Ammonia levels

kyleflahardy · Sep 17, 2016

I have a 22 gal saltwater aquarium with two clownfish, one blue damsel, and one small yellow wrass, and one other no-name coral fragment, and a protein skimmer, live sand, a clean up crew consisting of and plenty of live rock. The only new things that have happened in my tank is the addition of a coral fragment and last night one of my clownfish attempted suicide but I caught him in the act and was able to get him back in the tank before it was to late. All of the sudden my ammonia levels have risen to .25 but this has never happened. In the 4 months I have had my aquarium I have never had any ammonia readings. Does anyone know why this may have happened and what should I do about it?

cromag27 · Sep 17, 2016

Bad test kit? I would normally think something might have died, but you said no changes.

Reeferfourlife · Sep 17, 2016

Check if all your cuc is alive. Dead snail can cause it since you have a small tank. Clowns jump when they are not hosting a nem in my experience. They get scared easily

kyleflahardy · Sep 17, 2016

cromag08 said:
Bad test kit? I would normally think something might have died, but you said no changes.

Wow, I just found a dead snail behind a rock. You were right to think that might have happened. Thanks for the help!

kyleflahardy · Sep 17, 2016

Reeferfourlife said:
Check if all your cuc is alive. Dead snail can cause it since you have a small tank. Clowns jump when they are not hosting a nem in my experience. They get scared easily

Hi, thanks for the help. I recently had a my bubble tipped anemone get sucked into the filter and shredded and haven't been able to replace him since. That very well may be the problem.

Reeferfourlife · Sep 18, 2016

kyleflahardy said:
Hi, thanks for the help. I recently had a my bubble tipped anemone get sucked into the filter and shredded and haven't been able to replace him since. That very well may be the problem.

You are lucky to have thing that is still alive in your tank, since your nem died like that. Get some Seachem prime to help with ammonia as soon as you can. Keep an eye on your fish, ammonia is poison to them.