HELP Ammonia :(
- Thread starter eric.20
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Brett S
Valuable Member
It won’t help. The bacteria that cycles the tank live in the rock and sand and biomedia (and, apparently filter socks) and not in the water column. You’ll get a much bigger boost on your cycle by adding bacteria in a bottle than you will by adding water from another tank.
Brett S
Valuable Member
To oxygenate the water it doesn’t matter if it’s broken in or not... it just needs to be putting bubbles in the water. You could just take the cup off entirely and run it like that allowing it to just spill back into the sump. That would allow it to oxygenate the water without worrying about it pulling the bacteria out of the water before it has a chance to get established. It would be little more than a high octane air stone.
W1ngz
Failed Padawan
Water won't really help you, the bacteria you need are in the rocks, sand and biomedia.
Water changes, prime and some kind of quick-start bacteria additive are your best bet.
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eric.20
Active Member
not sure if they even still alive our Zoas :(
Brett S
Valuable Member
The only one I’ve used personally is Instant Ocean BIO-Spira. I thought it worked well and I’ve used it more than once on different tanks, but I don’t really have anything to compare it to. I’ve definitely read good things about Dr. Tim’s, so I don’t think that’s a bad choice either.
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eric.20
Active Member
Brett S
Valuable Member
You know, taking a step back here, the other thing I’m wondering is the fact that your tank looks pretty bare (which isn’t meant as a bad thing or an insult), but my point is that you need a bioload to generate ammonia and without any fish and just a few corals and hermits I have a hard time imagining that you could even get to 8.0ppm of ammonia that quickly.
I feel like something else might be going on here... perhaps the corals and things started dying from another cause and then that raised the ammonia levels... dead things will decay and raise ammonia very quickly, especially in a smaller tank.
When you washed the filter sock how did you do it? Did you use any soap or bleach or detergent? I’m wondering if something toxic on the sock might have gotten into the tank, which killed things, which then raised the ammonia levels.
So, here are a few questions....
1. How exactly did you wash the filter sock?
2. What other changes happened at around this time? I know you mentioned that you also added the biomedia. Anything else?
3. How long after washing the filter sock did you notice that the ammonia had gone way up? Hours? Days?
4. When was the last time you had tested ammonia before that and what was the result?
5. What brand of ammonia test kit are you using?
I feel like something else might be going on here... perhaps the corals and things started dying from another cause and then that raised the ammonia levels... dead things will decay and raise ammonia very quickly, especially in a smaller tank.
When you washed the filter sock how did you do it? Did you use any soap or bleach or detergent? I’m wondering if something toxic on the sock might have gotten into the tank, which killed things, which then raised the ammonia levels.
So, here are a few questions....
1. How exactly did you wash the filter sock?
2. What other changes happened at around this time? I know you mentioned that you also added the biomedia. Anything else?
3. How long after washing the filter sock did you notice that the ammonia had gone way up? Hours? Days?
4. When was the last time you had tested ammonia before that and what was the result?
5. What brand of ammonia test kit are you using?
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eric.20
Active Member
we had to buy a few more rocks for the bigger tank because we had only 30 pounds from the tank before. So a few of them are new.
we just washed the filter sock with water. no soap or anything. We dont have the sock anymore because a lot of people told us to take it out and use the cups only.
we only put in the bio media and the Algae. Nothing else
2 Days after washing it we noticed it.
and we also did a test few days before washing it and it was at 0
We are using API to test it but also went somewhere to get it test again
Brett S
Valuable Member
And one more question... how long after you moved things from your old tank to the new tank did this start happening? Can you give us a bit of a timeline here... something like day 1, moved things to new tank. Day 3, washed filtersock and added biomedia day 5, detected nuclear levels of ammonia.
Brett S
Valuable Member
Can you tell us more about this? Was it dry rock or wet live rock? When was it added... before, after or at the same time as when you moved everything from the other tank? Did you get it locally or was it shipped? If it was wet how was it transported? Transporting wet live rock can definitely cause a lot of dieoff and that can definitely spike ammonia as well. It’s possible that this was the start of the problem.
W1ngz
Failed Padawan
Brett makes a good point about the low bioload, that could easily explain why the bacteria only colonized in the filter sock. With such a limited food source it's unlikely new colonies would have a chance to develop on the rocks.
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eric.20
Active Member
not sure about the exact dates anymore but April 26th we et it up the aquarium.
may 30th we switched the corals because all parameters where fine and thought the cycle was done because ammonia went up and down.
and then June 6th we washed the sock for the first time and June 8th ammonia was at 8.0
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eric.20
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Mattman1977
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I agree with @Brett S theres something more at work here.
Bacteria needs a food source as well. I’ve always done the table shrimp cycle but heard that bottle bacteria needs food as well, not sure if there’s something in the bottle for the bacteria to feed on or not. I ghost feed live rock for almost a year while it “cooked” to remove bound up nutrients.
My experience with prime is it doesn’t remove the ammonia but makes it safe for the live stock yet the ammonia is still present for the cycle to continue and not stall. So keep using the prime
Good luck and keep up posted
Matt
Bacteria needs a food source as well. I’ve always done the table shrimp cycle but heard that bottle bacteria needs food as well, not sure if there’s something in the bottle for the bacteria to feed on or not. I ghost feed live rock for almost a year while it “cooked” to remove bound up nutrients.
My experience with prime is it doesn’t remove the ammonia but makes it safe for the live stock yet the ammonia is still present for the cycle to continue and not stall. So keep using the prime
Good luck and keep up posted
Matt
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