Water Test Issue

[Fishguy_8]

Hi, looking for some advice here. I’ve set up a new tank after an extended period of time away from the hobby. It’s been cycling for 3 weeks now and it still was reading .17ppm on my ammonia Hanna checker, so I ran a test on a fresh batch of water that I was mixing to do a water change, and it read .25ppm ammonia. I’m left scratching my head as I’m running it through a 5 stage RODI unit. Am I missing something? How do I have ammonia on freshly made water? Is my checker off? Appreciate the guidance.

 

[tbrown]

Was the 0.25 with salt or just RO?

 

[BryanM]

You should check to see if your local water supply uses chloramine, the almighty google indicates this is likely the primary cause.

 

[Fishguy_8]

Was the 0.25 with salt or just RO?

It was with salt.

 

[twentyleagues]

Salt mix can have ammonia in it. Not sure on the resolution of Hannah any idea? Could be that is within margin of error. .17ppm of ammonia will not hurt anything if its true.

 

[Fishguy_8]

Salt mix can have ammonia in it. Not sure on the resolution of Hannah any idea? Could be that is within margin of error. .17ppm of ammonia will not hurt anything if its true.

+~.05ppm

 

[Fishguy_8]

You should check to see if your local water supply uses chloramine, the almighty google indicates this is likely the primary cause.

It appears my city does use chloramine. So how should I proceed?

 

[twentyleagues]

It appears my city does use chloramine. So how should I proceed?

Rodi units using catalytic carbon of a high quality should reduce it by 99% as long as the carbon isnt exhausted. Just the ro membrane should take care of a majority if the carbon is exhausted. You may have to change out the carbon block more frequently depending on how much chloramines are used in your water, I am pretty sure there are rules as to how much they can run. I remember when I was on city water years ago they switched to chloramines for some reason or another for a period of time. I am pretty sure there was a specific carbon block I got from brs that indicated it was for chloramines in particular. I dont see it listed now and may have been something that was not needed as most quality carbon blocks used with RO should suffice. I remember having no issues though during that time period.

Nevermind I must be drunk ( I dont really drink though). Yes there are chloramine removal filters ro/di is probably not as effective as I was thinking moments ago...not sure where exactly my brain was. Sorry carry on.

 

[tbrown]

It was with salt.

What brand of salt? Some brands have higher ammonia readings after mixing than others. I believe freshly mixed Reef Crystals shows a decent amount of ammonia.

As @twentyleagues mentioned, low ammonia isn't necessarily harmful to your tank. In fact, there's a pretty decent amount of us on the forum that dose ammonia and ammonium to our tanks to help raise nitrates.

Chloramines can also be neutralized using a dechlorinator, but your RO should do a decent job of reducing them in general.

 

[Fishguy_8]

It was with salt.

What brand of salt? Some brands have higher ammonia readings after mixing than others. I believe freshly mixed Reef Crystals shows a decent amount of ammonia.

As @twentyleagues mentioned, low ammonia isn't necessarily harmful to your tank. In fact, there's a pretty decent amount of us on the forum that dose ammonia and ammonium to our tanks to help raise nitrates.

Chloramines can also be neutralized using a dechlorinator, but your RO should do a decent job of reducing them in general.

It’s Tropic Marin pro reef. So levels this low, would still be safe to have fish in at this point is what I’m hearing, but still something I should consider reducing via either new carbon blocks, or potentially adding a cation resin to my rodi unit. Correct?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

It’s Tropic Marin pro reef. So levels this low, would still be safe to have fish in at this point is what I’m hearing, but still something I should consider reducing via either new carbon blocks, or potentially adding a cation resin to my rodi unit. Correct?

A carbon resin addon is never a bad idea for your RODI

 

[tbrown]

It’s Tropic Marin pro reef. So levels this low, would still be safe to have fish in at this point is what I’m hearing, but still something I should consider reducing via either new carbon blocks, or potentially adding a cation resin to my rodi unit. Correct?

I dose Ammonium, but I have a healthy population of nitrifying bacteria so what the corals and algae don't consume quickly is broken down into nitrates.

If your tank doesn't have bacteria, the ammonia isn't harmful but from my understanding nitrite can be once ammonia is converted before it becomes nitrates.

@Randy Holmes-Farley ?

 

[coralSLover]

Hi, looking for some advice here. I’ve set up a new tank after an extended period of time away from the hobby. It’s been cycling for 3 weeks now and it still was reading .17ppm on my ammonia Hanna checker, so I ran a test on a fresh batch of water that I was mixing to do a water change, and it read .25ppm ammonia. I’m left scratching my head as I’m running it through a 5 stage RODI unit. Am I missing something? How do I have ammonia on freshly made water? Is my checker off? Appreciate the guidance.

Hanna ammonia checkers are very sensitive and will often read false positives (0.1–0.3 ppm), especially with RO/DI water. Fresh salt mixes. Incomplete reagent mixing or timing drift. RO/DI water should have zero ammonia unless something is very wrong with the membranes and even then it’s extremely rare.
What to do? Test RO/DI with a different brand kit API/Salifert/Red Sea for comparison. Rinse the cuvette with RO/DI several times and wipe it clean. Ignore anything under ~0.25 ppm on Hanna unless fish are showing stress. Many reefers see exactly what you’re seeing. If nitrite is zero and nitrate is rising, your cycle is likely fine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hi, looking for some advice here. I’ve set up a new tank after an extended period of time away from the hobby. It’s been cycling for 3 weeks now and it still was reading .17ppm on my ammonia Hanna checker, so I ran a test on a fresh batch of water that I was mixing to do a water change, and it read .25ppm ammonia. I’m left scratching my head as I’m running it through a 5 stage RODI unit. Am I missing something? How do I have ammonia on freshly made water? Is my checker off? Appreciate the guidance.

It is normal for new salt mixes to have some ammonia. 0.25 ppm is not any concern, even if the tank read that level.