that is the owner making an interpretation of a non digital test kit and relaying it to us which is the most unreliable representation of bacteria in reefing.
there is only 1 time a display reef can't control ammonia: while a full fish kill is rotting in the tank. source for claims: ten thousand seneye posts
ammonia cannot rise out of control in a running display reef, only a full fish kill left to rot can overpower it. not even a partial fish kill will overpower it...a total fish kill. all reefs can absorb a tang or two without crashing.
we cannot know what bacteria do without non digital testing in a reef tank
and until we get that type of reading, we defer to the dynamics found in tanks that do employ digital means, we don't break the rules of filter biology to fit the nuanced guesses from non digital kit owners.
I need a tank pic here too when we can
it will show normal corals, healthy fish, clean water, high surface area/that does not allow ammonia noncontrol it reinforces it.
these are simply folks using old cycling science (expects ammonia to be zero, it's not ever zero, see any seneye post) and non digital test kits.
we even have several instances of aged reef tanks stating they're at 8 ppm ammonia and posting the api reading as dark green to prove it/mis testing.
only fish left to rot in a tank, multiple fish/all of them, can overcome a tank's natural ammonia control. anything debating that is an api or a red sea non digital test, it will never ever ever be a calibrated seneye owner feeling that way.
