Crazy Ammonia Spike

[Steven La Torre]

Hey reefers!

So ive had my tank ( biocube 24g ) up and running for five months or so, came home and checked the tanked out and noticed corals and fish were just not acting right. This was two weeks ago, tested water and ammonia was reading .25, all other parameters were ok. Started doing small water changes daily and dosing ammolock to keep it safe. This weekend i did a large 50% change. Ammonia was still reading between .25 and .50. Stocked with a clown fish , damsel and firefish and some inverts.

I did have one snail die and then a firefish that i quickly removed right about when this issue started and its been downhill ever since.

Testing tonight and its looking off the charts! Ive moved everything i could into my qt tank that i could without completely over loading it. Any thoughts? Only addition to the tank in the last 3 weeks was a powerhead.

 

[P-Dub]

I can only think that there is something else that has died that is unaccounted for?!?

 

[Danny N]

I had a reading like that once and really freaked out! What happened though was the syringe I used to draw the water was the same syringe I use to spot feed coral. There was some decayed shrimp still in there which gave me a false reading.

 

[mehaffydr]

What are you using for filtration could it have a build up

 

[brandon429]

also, post a full tank shot

tracing ammonia readings that sustain in a cycled reef, with no dead animals in the system and all of the living ones visually accounted for, is great fun and we don't even need to see an ammonia test reading to hunt it


ammonia in those conditions above is emitting from something we can see, we don't have to test for it. post a full tank shot here
a few questions later after the full tank shot/ammonia sourced.

one thing Ill be checking for in pics is purple live rock, with coralline. for starters.

 

[Rakie]

one thing Ill be checking for in pics is purple live rock, with coralline. for starters.

Tanks don't always grow coralline like they used to. My tank is two years old now and I barely have any on my rocks just on my back wall (that I scrape regularly). I always find that weird, some tanks just don't grow much on the rocks.

 

[beaslbob]

Prime!

.25ppm ammonia with the api test kit is normal IME. Prime locks up the free ammonia but it still tests as ammonia in the api test kit. Whereas the seachem ammonia dot and multitest ammonia kit test for the free ammonia only not the locked ammonia. The multitest kit also tests for the total ammonia so you can have low free ammonia and higher total ammonia.

The danger is you measure ammonia, add prime still test ammonia and so on. Every dose of prime also locks up oxygen so the livestock can actually suffocate under overdosing and they will display the same symptoms as ammonia.

I would use the seachem kits, stop dosing prime, and add macro algae which will consume ammonia directly plus co2 while returning fish food and oxygen.


my .02

 

[paul barker]

Is it a fish only tank and how much live rock do you have I have a 32 bio cube with 28 lbs of live rock and one bag of live sand and I pull out the spoon filter just have one filter pad

 

[DoggoThePuffer]

Do you have a canister? If so, get an ammonia pad! Get ammonia killer and do a water change daily! 20%!

 

[sbreefer]

API=Terrible and woefully inacurrate. make a BIG water change and buy a Salifert kit. ammonia kills. that you still have living fish is testament to how bad API testing is.
As noted above FTS needed. any thoughts on what died certainly useful

 

[HB AL]

Assuming the ammonia test is somewhat accurate, something is in the tank that's rotting away. Does the tank smell? Any food going uneaten? It shouldn't be to difficult to figure out what is producing the ammonia. Any other people in the house that might be throwing food in the tank?

 

[Deedles]

Is it possible that the new power head has stirred up some sand and released some decaying matter that was in the sand bed? I'm spit-balling here.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Dose with Prime to detox the ammonia, and if you have a LFS close see if they can test it for you to verify the results. If they get the same thing, do a minimum 30-40% water change.

API=Terrible and woefully inacurrate. make a BIG water change and buy a Salifert kit. ammonia kills. that you still have living fish is testament to how bad API testing is.
As noted above FTS needed. any thoughts on what died certainly useful

Agreed on the API test. Their PH, Cal, and Alk tests are relatively accurate, but the rest can produce wildly inaccurate results from one test to the next.

 

[Deepsixx]

What everbody said, and water change. As per someone said, recheck all the test equipment and retest. if it still shows up like that, use another test kit. Did you check the exp. date? Its odd you have such a spike and Nitrites are still zero. I know the bacteria that work on the nitrites is slower than the ones for ammonia, but I still am a bit puzzled why it is zero, there should be at least some creep, same for Nitrates. Check and ensure all is good with test kit, water change, purigen, and test frequently to see what is happening. watch for Nitrites and Nitrates. If they are where they should be and Ammonia is still really high after investigating, then its probably the Purigen locking up the ammonia, as previously said, Do water changes in succession slowly to bring ammonia down to zero.