Slight ammonia spike

[Flavortownusa]

Im at a little bit of a loss and im not entirely sure what to do. Roughly 4 days ago I added about 4-6 cups of live sand to my 22 gallon tank. My tank has a 20 gallon sump and the system has been running for about 7 years. After about two days from adding the sand things were closing up a bit so I broke out the test kits. Everything tested out as expected although I was surprised to see 0 nitrates. One thing that was present was about .25 ppm of ammonia. I added a couple caps of stability and waited..nothing seemed to improve in face some.messentrial filaments started popping out on some of my frog spawns. I then did a nother water change and added prime to the tank yesterday late morning. This morning everything is looking about the same/maybe a little more *****. I am at a complete loss of what to do. Has anyone else had a small ammonia spike in their reef? Did it just take days to get better? I have been showing no ammonia since yesterday although I will be adding a bottle of turbo start today because it can't really hurt.

 

[brandon429]

you should take no action here, Prime causes false positives your tank is now ok from any prior spikes, as spikes always resolve fast.

the proof is your whole tank is alive, its irritants arent from ammonia control issues. for sure, certainly, 100%, dont buy bottle bac its not needed here.
You are being misled by using an ammonia test kit that is not seneye brand.

 

[brandon429]

post a full tank picture and we will prove you have no free ammonia, like in this thread:

High Nitrite in established tank

I have a 75g display with a 25g sump. The tank is around 18 months old at this point. For the past 6 months or so, I've been having a problem with spiking ammonia and nitrite as if the tank is starting a new cycle over and over. The problem seems to have started around the same time as a damsel...

www.reef2reef.com

thats the same as your issue.

 

[brandon429]

your tank pics might show coral irritation, but they arent likely to show:

-clouding water, always occurs in systems unable to control ammonia.

-labored fish breathing, hovering at the top for air vs distributed normally around the tank.

-100% of corals closed up hard, tight, none open. In typical ammonia ghosting threads we can see some corals doing fine, among some mad ones at all the recent changes.
no fanworms will open up in free ammonia water, it burns organisms painfully and they show it.

-smell. your house will smell because of the tank when a system can't control ammonia.


-full tank death. there is no way for ammonia to sustain at .25 or .5 in reefing. when that happens it will stink, and drive you to seek change for reasons other than a non-seneye reading.

* i have not come across any threads where the system showed signs of free ammonia distress in the pics. I have only come across non seneye test reads that caused the concern.

 

[Flavortownusa]

Most of Mr corals look like this

 

[brandon429]

nice. we can tell from the non-coral aspects of the pics that is a zero ammonia setup. you have no free ammonia currently, so we'd transition into reasons coral isn't happy, separate from ammonia.

(has rocks and sand surface area, clear water, no cloud, no smell, no enduring input of ammonia/rotting carcass, has been past 24 hours that means the reef surface area has handled all ammonia and neutralized it)

post full tank shot/for coral tuning. adding in the various offsets for the initial test is as suspect as anything for coral anger.

 

[Flavortownusa]

Got my wife to snap one

 

[brandon429]

hey that snail in the lower left scape/attached to glass. ur weakest nontolerant of free ammonia in that whole system. he proofs you are past the ammonia issue that adding old sand may have caused, in a worst-case scenario (but that source also is used up fast, not a rotting carcass wedged in between rocks)


for that tank to tune corals, you want to stop burning mad corals with the normal day's lighting intensity. blue up lights, reduce whites down from current levels, and decrease intensity.

change about half your water if you can, and be spot feeding your corals + mini water changes for a week (2-3 gallons after feed events, to coax the system back out)

I dont think you ever had free ammonia... the snail wouldnt have made it. i can see partially opened euphyllia corals too its good to go. do micro feed and water change intervals sustained for a week and healthy corals will rebound, non healthy ones meet darwin. 99% of corals in that system will respond fine and not die with the actionable set of events above.

 

[Flavortownusa]

Thank you very much for the input and confidence boost

 

[Flavortownusa]

Things are still alive, they don't seem to be much better but not dead so that's a plus. In your experience how long do you think my stressed corals will take to begin to normalize again? Just curious if I should be seeing results daily or weekly

 

[brandon429]

I would begin activity to drive results vs wait.

if we begin sustained feed and water change work using hq reef feed and creative application, in two months you’ll have strong corals for sure.

 

[Flavortownusa]

I would begin activity to drive results vs wait.

if we begin sustained feed and water change work using hq reef feed and creative application, in two months you’ll have strong corals for sure.

Excellent, j have been doing occasional feeding and a small water change. I will continue with this. Haven't seen much improvement but possibly a little in some corals. Just wasn't sure if I should be expecting a bounce back quickly or not.

 

[brandon429]

Painfully slow

i truly rate tank turn around timing equivalent to human exercise timing. Two months sustained w jack corals, humans