Decide to pull out the Hanna checker to do some test here is what I got alk 6.4 po4 0.04 nitrate 75.0 should I be concerned with nitrates? Everything in tank is happy heres a few pics.. Gonna get alk up to 8helpful for the future: at any time api can get darker, and it will get lighter over days, ammonia levels range in thousandths ppm nh3 in nature
this specifically does not mean your cycle is fluctuating and you should respond by adding anything. api will take longer to show a reading than a digital kit would show/resolved in minutes no need for action from our part. heavy feeding events may cause it, death of a small animal which harms nothing in the tank at all.
clean water + clean feed circulating is what corals want now, they dont want guess responses to non digital test kits. if you cease testing ammonia for the life of this tank and go solely off visuals as to if your ammonia is controlled you will never doubt the cycle of this tank ever again as long as it runs.
the only thing that can drive up ammonia now is if all the fish die from a disease and are left to rot in the tank. ammonia rising will never precede a fish loss, it will come only after. the ammonia control from here on out is locked in, and any flux noted is part of normal + - cycles in nh3 ranges common to stocked reef tanks.