Possible ammonia?

[darren241]

Can someone help me a and let me know if I have ammonia and if so what do I need to do. The tank has been up and running now since March 20th this year. The only live stock is a handful of hermit crabs and snails. Today I tested my parameters like I do every couple days and today I think I have small amounts of ammonia. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Other parameters are as follows.
Nitrate - 3ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Temp -76.7f
Salinity -1.025

 

[josvanmeer]

looks like 0.2ppm to me

 

[lapin]

Test again to be sure but looks like 0.2
Do you have very much rock?
Are you feeding the crabs and snails?

 

[darren241]

looks like 0.2ppm to me

That's what I was thinking. Should I be worried and do a water change? Or give it a day and check again?

 

[darren241]

Test again to be sure but looks like 0.2
Do you have very much rock?
Are you feeding the crabs and snails?

I have about 120lb in dry base rock and about 10lbs in live rock. Im not feeding as of yet. I had a diatom bloom last week but it wasn't a big one. That's why the small cuc is in there.

 

[darren241]

Test again to be sure but looks like 0.2
Do you have very much rock?
Are you feeding the crabs and snails?

I have about 120lb in dry base rock and about 10lbs in live rock. Im not feeding as of yet. I had a diatom bloom last week but it wasn't a big one. That's why the small cuc is in there.

 

[brandon429]

this is a zero ammonia aquarium due to these rules:

-not seneye test kit.

 

[brandon429]

lol and in addition to that one, which is the prime reason:

we already have a study thread where linking a live system and a dry one, water exchange only, cycled the dry one fully in 20 days where it passed its own separate oxidation.

ten pounds of skip cycle live rock can process enough ammonia to mask the abilities of your other surface area, ready or not.

There is no mechanism in reefing to have ammonia above the .00X thousandths ppm given live rock blending and twenty days/ can't have ammonia above .00x for sure, which seneye would show.

it is not possible in all of reefing to sustain .2 ppm free ammonia in the presence of rock and sand, after 20 days on a blended cycle. Im 100% sure its a zero ammonia reef tank, able to carry the max bioload it can ever carry, right now. (after cycling, reefs dont continue to add bac to rocks ad infinitum the limit is set by surface area, which activates in twenty days)

you are not required in cycling to ramp up bioloads, when your reef can control ammonia (this one can) then its as able to handle ammonia as it will be in five years. activated surface area means activated, there is no half mark.

any tank with diatoms is fully cycled. all benthic appearances by rule come after full nitrifier establishment.

 

[brandon429]

proof the cycle:

remove the snails and crabs. dose liquid ammonia till that tester rises, to any discernible degree.

wait 24 hours

it'll be back to that .2 above, your calibrated zero for that test kit, and that movement up / down proves the cycle is ready. reinstall snails and however else you are going to start reefing. your reef will 100% pass this test.

 

[brandon429]

the reason its not possible to sustain .2 continued is due to surface area mechanics in wastewater control in general, not just reef tanks. If you overcome what a biosystem can support, thats compounding up movement, and system crash.

if there is enough surface area for bioload, then it runs in the .00X ppm if its a reef tank because ammonia in in high demand in a reef tank. it converts from ammonia into not harmful metabolites very very fast.

the running conversion rate for ammonia in a reef tank is .00X ppm ammonia not counting fish deaths which might spike it into the hundredths ppm in a very bad situation/tang fully degrades inside.

they NEVER report ammonia in the tenths sustained whatsoever...all cycles done via seneye. no variance. as soon as non seneye shows a sustained ammonia reading for days, in the presence of living bioload and systemic visual indicators (diatoms) you've found your calibrated zero for that kit.

 

[brandon429]

wanna do a cool and rare experiment?

Ill pay for your reasonable starting bioload via paypal if it dies. I trust that you earnestly want to know if your reef can begin, add something.
change some water out first, a decent degree, thats how we start after all our cycles.

post us pics though lets see the rise or decline livetime no preps on the line live time call of cycle based on skip cycle biology.


if it cashes horribly in a gray stinky mess you will know in 24 hours

Ill update the microbiology of cycling thread and paypal you here live for some fish/reasonable starter corals.

I will be able to use this thread in our MBC thread if it works, thats for sure heh.

skip cycle biology is fully predictable in every case.

you want two non-designer clowns? can do.

some caulastrea, zoanthids can do, but you must start feed and water change cpr/standard new tank exercise if you go w skip cycle corals, which we do all day long at nano-reef.com (this isn't new what we're about to do)

number of times in reefing a cycle ump puts his own cash on the line for a prediction: none. but we can start now, Im sure.

if that bioload is alive in 4 days you're out of the park grand slam set proven cycled.

 

[lapin]

The short answer is you prob dont have an ammonia issue with 10 lbs live rock.
You got to love brandon429

 

[brandon429]

Offers PayPal randomly on web threads = not boring, not recycled material. All new.