High ammonia

[brandon429]

Post a pic

I’ll name five reasons your ammonia is fine from the pics.
#1 is eight mos old system


reasons corals closed- could be several. Reasons api shows free ammonia, see searches it’s very common but the tank pics, fish distribution and position, beats the test kit here. This mechanism causes lots of counter purchases and investment in retail supports, but I bet five or more proofs are in a pic the ammonia is running in the hundredths, or thousandths not tenths ppm.

the pictures from a system unable to control nh3 are wrecked looking pics. Non control of nh3 is devastating, there isn’t a hover condition. There’s doing fine, or crashed. Pics

corals closed doesn’t mean crash, there’s a certain powdered food my reef hates and if I input some they all close up

we can get them back open, without ammonia measuring. It’s not that you need a different kit, it’s that what ammonia does is predictable without a kit. The requirement is build a tank you can remove dead animals from when needed


Nice pic and very nice reef

1. massive surface area apparent, not lacking. At eight mos that much active surface area / rocks sand / scrubs dangerous form ammonia down to safe levels, fast and sustained, even if a fish dies in the system. We had a seneye track a degrading tang in 100 gallons and nh3 didn’t leave thousandths.
2. clear water, pre doom crash due to ammonia is cloudy water from collective dying organisms
3. open corals. True nh3 burning closes all of them tightly
4. I cant see any fish lol but the ones in there would be acting burnt darting, hovering for air and in process dying
5. time frame, you are past the dates on cycling charts that show ammonia control and it doesn’t rise back up with minor insults

 

[Mrod91]

Put a line on your tank somewhere after you get the salinity back in order. Then you know how much RODI water to add as it evaporates.

A lot of people who go topless use ATO systems as well.

yep that’s what i started doing

 

[Mrod91]

Post a pic

I’ll name five reasons your ammonia is fine from the pics.
#1 is eight mos old system


reasons corals closed- could be several. Reasons api shows free ammonia, see searches it’s very common but the tank pics, fish distribution and position, beats the test kit here. This mechanism causes lots of counter purchases and investment in retail supports, but I bet five or more proofs are in a pic the ammonia is running in the hundredths, or thousandths not tenths ppm.

the pictures from a system unable to control nh3 are wrecked looking pics. Non control of nh3 is devastating, there isn’t a hover condition. There’s doing fine, or crashed. Pics

corals closed doesn’t mean crash, there’s a certain powdered food my reef hates and if I input some they all close up

we can get them back open, without ammonia measuring. It’s not that you need a different kit, it’s that what ammonia does is predictable without a kit. The requirement is build a tank you can remove dead animals from when needed

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Used the API test kit.
5ml water in the tube

I asked for the value you got. It may not be too high. 0.25 ppm with that kit is considered noise.

 

[ReefPig]

Honestly this whole conversation could have been 1 million times easier if actual information was provided up front, and not every single little question/answer being drip fed, it's just such hard work helping people when they do this.

State as many facts, in a simple to read way, as possible up front.
What you did, what you found, in what value, using what test, recent changes etc etc.

Even now after two pages of discussion we still don't know what value you found on the test kit, but oddly we know how much water you used in the test vial, which is absolutely useless information.

Sorry for being harsh, but how do you expect anyone to help you with such little information.

 

[brandon429]

mis diagnosing ammonia issues has been common for twenty years though I’m ok with it. All I needed to know he had no issues was the words eight months, sealed. Not everyone would agree though so we had to get more details.

 

[ReefPig]

mis diagnosing ammonia issues has been common for twenty years though I’m ok with it. All I needed to know he had no issues was the words eight months, sealed. Not everyone would agree though so we had to get more details.

Agreed, unless he has made a considerable change in the tank of any type, then it's almost certain he would not be having any ammonia issue, after 8 months it's basically impossible with a significant change.

 

[Mrod91]

I asked for the value you got. It may not be too high. 0.25 ppm with that kit is considered noise.

I took my water to the LFS I didn’t do it myself. They used the API ammonia came out at .50
Seen it myself.
Honestly the only changes I’ve done to my tank the past 3 weeks is just the Prime HD light upgrade, the salinity issue I’ve had.
Other than that all other parameters are fine.

 

[Mrod91]

Honestly this whole conversation could have been 1 million times easier if actual information was provided up front, and not every single little question/answer being drip fed, it's just such hard work helping people when they do this.

State as many facts, in a simple to read way, as possible up front.
What you did, what you found, in what value, using what test, recent changes etc etc.

Even now after two pages of discussion we still don't know what value you found on the test kit, but oddly we know how much water you used in the test vial, which is absolutely useless information.

Sorry for being harsh, but how do you expect anyone to help you with such little information.

it’s fine being harsh helps me learn!
also I changed salt... I used to use Reef crystals and now I use Tropic Marin pro reef salt

 

[brandon429]

even .5 is a misread for the reasons stated above.

heres where api is helpful

when it pegs green and your water is cloudy, and fish darting about like never before, over sideways sometimes

all corals closed


try and imagine how many sales of bottle bac has occurred due to this ghosting effect on api: thousands. we will purchase and apply remedies to a tank working perfectly well, all due to api misreads.


dont buy anything just watch the reef act normally, and defy the reading.

to really see how common this misread is, google this:


high ammonia reef tank

see how many are just test read statements vs actual tank distress. it might be 100% of them, I can't recall a true ammonia crash. the data is this far skewed due to misreads.

you might have an irritant, do a nice large water change matching temp and salinity of the current system, and dont kick up a lot of sand waste when pouring back in, pour on rock tops slowly.

other than a water change take no other remedial action, none is required. ammonia is 100% controlled.

 

[Mrod91]

even .5 is a misread for the reasons stated above.

heres where api is helpful

when it pegs green and your water is cloudy, and fish darting about like never before, over sideways sometimes

all corals closed


try and imagine how many sales of bottle bac has occurred due to this ghosting effect on api: thousands. we will purchase and apply remedies to a tank working perfectly well, all due to api misreads.


dont buy anything just watch the reef act normally, and defy the reading.

to really see how common this misread is, google this:


high ammonia reef tank

see how many are just test read statements vs actual tank distress.

you might have an irritant, do a nice large water change matching temp and salinity of the current system, and dont kick up a lot of sand waste when pouring back in, pour on rock tops slowly.

other than a water change take no other remedial action, none is required. ammonia is 100% controlled.

Thank you so much for this information, I’m going to do that tonight. And thank you everyone else!

 

[brandon429]

I love the water change approach. The worst case scenario is wasting of water/unneeded but it can never harm. its just not harmful, thats why I like it as the universal go-to

now if your reef was 600 gallons and that water change is impractical, Im sorry thats a huge reef lol. that ranks among large tanker's problems

 

[Mrod91]

I love the water change approach. The worst case scenario is wasting of water/unneeded but it can never harm. its just not harmful, thats why I like it as the universal go-to

now if your reef was 600 gallons and that water change is impractical, Im sorry thats a huge reef lol. that ranks among large tanker's problems

here I was planning to upgrade to a 120gal. I’m justgoing to wait another year

 

[brandon429]

I have mad respects for large tankers. my tank holds one gallon, so exerting total control over it 24x7 for 15 years has been truly easy. but you guys and gals get all the good fish

if my corals look sad they get completely all new water plus feed. then they're happy and whatever irritant i caused is gone.

 

[Mrod91]

I have mad respects for large tankers. my tank holds one gallon, so exerting total control over it 24x7 for 15 years has been truly easy. but you guys and gals get all the good fish

if my corals look sad they get completely all new water plus feed. then they're happy and whatever irritant i caused is gone.

you have a one gallon tank? Can I see?

And yeah looks like it does the trick. Thanks again for your help.

 

[brandon429]

Nerf is banned within eighty feet:



but not mini drones. We can still race 1s thankfully there’s been a strike before. And one time we set a glass food bowl on the burner near the vase not knowing heat was on. Ten mins later an explosion lol I don’t know how it survived the glass shard rain. This thing needs an acrylic case.

if it gets cyano bacteria, full water change and it’s fixed

if the sandbed gets smelly and gunked up, rinse the sand plus full water change skip cycle clean, fixed.

it’s a cheat to force clean a reef forever, but the truth is thats ok By me

My goal is make corals from the bowl, not put corals into it. Cheating is ok if it gets coral mass for a very long time. I don’t let the reef age and collect waste, only the corals grow old and are clipped out to make room every few years in a big cull

it is one million pct impossible for that reef to be invaded by any organism, it will get ripped out if it shows up.

these are the two params tested: salinity and temp. Not any others. Changing water weekly just happens to balance all the rest even with high mass per gallon. It has no biological lifespan limit, no disease issues since it’s clean. Less variation is trade off for extreme stability in mass production, the corals are the goal.