vittpsu21
Well-Known Member
Hey All,
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Sump 74g
For reference, I do weekly water changes, tank is still somewhat new? First fish were added September 18th (2 Clowns, 1 Royal). I have since before even adding these fish microdosed phyto. I haven't added anything to the tank until about 2 days ago, I finished my first QT rotation (about 2 months) and I moved over 4Pj's and 1 Firefish. For reference I use a Hanna to test my ammonia, I tested for the entire first week back in September when I added the fish, it never was above 0.03-0.05 so just some noise I think and then stopped testing as it was stable.
I moved over the QT fish as mentioned above about 24-48 hours ago and started testing Ammonia, I was expecting it to just be in the normal range. The first reading about 24 hours ago came back at 0.26. I had run out of live phyto and for the first time dosed some concetrated phyto to hold me over until my live stuff was shipped (the weather has been cold), I read online that this can sometimes interfere with the ammonia readings so I discontinued dosing this (last does was about exactly 24 hours ago). I woke up today to test again and this time got a reading of 0.31, again expected it to maybe be interference from the phyto or something but obviously not? In hindsight I probably should have tested the ammonia for a new baseline before moving the fish (live and learn I can't fix this now). So all I have is the baseline from back in September and the fact that the 3 fish had been fine before that. All of the fish 3 originals + the 5 additions all look normal to me in the tank, the inverts and corals too but I am trying to understand this reading and really can't wrap any logic around it. I know Hanna test for both toxic and non toxic ammonia, but its very puzzling to me that this number is so large? The only real changes are that I now dose 2 part (which as I understand it should have no impact on ammonia, and the concentrated phyto which I stopped 24 hours ago). I am open to any suggestions here... I would image with all my rock, sand, live rock in sump that there has to be more than enough bacteria to handle the load? I do have some old bottled bacteria I used in my QT to cycle but it was opened 2ish months ago so not sure how viable that really is? As an additional test I also though ok maybe the cuvettes had leftover stuff in them since I haven't used them in so long, so I used a brand new cuvette and tested again, came back at 0.30 so still in the same range!
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. The tank is obviously cycled if fish have been in it for months but is it possible despite the size of the tank that there is not enough bacteria to handle the 5 additional fish that moved over on top of the 3 that already where in there?
Display: 200g
Sump 74g
For reference, I do weekly water changes, tank is still somewhat new? First fish were added September 18th (2 Clowns, 1 Royal). I have since before even adding these fish microdosed phyto. I haven't added anything to the tank until about 2 days ago, I finished my first QT rotation (about 2 months) and I moved over 4Pj's and 1 Firefish. For reference I use a Hanna to test my ammonia, I tested for the entire first week back in September when I added the fish, it never was above 0.03-0.05 so just some noise I think and then stopped testing as it was stable.
I moved over the QT fish as mentioned above about 24-48 hours ago and started testing Ammonia, I was expecting it to just be in the normal range. The first reading about 24 hours ago came back at 0.26. I had run out of live phyto and for the first time dosed some concetrated phyto to hold me over until my live stuff was shipped (the weather has been cold), I read online that this can sometimes interfere with the ammonia readings so I discontinued dosing this (last does was about exactly 24 hours ago). I woke up today to test again and this time got a reading of 0.31, again expected it to maybe be interference from the phyto or something but obviously not? In hindsight I probably should have tested the ammonia for a new baseline before moving the fish (live and learn I can't fix this now). So all I have is the baseline from back in September and the fact that the 3 fish had been fine before that. All of the fish 3 originals + the 5 additions all look normal to me in the tank, the inverts and corals too but I am trying to understand this reading and really can't wrap any logic around it. I know Hanna test for both toxic and non toxic ammonia, but its very puzzling to me that this number is so large? The only real changes are that I now dose 2 part (which as I understand it should have no impact on ammonia, and the concentrated phyto which I stopped 24 hours ago). I am open to any suggestions here... I would image with all my rock, sand, live rock in sump that there has to be more than enough bacteria to handle the load? I do have some old bottled bacteria I used in my QT to cycle but it was opened 2ish months ago so not sure how viable that really is? As an additional test I also though ok maybe the cuvettes had leftover stuff in them since I haven't used them in so long, so I used a brand new cuvette and tested again, came back at 0.30 so still in the same range!
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. The tank is obviously cycled if fish have been in it for months but is it possible despite the size of the tank that there is not enough bacteria to handle the 5 additional fish that moved over on top of the 3 that already where in there?
