Elevated Ammonia

[Clownfish_Boy]

My 60g fish-only with dry rock has been running for two months now, and completed its cycle over a month ago. But lately the ammonia has crept up to .1 in the past few days. I have been feeding the five fish two light meals per day, and am trying to get a pod population going so I feed daily with 15 ml of Algae Barn phytoplankton. And I have not touched the filter media; it has never been replaced or cleaned as I fear that would result in a full cycle. Could the cause of the elevated ammonia be detritus from overfeeding, or detritus trapped in the HOB motor filter media, or the addition of the pods and feeding with phytoplankton ? I have vacuumed the substrate lightly to remove detritus during the last two water changes; so I should not have a large accumulation thereof. The filtration for the tank is an Aquamaxx HF-M HOB filter/skimmer combine and a 300 GPH Aqua-Tech HOB motor filter:

 

[Reef.]

Food is said to break down after only 2-3 days so floss should be changed regularly, also if you are cleaning sand you need to do it regularly as if not it can kick up a load of detritus that can have a very had effect on the tank.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

Food is said to break down after only 2-3 days so floss should be changed regularly, also if you are cleaning sand you need to do it regularly as if not it can kick up a load of detritus that can have a very had effect on the tank.

My filter uses pads, not floss and it is the primary biological filtration for the setup. Would it not be disastrous to clean or replace that media ? There is some ceramic media in the AquaMaxx, but I am not so sure it would be enough to handle the bioload if I was to clean the other filter.

 

[Reef.]

My filter uses pads, not floss and it is the primary biological filtration for the setup. Would it not be disastrous to clean or replace that media ? There is some ceramic media in the AquaMaxx, but I am not so sure it would be enough to handle the bioload if I was to clean the other filter.

does it not have a filter to filter out food etc? That is what I am suggesting you clean not the media. The rock in the tank is also your biological media

 

[brandon429]

for sure you can clean it. the tank is cycled, the non digital test kits are overreporting minor shifts from various sources like feeding

but the handiest rule from updated cycling science is that after cycling, no amount of work or removal of surface area just shy of the live rock will uncycle the system. we tend to overdo live rocks in these setups, those alone carry the filtration.

in several tanks of our sand rinse thread, they had to move homes just after cycling.


we did not handle their tank any different than a 20 year old one, when you move the reef you fully clean the sandbed, that makes the move safe.

this is following the rule that after a cycle, removing/cleaning/adjusting media to the side of live rock does not matter, we don't need it anyway. its there so we feel better, it doesn't help the system to have more surface area beyond live rock (also says any bare bottom owner)

Im not downing sandbeds, many like them for the worms and diversity of legit feed they pump.

by stating the most extreme thing we could do and your reef still works fine, you can see that cleaning or removing some filter media w never matter.

summary: in saying it does not matter what you do with your sand and media, up to and including total permanent removal (bare bottom reefs are plentiful nowadays, and controlling nh3 just fine) that means cleaning it w never harm.

you are using media in excess of live rock= its expendable at any step. your system isn't linked to it, inextricable from it etc.

this is solely a carryover habit from freshwater setups people do since planted tanks are slicks vs high surface area rocks.

You can never, never uncycle a reef tank by removing filters and sand as long as you remove them without clouding up the display with waste.

 

[DED65]

If you are worried about cleaning the pads and media, rinse them off in used tank water that is being replaced during a water change. You will want to keep these rinsed so they do not clog up and affect the bacteria residing in them.

 

[Reef.]

If they are wool pads they are designed to be changed, if the reusable type as above rinse in old tank water.

 

[brandon429]

can you post a full tank shot of the display

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

can you post a full tank shot of the display

Sure can.....

 

[brandon429]

very sharp. you did not overdo it with sand, that's cleanable, its accessible behind and under the rock, you can de-age the tank over the years by simple big water changes and siphon runs, it wont have to be disassembly-cleaned since its so accessible in scape and layout.

the rocks are in a high flow area/solid inherent filter right there. free to clean as you want the extra parts.

as you build up the reef, it really changes your expenditures and strategy to know how those rocks work up front. for example, if you removed all the filter media and ran the filters empty, no param you can test for in the display would change, even if you added three new fish.

your live rock can handle an unreasonably high fish load, which you'd never do. the reserve power is what we're talking about, it means you are free to clean/remove/customize/remove and nothing dies. the only thing you must be careful about is letting raw waste escape and cloud up, that kills.

but dealing in cleaned surfaces removed, cleaned, heated in a furnace and put back (same as removing) it doesn't matter, your live rocks are your set filter and all you'll ever need. says ten thousand bare bottom setups with massive fish loading.

you cant create a too-few bacteria situation in a reef tank. you can only kick up bad clouds in all the action, so be careful about isolation of those events.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

Oh forgot to mention water changes; I have been doing 25% biweekly with RODI water.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

very sharp. you did not overdo it with sand, that's cleanable, its accessible behind and under the rock, you can de-age the tank over the years by simple big water changes and siphon runs, it wont have to be disassembly-cleaned since its so accessible in scape and layout.

the rocks are in a high flow area/solid inherent filter right there. free to clean as you want the extra parts.

Yep, I had learned that over an inch of substrate is harder to keep clean, so I applied the crushed coral very sparingly.

 

[brandon429]

Dec 15-28th and your fish are still alive, you have no elevated ammonia



look up any cycle chart, see where ammonia is at on day 90

thats the levels you have

take your ammonia test kit and google it, to see if there has been any misreads associated with the brand. curious about the results

 

[brandon429]

High ammonia

I have a 26 gal bow front with about a 10 gal sump one clown fish a few snails (2 turbos and 3 nassarius) a Pom Pom Xenia and a hammer coral the tank has been running since March first fish in July coral in aug. I only feed a tiny pinch of micro pellets twice a day only enough that can be eaten...

www.reef2reef.com

read this thread

 

[brandon429]

Clownfish had posted that just to show the troubleshooting process using basic rules recently developed for cycling.

it’s important to know if you posted your issue in 2010 100% of posters would agree your ammonia is accurate. It is only recently we’ve learned that cycles do not stick, stall or become partial. They do what a cycling chart shows and we don’t have test kits that allow for easy discernment of nh3 they’re using combo readings for nh3 and other forms we don’t care about...causing an inflated read.