HELP AMMONIA AND NITRATES HIGH

[NicLongman]

Crap!

ph 7.6 (early morning, not worried) ammonia 2.0, nitrates 0, nitrites .25
ammonia was at 1 yesterday, i added prime at the correct dose for 75g tank. saw snails dead everything else is fine, no bleaching or anything.

only think new is the anem from a week or two ago. everything has been fine. except for the snails kicking it all of a sudden

 

[Brew12]

Crap!

ph 7.6 (early morning, not worried) ammonia 2.0, nitrates 0, nitrites .25
ammonia was at 1 yesterday, i added prime at the correct dose for 75g tank. saw snails dead everything else is fine, no bleaching or anything.

only think new is the anem from a week or two ago. everything has been fine. except for the snails kicking it all of a sudden

Please tell me this is a new tank? This is a sign of a tank that isn't cycled yet.

Adding Prime was a great idea. If you already have fish in your system, I recommending finding a bacteria cycling product (such as Biospira at Petco) and adding it ASAP. The Prime should keep your fish safe for around 2 days assuming things don't get worse.

Also, Nitrates at 0.25ppm is not high, that is very low. I wouldn't consider NO3 to be high until you get over 40ppm. Many reefers like to keep it in the 5ppm-20ppm range unless they are running ULNS (Ultra low nutrient systems).

 

[NicLongman]

its completely cycled... been adding stock for the past 2 months....everything has been great till today.

 

[Antics]

Which ammonia test are you using?

 

[Brew12]

its completely cycled... been adding stock for the past 2 months....everything has been great till today.

A properly cycled tank shouldn't show ammonia for more than a very short window during a spike. Seeing it for 2 days shouldn't happen. Any chance something got added to your water that would hurt your bacteria population?

A false positive test is possible so you may want to take a sample to your LFS to verify it.

 

[NicLongman]

API i did it 2 times on my main tank today....already and once last night. levels were lower last night and then i added prime.... call me paranoid....but i set up another small 30 gallon tank the same time i did my main tank...it just has no coral or fish...has rock and sand thats the water i use for water changes the levels on that are perfect.....should i use that for my change or should i not just in case i need to move everything

 

[Antics]

A false positive test is possible so you may want to take a sample to your LFS to verify it.

I think API is very unreliable for ammonia specifically ^

 

[NicLongman]

my LFS is 150 miles in either direction

 

[Brew12]

my LFS is 150 miles in either direction

That's is less than ideal.

What are you doing for nutrient export to keep your nitrates so low? How high did they get when you cycled your tank?

 

[Mags]

Crap!

ph 7.6 (early morning, not worried) ammonia 2.0, nitrates 0, nitrites .25
ammonia was at 1 yesterday, i added prime at the correct dose for 75g tank. saw snails dead everything else is fine, no bleaching or anything.

only think new is the anem from a week or two ago. everything has been fine. except for the snails kicking it all of a sudden

Do a water change to be safe

 

[NicLongman]

false alarm with snails being dead i just checked them all . params still off

 

[cgdcinc]

Adding your current stock list only 2 months after your tank cycled may have overwhelmed your bacteria. How much rock do you have in the tank? Any bio media? Ideally you only want to add 1 fish every month or so after your tank has cycled. That's after you have established your cuc. Keep testing and do water changes to help keep the ammonia down. Get some seachem stability or bio spira to add beneficial bacteria to help process the ammonia.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

false alarm with snails being dead i just checked them all . params still off

Meaning they aren't dead, but ammonia still reads high?

Ammonia is the only big concern among your parameters.

 

[Alfrareef]

Stop adding fish, stop feeding for 2 days, do a water change and add bacteria. That's what I'll do

 

[NicLongman]

Stop adding fish, stop feeding for 2 days, do a water change and add bacteria. That's what I'll do

already in the process....did a 20% water change ive done more tests than i can count....since this ornign it has gotten better.....heres to learning my first lesson

 

[Eric83]

Cycling a tank doesn't happen in a set amount of time, and it's not a once and done/forget about it type of thing.

Cycling is the process of adding a source of ammonia to a new tank so bacteria will colonize and be able to convert ammonia into nitrites and then into nitrates. If you only added a small amount of starter ammonia, or none at all - the size of the bacteria population won't be all to great. That's why it's not a good idea to throw a whole bunch of livestock in at one time. Your bacteria needs a chance to grow with the amount of livestock/waster being produced.

Hold off on feeding, water change, add more bottled bacteria. monitor closely, and water change as needed to keep ammonia really low

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

already in the process....did a 20% water change ive done more tests than i can count....since this ornign it has gotten better.....heres to learning my first lesson

Been there my friend. Get the next water changes ready and the prime handy.
Look around for any dead things and places where detritus may have piled up.
Not sure your water volume , but a small tank and a dead thing could spike you pretty quick.

 

[flagg37]

already in the process....did a 20% water change ive done more tests than i can count....since this ornign it has gotten better.....heres to learning my first lesson

Ammonia is one of the most toxic substances in your tank and needs to be neutralized quickly. A 20% water change isn't much. If your water was at 2.0ppm ammonia your 20% wc would bring that down to 1.6ppm. I would do as large a wc as possible. You may have to do large wc's like that if you continue to get high ammonia results. I would also try and get a different test kit as soon as possible to double check your results. If your ammonia is that high you should see things dying off. If they do die. Take them out as soon as possible.

 

[Isabella rubalcaba]

I agree with all of you, it is IMPORTANT to make sure you have established a sustainable colony of beneficial bacteria. Bacteria naturally consumes ammonia breaking it down to nitrite .. make sure your tank was cycled, make sure you dose live bacteria & build your NITROGEN CYCLE .. super important ..

 

[flagg37]

The fact that he's got zero nitrites and very low nitrates leads me to believe that it's an error in the test.