Crazy Ammonia spike

[brandon429]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

tanks act normal during nh3 noncontrol issues?

when zero sources for input have been discerned, we still headed right towards believing anything the test kit says. Bottle bac was over sold here 3x over. Suddenly the resident bacteria crashed here, with no cause, and killed a couple inverts but not the rest and per the kit, it’s still a tank in distress. But not per the video

 

[brandon429]

Team

you all know this is a misread and you’re joshing me right

our hobby never providing training on surface area dynamics and instead focusing 100% on bacteria has us all by the nose rings


the hobby on surface area dynamics: if an eight dollar test kit says it, you can take your eighty year old cycling charts and kick them out the window.


you have too much active surface area, and no known source continual nor single dose, to account for any nh3 sustained condition whatsover.

I bet two molts got ya.

 

[Dkmoo]

Team

you all know this is a misread and you’re joshing me right

our hobby never providing training on surface area dynamics and instead focusing 100% on bacteria has us all by the nose rings, pulling in circles so fast it hurts.

I'm with you, something smells off here...even if you don't smell the stink of ammonia in the tank

 

[brandon429]

The only reason this matters is because we want to know if bacteria are predictable or unpredictable.

if they’re not predictable, we need to be buying them


and if they are, then our cash is getting taken ad libitum

 

[Betex]

The only reason this matters is because we want to know if bacteria are predictable or unpredictable.

if they’re not predictable, we need to be buying them


and if they are, then our cash is getting taken ad libitum

To answer some of your other questions too. The water smells normal no smell to it at all, I did not dose any medication in the tank.

 

[brandon429]

Your input has been tremendously helpful

these conflicts are science evolving right in front of our eyes.

thousands of people actively have these problems annually, its why I’m so drawn to the truth tbd

Even NOAA has trouble with these kits!

https://cdhc.noaa.gov/_docs/TCB%20Small%20Scale%20Exp%20Systems%20TM%20Final.pdf

thats a must-read. Professional oceanographers, best on the planet, grapple with your issue.

 

[Garf]

I don’t think a glug of “prime” would do any harm. Maybe make your skimmer go nuts though. At least it would alleviate fear of ammonia toxicity, even if it is a testing problem. Never used that ammonia test, are you sure it’s all the right bits for the test etc. It does seem very odd in such a mature tank.

 

[Betex]

I don’t think a glug of “prime” would do any harm. Maybe make your skimmer go nuts though. At least it would alleviate fear of ammonia toxicity, even if it is a testing problem. Never used that ammonia test, are you sure it’s all the right bits for the test etc. It does seem very odd in such a mature tank.

Yeah I tried 2 home tests and the one at LFS just to make sure no one was crazy red sea and API reporting same close to what LFS showed. I dosed a bottle of turbostart 900 in there already and will be doing water change soon as batch is ready for now having my awc do a 3g water change that I had left over.

 

[brandon429]

NOAA says right there to hach or go home

it doesn’t say get several nine dollar testers and then still disregard a cycling chart, the ammonia line does what it does on day ten during a cycle because thats the referee.

he he my summary

but thats a sick article in post #26. You can tell NOAA scientists read web forums. We are helping the whale’s team. Mainly Randy lol

 

[brandon429]

Ammonia spike in a 7 month old tank

IDK what is going on I've had an ammonia spike going on for over a week maybe 8 days. About three weeks ago I upgraded from the red sea max (130D) stock skimmer to a tunze 9001 that I still can't get tuned in correctly but that is another story/post. Also put in an "intank media basket". I...

www.reef2reef.com

twin thread last year.

 

[Betex]

Did a 20g water change since and still high. Bacteria was added as well and caught a second sps peeling. No fish deaths yet.
The only thing that is going in tank atm is sodium hydroxide Randy’s 2-part recipe to maintain alk.
UV is also offline atm.

just feel stuck as it’s so dang high and feel like I’ll wake up and everything will just be dead.

ORP Also hanging between 280-310

 

[brandon429]

With the links provided such as the twin thread from last year + its updates, what made you not believe me am curious



if I posted a single work thread with ten pages of our false readings like yours, with updates, no losses as you state, would that matter? Adding bottles of oxygen competing bacteria is very unwise, must cease taking all actions.

we didn’t luck into ten pages of fixes with no loss

ten pages of willing participants learned what active surface area does

you had a NOAA link given specifically describing your test kit misreads. We showed where the crowd will instantly vacillate between accepting or denying ammonia readings based on a thread title.

type api misread everyone agrees the tests are known to read wrong.

type emergency ammonia and the same group agrees the test is right.

 

[Betex]

With the links provided such as the twin thread from last year + its updates, what made you not believe me am curious



if I posted a single work thread with ten pages of our false readings like yours, with updates, no losses as you state, would that matter? Adding bottles of oxygen competing bacteria is very unwise, must cease taking all actions.

we didn’t luck into ten pages of fixes with no loss

ten pages of willing participants learned what active surface area does

you had a NOAA link given specifically describing your test kit misreads.

I have def been reading but still fearful for all the creatures in tank. I’m thankful all fish accounted for but having a shrimp and some crabs die definitely still making weary. Now with a potential 2nd sps down it’s just freaking me out that I’ll loose everything.

 

[brandon429]

You listed no form of input, and nobody here has posted a single example link of ammonia rising in a reef tank without cause.

sps are notoriously hard to keep?


ammonia skips killing soft corals and all fish, aims right for sps


nobody listed the cause for sustained non control.

I feel like we are quick to devalue years of logged work in exchange for no work on file at all. You have been remarkably patient it’s all the cycle writers who have left us hanging, and a crowd of refs who tomorrow will be part of misread acceptance threads.
not your fault.

if you wont add any more it’ll be fine, do water changes only if concerned. This thread will save thousands of reefs over time from false report concerns, this thread is a very important study in updated cycling science. The reactive additions and changes are harming your sps.

when I google stn and rtn threads, people are not responding to that by adding orders of mixed bacteria. That became the recommendation because of the thread title, not objective evaluation compared to prior work.


awaiting a single link posted by anyone here furthering this concern for Betex. Bet = I get none.


you have a very nice reef!

 

[Betex]

You listed no form of input, and nobody here has posted a single example link of the losses concerned ever happening once tied to a no cause ammonia spike.

nobody listed the cause.

I feel like we are quick to devalue years of logged work in exchange for no work on file at all. You have been remarkably patient it’s all the cycle writers who have left us hanging, not your fault.

if you wont add any more it’ll be fine, do water changes only if concerned.

If that’s how I came off it certainly wasn’t want on purpose I’m trying to keep calm and not make any sudden changes only things I’ve done is a water change and added bacteria.
I was primarily venting how I’m feeling with this situation. Maybe you’re right and it’s a situation I’m reading too much into it but being it’s happening to my tank currently doesn’t make it easy.

I will be leaving it alone and see what happens for the next few days as suggested.

 

[brandon429]

You have done so well with the extreme opposite recommendations. Every written material we’ve ever been given justifies this concern


my pushback is only to the referees it’s not to you. It’s very hard to know what to do when about three thousand dollars is teetering on the edge, you are a darn good reefer we can see in the video.

even the crowd reinforcing the alarm is operating with your best interest in mind, they just chose this round to wholeheartedly back api no matter what.

just once more here’s a time where in harmony they agreed api could not be trusted, my search string was “is api accurate”

 

[Tamberav]

I can't imagine a tank looking like that with 2.0-3.0 ammonia and the fish not be looking like garbage.

Did you clean the new sump with anything? Use bleach on anything?

 

[John A!10]

You might laugh at me, but are you able to get your hands on a seachem ammonia badge? People swear by these, and so do I. They are very accurate at checking the harmful ammonia, rather than all the ammonia the test kits check. I use tap water in my qt and I’m never able to get an accurate reading with the tests because of the dechlorinator. Thanks to the ammonia badge I can make sure the ammonia isn’t at toxic levels.

 

[Betex]

I can't imagine a tank looking like that with 2.0-3.0 ammonia and the fish not be looking like garbage.

Did you clean the new sump with anything? Use bleach on anything?

Nope not at all rinsed with rodi and that’s about it since it was brand new. When cleaning I usually use citric acid on all my equipment and do a double rinse with to after

 

[Betex]

You might laugh at me, but are you able to get your hands on a seachem ammonia badge? People swear by these, and so do I. They are very accurate at checking the harmful ammonia, rather than all the ammonia the test kits check. I use tap water in my qt and I’m never able to get an accurate reading with the tests because of the dechlorinator. Thanks to the ammonia badge I can make sure the ammonia isn’t at toxic levels.

I thought about this and I might have one laying around as a spare for my qt might give it a try. Just strange that 3 different tests gave close to same results.