imagitarium biological startup bacteria

[Boxed Fish]

had ammonia spike in one of my aquariums two days ago. normally I use microbe Lyft night out and its starter bacteria for maintenance but it wasn't in stock, so I picked up the brand titled above in this thread. it says 10 drops would treat 10 gallons of water but I dumped the whole bottle in the tank. 13 hours later the ammonia test read 0ppm. looking to know if that reading is legit and or a certain compound/blocker could be in this specific brand of bacteria that actually works better than the rest

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Let’s back up. Is this an established tank?

Why would ammonia rise?

In general, ammonia won’t rise to problem levels in an established tank unless there’s a tank crash
Like a power failure.

 

[Boxed Fish]

Let’s back up. Is this an established tank?

Why would ammonia rise?

In general, ammonia won’t rise to problem levels in an established tank unless there’s a tank crash
Like a power failure.

its a new tank no live stock. 1 month 60 gallon I set up. I thought the cycling was complete (wasn't worried about time frame) went to test the water and it was still present 1.0 ppm. figured stubborn ammonia so I dosed a whole bottle of the bacteria in question. 13 hours later gone

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

its a new tank no live stock. 1 month 60 gallon I set up. I thought the cycling was complete (wasn't worried about time frame) went to test the water and it was still present 1.0 ppm. figured stubborn ammonia so I dosed a whole bottle of the bacteria in question. 13 hours later gone

Ok, that’s reasonable. Some types of bacteria are faster than others. Might also be test error. In either case, there’s no reason to worry about it now.

 

[Dan_P]

had ammonia spike in one of my aquariums two days ago. normally I use microbe Lyft night out and its starter bacteria for maintenance but it wasn't in stock, so I picked up the brand titled above in this thread. it says 10 drops would treat 10 gallons of water but I dumped the whole bottle in the tank. 13 hours later the ammonia test read 0ppm. looking to know if that reading is legit and or a certain compound/blocker could be in this specific brand of bacteria that actually works better than the rest

Your dose was 24x the recommended dose. A quick reduction in ammonia is possible

 

[mcarroll]

Pick up a different kind of ammonia test if you think yours could be fooled somehow.

There are drip tests (eg API), badges (eg Seachem) as well as test strips (many brands) and others.

IMO there should be no reason to worry though. Keep in mind that your cycle would complete in 30-40 days whether you did anything to help or not....only a tiny ammonia source is needed for the process to proceed.

Larger amounts of ammonia are mostly just added so we are able to test for it with low-grade hobby test kits.

The cycle will happen even if we can't test for it though....the bacteria can't tell whether we are testing. ;)

 

[Fish Fan]

I'm going to take a guess that if you're using the Imagitatrium brand bacteria (found at Petco), you're likely using the API brand ammonia test kit. This test kit is fine, if not a bit quirky. We sometimes see it read about 0.25 ppm or even 0.50 ppm when the ammonia concentration is likely much lower.

My guess is that you're using the API ammonia kit, and it came back randomly with about 0.25 ppm ammonia, which you interpreted, understandably, as an ammonia "spike".

If your tank has been running for any length of time past the initial nitrogen cycle, there should be little concern for an ammonia spike, unless you have a large die-off event, like a legit tank crash. Most reefers don't bother to test for ammonia after the initial nitrogen cycle.

Even if for some reason your ammonia concentration was really 0.25 ppm to 0.50 ppm, the good news is that this wouldn't really be dangerous, and may be a benefit to corals if you have any.

I think this is likely test kit noise

I hope I'm right; good luck!