I’ve been having spikes in ammonia and can’t seem to keep it down. It started about a week ago, and I did an immediate 50% water change. Next morning, ammonia was lower but still present, I didn’t have time to do a water change but by the night, it was back up, so I did another change. It followed this cycle for about 3 days when I started using Kent’s ammonia detox to help. And it did, I got ammonia back to zero for about a day and today, guess what’s back? All my fish are present and the only thing I can think that has died is a hermit crab.
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- Thread starter Erino
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EmdeReef
2500 Club Member
What test kit are you using? Keep in mind that most ammonia test kits will give false positives after using ammonia detoxifiers.
How old is the tank? Has it been fully cycled?
You may want to dose biospira or some bacteria in a bottle to help your biofilter.
I’m using api saltwater, the tank cycled for 8 weeks before I added any livestock, and it’s been running for about 6 months. I just don’t want to stress the fish out with these massive water changes everyday
EmdeReef
2500 Club Member
API will measure total ammonia and result in false positives after adding detoxifiers.
I would add bacteria in a bottle and wait a few days.
Hitman
Reefing One Day @ A Time!!!
I agree. Most petco’s have BioSpira. I add some every time I add fish.
if you have ammonia spikes it basically means you dont have enough bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrite then nitrate. Adding some bacteria will help but that will be a costly excercise. Maybe focus on adding some more rock.
Hitman
Reefing One Day @ A Time!!!
2 days at least otherwise you will still get false test reports
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