cycled or something is creating a large spike in ammonia such as what I listed and your bacteria can’t handle it.

 

[khittik]

hi ,what size tank ?
how long been running ?
1st thought water change , add airstone

I I just performed 35% water change on 21/3/22. 20 gallon Waterbox. Around 3 months now. What should I do?

hi ,what size tank ?
how long been running ?
1st thought water change , add airstone

 

[fishguy242]

Water change again, need more top water movement,
recheck and or take sample to lfs to confirm ammonia that high.
my guess is high,depleting oxygen in water.
add airstone, go from there.

 

[khittik]

@khittik

I have looked at a few of your threads for a tank thread to better understand your start up,

That ammonia concentration is alarming. How did it get that high. Please describe your tank cycle.

PS. Ammonia lock in a reef tank is not a wise use of this product. A conventional cycle would have introduced bacteria to process ammonia.

My tank was cycled. I used doctor tim before. All the ammonia processed to nitrite and to nitrate then I did the water changes. I was good for months and suddenly this happened. I only fed the fishes once a day with few pallets and I made sure they ate all of it.

I just performed approximately 50% water change.

what is your advice

 

[khittik]

Water change again, need more top water movement,
recheck and or take sample to lfs to confirm ammonia that high.
my guess is high,depleting oxygen in water.
add airstone, go from there.

I have just performed around 50% water change. Not sure why ammonia is so high and I perform water changes around 20% a week. I have a return pump at 1000 lites per hour. I use Waterbox random flow nozzle head and the water movement and agitation should be enough.

 

[Hawkaholic]

Massive water changes. Don’t clean the filter at this time - you need the biological activity. Add an air stone (for now) to get the ph back in range. Maybe open a window too. Microbacter7 is a good way to kick start the biological activity.

On most things you’d be better off jot changing much, but ammonia is leather and must be addressed quickly.

 

[Subsea]

Without knowing more about what happened, let nature work and quite adding chemicals to your tank.

Why did ammonia spike? Why is pH low? What has it been in the past? What is your alkalinity, which is a measure of the buffering capacity of water to resist pH change?

 

[fishguy242]

I have just performed around 50% water change. Not sure why ammonia is so high and I perform water changes around 20% a week. I have a return pump at 1000 lites per hour. I use Waterbox random flow nozzle head and the water movement and agitation should be enough.

was water turned off in the pics ???
retest ammonia 1 hr after last w change ,let us know.

 

[khittik]

I would immediately do a 50% water change. The ammonia that high is insane. The Nitrate and Nitrite being 0 is odd having so much ammonia.

I second Subsea in is the tank completely cycled?
Also is the tank being maintained with water changes regularly?
How much do you feed?
I would for this time cut back to one feeding a day with only enough flakes to be eaten by all fish immediately.
Did you add uncured rock?
Is there potentially dead fish/invert carcass/carcasses in your tank?

Yes it was completely cycled.
Yes I used natural sea water from NSW uk with ammonia 0 and it is a high quality water. I perform around 20% a week.
I feed only once a day. Only around 8 pellets a time. 4 pellets each fish. They eat all.
My rock is 20 pounds CaribSea live rock.

Api test kits also are notoriously inaccurate so the PH might not be that low.

Either tank isn’t cycled or something is creating a large spike in ammonia such as what I listed and your bacteria can’t handle it.

 

[khittik]

was water turned off in the pics ???
retest ammonia 1 hr after last w change ,let us know.

Okay I will test and update. I never switch off the return pump.

 

[Ashy]

Okay I will test and update. I never switch off the return pump.

The water surface in the picture you sent looks like a mirror thats why they are asking if the flow was off.

 

[Subsea]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

Does the product “ammonia lock“ create false ammonia readings?

 

[khittik]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

Does the product “ammonia lock“ create false ammonia readings?

I have this Seachem alert reading. But look like this is below 0.05ppm

 

[khittik]

Massive water changes. Don’t clean the filter at this time - you need the biological activity. Add an air stone (for now) to get the ph back in range. Maybe open a window too. Microbacter7 is a good way to kick start the biological activity.

On most things you’d be better off jot changing much, but ammonia is leather and must be addressed quickly.

What do you think about ATM colony or

Fritz Zyme 9? They are cheaper than doctor Tim’s​

 

[Karen00]

Was the ammonia 8.0 before adding the ammo lock?

 

[Subsea]

on post #1 you showed dead shrimp and said clowns were on surface breathing irregularly. That was 6 hours ago. What is status of clowns now?