Ammonia spike in frag QT tank

[Tbg299]

I have a small 10 gallon frag tank with some live rock that is about 4 days old. Yesterday, the seachem alert badge started turning greenish (.05 ppm NH3). Red Sea ammonia test showed 0.25 ppm free ammonia and I did a 25% water change it returned to normal. This evening, the alert badge started to turn slightly green again, and I just checked my free ammonia again and it is 0.8 ppm! Should I do another 25% water change? I'm so worried that my frags are going to die.

 

[lapin]

The live rock is having a die off i think

 

[Tbg299]

Mixing up fresh saltwater but I'm afraid it won't be ready in time. I'm going to do an emergency water change from my DT water which I know has 0 ammonia.

 

[Tbg299]

The live rock is having a die off i think

Why would it be dying off? I filled the tank completely with my display tank water. Should I take it out??

 

[lapin]

Some Prime will hold off the ammonia for 2 days

The die off is a guess.. Its the first thing that came to mind

 

[Tbg299]

Just finished 25% water change with water from DT. The alert badge indicator stopped changing color, so I'm hoping this stabilized things. How long should I wait again to check ammonia level with test kit?

 

[Tbg299]

The frags look fine. I'm just hoping I rectified the ammonia spike in time before any damage was done.

 

[Garf]

Just finished 25% water change with water from DT. The alert badge indicator stopped changing color, so I'm hoping this stabilized things. How long should I wait again to check ammonia level with test kit?

I would just go off the badge and reduce lighting a bit. The extra nutrient may induce a shock. How have you replaced the water in the Display?

 

[gaki]

If the frags look fine then I wouldn’t overly worry about it-yet. It’s possible that you got some false readings because I’m pretty sure most things die in those conditions. If I had to guess though, I’d guess it’s new tank syndrome because your tank is so new. Also +1 on the prime, it will buy you time to rectify the situation.

 

[Tbg299]

Neon candy cane is extending its

Some Prime will hold off the ammonia for 2 days

The die off is a guess.. Its the first thing that came to mind

Thanks. I'll go to petco and buy some in the morning.

 

[Tbg299]

Neon candy cane is extending its feeding tentacles. In the worst case scenario, if the ammonia doesn't go down, I might just stick the frags in my DT. I'm questioning now whether setting up a QT for frags was worth it.

 

[Tbg299]

Ammonia alert badge appears to be slowly turning back to yellow (Thank goodness.) I'm just wondering why my NH3 is so low (.05ppm), but NH4 Is 0.75 (taking TAN reading into ammount.) I know from chemistry that usually a high pH results in more NH4 than NH3. My pH is 8.3 though and dKH 9.6.

 

[QuinnLee512]

I'm having the same issue with my coral QT. I've done 2 50% water changes already but the ammonia won't go down. I only have corals and brand new dry rock in it. I never thought that I would even have to worry about ammonia in a coral only QT. Any idea where the ammonia could be coming from? I'm contemplating doing a 100% water change but I'm concerned that the ammonia will return since I'm not sure where it's coming from. Ammonia is reading 1ppm and nitrite is .5ppm.

 

[LuizW13]

I'm having the same issue with my coral QT. I've done 2 50% water changes already but the ammonia won't go down. I only have corals and brand new dry rock in it. I never thought that I would even have to worry about ammonia in a coral only QT. Any idea where the ammonia could be coming from? I'm contemplating doing a 100% water change but I'm concerned that the ammonia will return since I'm not sure where it's coming from. Ammonia is reading 1ppm and nitrite is .5ppm.

It could very well be the dry rock, depending where it was sourced from. Can you 'seed' your qt with bacteria from your display? The qt is probably just cycling.

 

[Tbg299]

I'm having the same issue with my coral QT. I've done 2 50% water changes already but the ammonia won't go down. I only have corals and brand new dry rock in it. I never thought that I would even have to worry about ammonia in a coral only QT. Any idea where the ammonia could be coming from? I'm contemplating doing a 100% water change but I'm concerned that the ammonia will return since I'm not sure where it's coming from. Ammonia is reading 1ppm and nitrite is .5ppm.

I put in another piece of live rock that has aiptasia, and added some Bio-Spira. This seemed to accelerate the "mini cycle" my frag QT was going through. Ammonia has been less than 0.02 ppm for a week now.