Ammonia spike unknown source

[WeekendShepherd]

Please help!

I have a 60 gallon AIO with sock filters and a protein skimmer. It has been running for about 7 months now.

Over this week I noticed my corals (mixed reef) not doing great- polyps shrunken, staying closed up, etc. so Friday night I decided to test everything.

While my main elements were low, the most alarming result was my ammonia. On the API test it looked like 4ppm+. Immediately I dosed prime, then did a 15gallon water change. Saturday I took a sample to my LFS and had them test it just in case my test kit was wrong, but their test came back as 3.9ppm. I changed out a total of 25 gallons Saturday after that reading. I checked my source water and that is ammonia free, so it’s something in the tank. The only thing is- my fish are acting fine. No one has died, I counted all of them, and I don’t see any dead snails and such that could be causing it.

I took these tests this morning and when I got home from work today and it looks like it’s gone up again! The 1ppm was from this morning, and the one that looks like 2ppm is from now. Please, any help would be appreciated, I have no idea what’s going on and don’t want to lose anybody.

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

How is the flow in the tank? I'm looking at the large rock on the right. Do you have adequate circulation behind it, or is that back corner a detritus-collecting dead spot?

 

[Hypothetical]

I know someone is going to swoop into this thread and proclaim that API tests are garbage, and you can't trust the results. I am not one of those people, I think their ammonia test kit is largely fine, if not a bit quirky sometimes.

But that said, let's be sure that your test kits are not expired and the results are indeed accurate

I'm glad you've changed