- Joined
- Nov 3, 2019
- Messages
- 10
- Reaction score
- 7
Hello all,
So I have a 90 gallon reef tank with approx. 30 gallon trigger sump that we recently setup. For the last several months I've kept a log on the tank parameters, and to me, something seems off. Ammonia levels have consistently been elevated, ranging anywhere between 0.1 to 0.5 ppm. During May and June, we had a long battle with both green hair algae and brown algae. The algae seems to be starting to come under control, with us observing much slower algae growth this month. The last couple of weeks, we started seeing red slime starting to develop.
Today's test was PH 8.0, dKH 10, 0.5 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5 ppm nitrates, and 0 phosphates. I've also had attached a screenshot from my Excel tracker for the last three months of water tests. We are conducting weekly 10-20% water changes.
My question is what can we do to try to get the ammonia under control? In the freshwater world I'm used to throwing a zeolite/carbon mix in the canister filter to bring ammonia down and then let the plants soak up the nitrates, and I'm wondering if a similar tactic can be used on a reef tank?
And then once we have the ammonia under control, what are people's recommendations on getting the nitrates under control?
EDIT: also, I've been using the API tests to test water. Is there a better test set out there?
Thank you.
So I have a 90 gallon reef tank with approx. 30 gallon trigger sump that we recently setup. For the last several months I've kept a log on the tank parameters, and to me, something seems off. Ammonia levels have consistently been elevated, ranging anywhere between 0.1 to 0.5 ppm. During May and June, we had a long battle with both green hair algae and brown algae. The algae seems to be starting to come under control, with us observing much slower algae growth this month. The last couple of weeks, we started seeing red slime starting to develop.
Today's test was PH 8.0, dKH 10, 0.5 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5 ppm nitrates, and 0 phosphates. I've also had attached a screenshot from my Excel tracker for the last three months of water tests. We are conducting weekly 10-20% water changes.
My question is what can we do to try to get the ammonia under control? In the freshwater world I'm used to throwing a zeolite/carbon mix in the canister filter to bring ammonia down and then let the plants soak up the nitrates, and I'm wondering if a similar tactic can be used on a reef tank?
And then once we have the ammonia under control, what are people's recommendations on getting the nitrates under control?
EDIT: also, I've been using the API tests to test water. Is there a better test set out there?
Thank you.