Consistent ammonia levels not exceeding.25

[hey.al]

Hi all, have a question., maybe silly. I have a biocube 32 with about 15 pounds of rock, 20 pounds of sand, two soft corals, and some snails and crabs. All are doing well. I have had a constant presence of ammonia but it never exceeds .25. I’d say it is probably about .15, between 0 and .25. All other parameters are at 0. After about a month after I cycled the tank I add two fire fish (December 6). Ammonia looked about the same as it does now. I had assumed that it was 0 or very very close that it might be safe to add the fish. After about 3 weeks I added a Xenia and Zoa. About 1 day after I added the soft corals one of the fish died. Then about 2 days later the other fire fish died. I called me LFS and they said my ammonia may be elevated because I don’t have enough live rock in there. Could that be the reason I am getting the same ammonia readings every time despite water changes? I do them about once a week.

 

[Specific Ocean]

Which test kits are you using? Ask your LFS to check your water parameters.

 

[brandon429]

We addressed this in other post did we?

 

[brandon429]

No we didn’t I went back to check. Your system is perfectly done cycling, here’s what’s happening with your kit:

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

This is a testless cycling thread, we don't want ammonia testing here for any job if possible, because we are teaching reefers/readers that moving live rocks system to system does not restart the cycle: many in our community don't understand that rule and feel that any tank being setup simply...

www.reef2reef.com

your rock Al is that kind, in the thread. In the prior post we didn’t discuss low level false misreads. In this link here above, we do.

you have a nice tank, time to load it up with corals
b


(you bought a certain kind of rock that simply never needs to be tested for ammonia, we discuss there how misreads work)

at no time in your reefs life will ammonia be out of spec, simply put away the tests and begin reefing with your skip cycle pet store live rock, you paid for that surety.

anybody knows if a rotting fish is dead in the tank, ammonia will be out of spec. You can easily see if a dead fish is in your nano, ergo no ammonia testing will be required. You either have no dead carcass and controlled ammonia, it cannot ever drift out of spec, or you have an obviously dead carcass to be removed, then ammonia goes back into spec within 30 minutes, that fast is how fast live rocks eat up free ammonia.

your real ammonia levels are in the thousandths ppm. Even your stated levels above must be TAN divided to get an nh3 reading, so the test above shows nh3 at perfect levels, you’re done. That’s a total ammonia reading above, we only care about a fractional portion of the reading called free ammonia or nh3. It’s shown safe right there, you have a good api kit here. Most would be greener than that on this sample. Your other thread shows all the classic clues for skip cycle live rock above.

since ammonia can never, ever be out of spec unless a huge obvious chunk of rotting meat is there, you can cease testing for ammonia


I have never owned any ammonia tester but have owned a hundred different pico reefs packed to the hilt. Ammonia is 100% predictable and not 99%.

 

[Gtinnel]

If you are using the API test kit then it is notorious for reporting no ammonia as .25.

 

[brandon429]

Matter of fact, we need to add your reef to example number five above, once you agree on our position. If you don’t agree I wont add it. Post pics of your tank here if possible, we can discuss reasons and proofs it is live rock of skip cycle nature. Being exactly like twenty work examples on file above is first standout detail.

 

[hey.al]

No we didn’t I went back to check. Your system is perfectly done cycling, here’s what’s happening with your kit:

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

This is a testless cycling thread, we don't want ammonia testing here for any job if possible, because we are teaching reefers/readers that moving live rocks system to system does not restart the cycle: many in our community don't understand that rule and feel that any tank being setup simply...

www.reef2reef.com

your rock Al is that kind, in the thread. In the prior post we didn’t discuss low level false misreads. In this link here above, we do.

you have a nice tank, time to load it up with corals
b


(you bought a certain kind of rock that simply never needs to be tested for ammonia, we discuss there how misreads work)

at no time in your reefs life will ammonia be out of spec, simply put away the tests and begin reefing with your skip cycle pet store live rock, you paid for that surety.

anybody knows if a rotting fish is dead in the tank, ammonia will be out of spec. You can easily see if a dead fish is in your nano, ergo no ammonia testing will be required. You either have no dead carcass and controlled ammonia, it cannot ever drift out of spec, or you have an obviously dead carcass to be removed, then ammonia goes back into spec within 30 minutes, that fast is how fast live rocks eat up free ammonia.

your real ammonia levels are in the thousandths ppm. Even your stated levels above must be TAN divided to get an nh3 reading, so the test above shows nh3 at perfect levels, you’re done. That’s a total ammonia reading above, we only care about a fractional portion of the reading called free ammonia or nh3. It’s shown safe right there, you have a good api kit here. Most would be greener than that on this sample. Your other thread shows all the classic clues for skip cycle live rock above.

since ammonia can never, ever be out of spec unless a huge obvious chunk of rotting meat is there, you can cease testing for ammonia


I have never owned any ammonia tester but have owned a hundred different pico reefs packed to the hilt. Ammonia is 100% predictable and not 99%.

I’m so stumped then. Why would my gosh die?

Which test kits are you using? Ask your LFS to check your water parameters.

I will definitely try this out, thank you!

 

[brandon429]

can you post pics of your rock

what the above says is only a dead fish will drive up ammonia, and you wouldn't leave a dead fish in there on purpose should it die from disease, old age etc.

its to show that it takes an extreme to get uncontrolled ammonia, an extreme you'll never see.

 

[hey.al]

There’s these weird fuzzy white tubal things on the rocks as well. I also just discovered little copepods or amphipods running around.

 

[brandon429]

That is the most skip cycle live rock I have ever seen in my life even though I have said that about twenty times before in the posts above heh

it keeps getting better with every discovery of complete skip cycle rocks.

 

[Garf]

That’s nice rock. The API usually looks cloudy, greenish.

This should be just a live rock transfer with no cycle, ammonia or nitrite evident.

 

[hey.al]

That is the most skip cycle live rock I have ever seen in my life even though I have said that about twenty times before in the posts above heh

it keeps getting better with every discovery of complete skip cycle rocks.

The rocks are painted purple, does that change anything?

 

[hey.al]

That is the most skip cycle live rock I have ever seen in my life even though I have said that about twenty times before in the posts above heh

it keeps getting better with every discovery of complete skip cycle rocks.

Do you know what the fuzzy white tube things are? They don’t seem to be bothering anything, just curious.

 

[brandon429]

hey I have those too, not sure

such diversity we cant even name them all lol

could be pineapple sponge, or a tunicate, the fact they're there and alive means you never had dangerous ammonia at any time whatsoever. the slug crawling through frame lol, we can tell so much visually from those pics.

 

[DinoMagnet]

Pineapple sponge