Is ammonia typical in an established tank?

[AydenLincoln]

I regularly stopped testing my water but occasionally out of curiosity I take my water to the fish store to get tested by an AquaSpin. I know I’ve heard mixed things but results seem to be consistent and I know people who swear by them. So for some reason ammonia was measuring at 0.4 and typically I get some type of ammonia reading. But nothing has died and my little ammonia alert never changes. Could this be a faulty test? Why would that be? My nutrients measure high too 0.9 for phosphate and 37 for nitrate. They’ve always been high though. It happened to be in both tanks. I use RODI water and nothing has died. I have some sensitive animals in my tanks who have not told me my parameters are off or bad.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Probably test error if the tank has had organisms in it for a month or more.

 

[TheBear78]

I use an Aquaspin for my testing every couple of weeks at my LFS when I buy more water. I've stuck with the results for the sake of consistency but I do sometimes question them.
I have a set of RedSea kits at home and have seen quite mismatched readings for Nitrate and Phosphate on the odd occasion that I do a comparison. However, one thing I never understand is the occasional ammonia reading that I see albeit only at 0.1 ppm versus your 0.4.
This occurs randomly, always several weeks after any livestock addition and ultimately cannot be true as there is simply no reason for it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I think you are confusing yourself by testing for ammonia that doesn't need to be tested. AS you mention, all your animals are fine, so it points to test error. No need to test for ammonia on an established tank.

Trusting someone else's tests of your tank also adds to confusion, did they do it right, are they competant?

The phosphate reading also looks questionable to me.

Again, just me, but I think you have created a challenge for your self by stopping to test yourself and trusting someone else to do it for you.

 

[brandon429]

Sustained Ammonia spikes are misreads

The reason you think your reef tank can’t control its ammonia is due to false training from old cycling science. That and you don’t own a seneye on the tank in question: if you did, you wouldn’t ever think your ammonia was out of control...

www.reef2reef.com

Eight pages of test error reaction/ alert posts and not one tank had an ammonia issue. They were running normally, some for years, before a random non digital test was ran which then caused unfounded panic. All of them

Nh4 ammonia is rarely zero we can see from basic test kit audits on running reefs, it's how api classic .25 caused a million false stuck cycle threads and a billion bucks in extra bottle bac sales for Dr Tim.

 

[brandon429]

Good job comparing what sensitive animals are doing vs the test reading- that's exactly how it works

If your tank couldn't control ammonia you'd know without any testing needed, only a glance. With a glance above, I've managed to offend eight pages of reef tank owners who were set fully on their cycle being broken. It was heartbreaking for them to learn they had to doubt a test kit that constituted the core of their views on reef tank cycling.

After nh3 conversion of your reading of .4 = .04~ that's not danger zone its just the best that kit can read. Your spin test isn't reporting as nh3 that's the same issue they all had above

A conversion step is required to apply to reefing

Prediction: that lfs sells copious amounts of bottle bac to 'fix' broken cycles

 

[brandon429]

Ayden can you post a tank picture please when lights come on

Your post is rare in that you've already identified a healthy tank and showed some skepticism in the test kit right off the bat. Those reefers above did not, good job.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Ayden can you post a tank picture please when lights come on

Your post is rare in that you've already identified a healthy tank and showed some skepticism in the test kit right off the bat. Those reefers above did not, good job.

My most recent photos!

 

[AydenLincoln]

Personally I think you are confusing yourself by testing for ammonia that doesn't need to be tested. AS you mention, all your animals are fine, so it points to test error. No need to test for ammonia on an established tank.

Trusting someone else's tests of your tank also adds to confusion, did they do it right, are they competant?

The phosphate reading also looks questionable to me.

Again, just me, but I think you have created a challenge for your self by stopping to test yourself and trusting someone else to do it for you.

The photometer automatically tests it so it wasn’t by choice!

 

[Lavey29]

Personally I think you are confusing yourself by testing for ammonia that doesn't need to be tested. AS you mention, all your animals are fine, so it points to test error. No need to test for ammonia on an established tank.

Trusting someone else's tests of your tank also adds to confusion, did they do it right, are they competant?

The phosphate reading also looks questionable to me.

Again, just me, but I think you have created a challenge for your self by stopping to test yourself and trusting someone else to do it for you.

I agree, there is no logical basis to stop testing. I know that very experienced reefers with long established tanks might do it but when you have fairly new nano tanks regular testing is critical because bad things happen fast in nano tanks.

However if a full apex triton is doing it for you that's different of course.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I agree, there is no logical basis to stop testing. I know that very experienced reefers with long established tanks might do it but when you have fairly new nano tanks regular testing is critical because bad things happen fast in nano tanks.

However if a full apex triton is doing it for you that's different of course.

I do have an Apex and I don’t dose anything. I tried that already (with NOPOX) and almost crashed my tank so that’s when I stopped. I perform my weekly maintenance and everyone is happy and open.

 

[Lavey29]

I do have an Apex and I don’t dose anything. I tried that already (with NOPOX) and almost crashed my tank so that’s when I stopped. I perform my weekly maintenance and everyone is happy and open.

Well if the apex tells you the big 3 that's fine

 

[brandon429]

Well those are really shocking good


the bottom one has so much plant life it’s never going to allow ammonia issues as long as current remains, and the top one has so much active surface area neither can it. Only a fish kill unrelated to ammonia will ever mess with that display tank, other than that it just won’t ever be out of spec, save yourself the headache of ever testing for ammonia again