Ammonia Spike - Multiple Fish Died

BigHildy53 · Jan 4, 2017

2017 is not starting off well. Came back from visiting family to find that some clowns were gone. Via another thread it was contributed to clown aggression. Now I've lost several fish. When tested on December 31st the ammonia was zero. When tested on January 3rd the ammonia was .04 (tested twice). I'm betting that I screwed the pooch on the 12/31 test. Otherwise it means there was a large spike in three days. I've temporarily added a canister with ammonia remover via the manifold. The ammonia is now ready zero (tested twice).

I wish I knew what caused the ammonia spike.

Va_Reef · Jan 5, 2017

I wouldn't say .04 ppm is an ammonia spike; on an API kit thats not even the first increment.

Have you tested other parameters?

BigHildy53 · Jan 5, 2017

My numbers for the past few recent tests are below. The phosphate is high but algae is low.
I guess I considered a 0 to .04 jump a spike. I've lost several smaller fish and right now I can't find the other anthias. The fish were healthy one day and dead the next. No visible issues. One anthias passed away a couple of weeks ago from some kind of bacterial infection; a white growth on the skin. But none of these fish had any external growth. I'm really puzzled.

The only other new activity has been to add pods from Algaebarn. Is it possible to add to many pods at once?