Ammonia levels?

Dawson_hatton · May 13, 2020

Hello, I’m a bit new here and new to the saltwater hobby i’m general, but my new nano tank (10 gallon) just finished cycling with uncured live rock and live sand from Hawaii. I just ordered a test kit because mine was expired. when I went to petco they didn’t have any and that’s the only pet store on my island, but I did pick up an ammonia badge. for the first few days the ammonia levels read safe but just yesterday I woke up and they were on alert. so I did a 30% water change and waited it out and it’s still on green! The inhabitants are acting fine. I cut back on how much I was feeding for the time being but they are still eating. my only inhabitants are a cloudy damsel, a Hawaiian triple fin blenny (size maxes out at about an inch usually smaller) and some inverts. nothing has died, the water is clear, and the salinity is stable. temp got super high last night so I cooled the tank down and the ammonia seemed to go down temporarily, but now it’s back up. I cleaned my filter out too and put in some new carbon, still no affect. I dipped the ammonia badge into some of my other tanks and it went back to yellow so I know it’s working. the color currently doesn’t seem pure green, more like a mix between the safe and alert colors. should I be worried about this?

Bo. · May 15, 2020

How long was your cycle how long has it been since it finished? When did you add your fish? And how many were added each time or was it all at once?

Dawson_hatton · May 17, 2020

cycled for a month, The triple fin blenny was actually a hitch hiker in the rock, and the damsel was added about a week ago. luckily my ammonia levels just dropped back to normal. with it being a newer tank i’m assuming with the bigger induced bioload it was just settling in/adjusting