Detected ammonia in established tank

[brandon429]

also noted: this exact buy response mechanism (detect free ammonia, buy reinforcement bac) is selling tens of thousands of dollars annually, unnecessarily, to thousands of buyers not informed of the updated cycling rules (that without a massive multi fish dieoff caused by something other than ammonia, you can't get lack of ammonia control in a post cycle reef. cycles can't be starved or insulted with common param variances we cause)


ergo, I expect a very, very slow official roll out of the updates, the bottle bac sellers make the formal cycling rules. realtors aren't allowed to cut deals with mortgage bankers for referrals for similar biases.

 

[JustinMN18]

also noted: this exact buy response mechanism (detect free ammonia, buy reinforcement bac) is selling tens of thousands of dollars annually, unnecessarily, to thousands of buyers not informed of the updated cycling rules (that without a massive multi fish dieoff caused by something other than ammonia, you can't get lack of ammonia control in a post cycle reef. cycles can't be starved or insulted with common param variances we cause)


ergo, I expect a very, very slow official roll out of the updates, the bottle bac sellers make the formal cycling rules. realtors aren't allowed to cut deals with mortgage bankers for referrals for similar biases.

Thanks for your help in all of this. Here is the result.

Yesterday I dosed 2 doses of prime. And then did a 10% water change. I also removed a coral in the back of the tank that was like half receded and dead (favia colony.. i think my jawfish ticked it off with too much sand all over it). I have no idea if that made any impact on Ammonia, but this morning I got a reading of 0. About 20 hours after dosing the Prime.

My concern was all based off of my Yellow Tang. It hasn't eaten in 3 days, and hides most of the time now under a rock cave. I don't see spots, torn fins, HLLE or any lateral line issue, and all my inverts and other fish are eating fine and swimming normally. So I was thinking maybe this ammonia was ticking off my Yellow Tang. No idea. Read 0 this morning, and yellow tang is still hiding. Went to go eat some Nori with Selcon on it, but then decided against it once my Foxface started eating it. Typically they share the clip no problems.

 

[brandon429]

at no time did you have any free ammonia issues here, thats the important takeaway. you had dosed prime before yesterday too, prime affects readings on those kits. you didnt have the first tank found w free ammonia issues, yours was a misread like the others. we have not seen a single outlier yet.

 

[brandon429]

you have just endured that which is non digital ammonia assessment. its the greatest reaction-causing event we do to ourselves.


seneye owners? never, ever ever concern. after trims and adjusts, they can see even if the tang dies the system doesnt spike above thousandths. your color kit would be off the charts

I know its hard to disbelieve your test kits, but this is how it always goes down with non seneye data. a tank breaks universal cycling control laws, but never on digital. quarantine and fallow are what he needs, the cause was never free ammonia preceding the fish behavior.

 

[BostonReefer300]

I hope your tang starts eating better. You said you haven't seen any spots, etc., bu have you noticed any rapid breathing or weird swimming?

 

[JustinMN18]

I hope your tang starts eating better. You said you haven't seen any spots, etc., bu have you noticed any rapid breathing or weird swimming?

I haven't noticed obvious heavy breathing.. but one thing I have noticed is that it sometimes does a weird like "side swim" kind of action. Like it looks up at the lights kinda, and very infrequently/rapidly.

I've been reading about marine velvet.. I haven't noticed anything in terms of swimming in front of my gyres. And I haven't seen any spots. I run a UV, and after work I'm going to check the GPH.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Could be lots of things, but definitely sounds like he's got an infection or parasite. Check out the sticky thread in the fish disease forum for more info on all the common diseases/parasites. Good luck!

 

[Dan_P]

Hello,

I have a 100g tank with a 34g sump. I've had it going since October 2020. Recently, I've added a new dry rock and 2 media bricks.

I haven't tested ammonia in a long time. The red sea kit I have, I purchased in July of 2020.

I just tested ammonia because a firefish I have, I haven't seen in a while. I have no idea if it's alive, but thought since I haven't seen it, to test my ammonia. Well, red sea says it's 0.2. I fed reef frenzy about 7 hours ago.

I have a starfish, urchins, bubble tips, lps and softy corals, and other fish (clowns, fox face, yellow tang, a couple wrasses, hawkfish, clams) and they don't seem "bothered". I'm wondering what to do here. My nitrate is about 40, phosphate (using nopox) is at 0.28 (coming down from 0.36, using Hanna, but taking it slow as to not have big swings). My alk, calc, mag are all at the ideal numbers (testing daily) and I use red sea coral pro salt.

I do 10% water changes every Saturday (yesterday), and now that I see this reading I'm wondering two things.

1) could this be a bad test? Could the test kit be expired? If no sensitive inverts appear to have problems and all fish seem ok, what should I trust?

2) if I do another water change today (Sunday), how will the red sea coral pro salt impact my alk, calc and mag? Is that something I shouldn't worry about?

Alk 8.6, calcium 450, mag 1450. Dosing red sea bottles.

Sorry if this is all over the place. I'm posting from my phone, and the textbox isn't very easy to view as I type. Lol

Couple of thoughts.

Organic compounds like amino acids can interfere with the ammonia test, making it look like there is ammonia present.

Don’t forget that these kits measure total ammonia. The amount of toxic free ammonia is roughly 10% of this number.

You can start to notice all sorts of things when you think there is a problem.

0.2 ppm ammonia may be on the ragged edge of hobby tests. It is difficult to decide on the color near 0 ppm.

 

[lanceinhuntsville]

Why doesn’t Hanna make an ammonia checker? I can’t stand these color charts

 

[brandon429]

we dont need any test kits for ammonia at all in reefing, start to finish. post a pic of your tank as it sits plus the number of days its had water we will call out the ammonia performance based on those two variables, and if checked on seneye, it'd pass.

I like using people's seneye posts to verify cycling patterns, but would never pay to own one for as long as I reef. predictive ammonia control has no fails on our board. and when it does, I'll demand they rewrite the ammonia drop date from a common cycling chart. whether or not your reef is older or younger than ten days factors heavily in the upcoming ref call.

99.999% of cyclers have used a bottle bac that's what seals in the day ten thing, as a total unassisted run of course it'd take orders longer but nobody does it that way they're all hyperfed cycles nowadays.

 

[lanceinhuntsville]

we dont need any test kits for ammonia at all in reefing, start to finish. post a pic of your tank as it sits plus the number of days its had water we will call out the ammonia performance based on those two variables, and if checked on seneye, it'd pass.

I like using people's seneye posts to verify cycling patterns, but would never pay to own one for as long as I reef. predictive ammonia control has no fails on our board. and when it does, I'll demand they rewrite the ammonia drop date from a common cycling chart. whether or not your reef is older or younger than ten days factors heavily in the upcoming ref call.

Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of spending money on a test that I’ll never use after the first few weeks, but anything is better for new folks setting up a fresh tank than trying to figure out if the color is greenish-yellow or yellowish-green.

 

[Dan_P]

Why doesn’t Hanna make an ammonia checker? I can’t stand these color charts

In a way one exists. A modified API test for total ammonia used with the low range silicate Checker. It can detect total ammonia down to about 0.05 ppm.

 

[Wyvern]

If it's anything like API famous ".25 but actually zero result green" ignore.

 

[attiland]

Hello,

I have a 100g tank with a 34g sump. I've had it going since October 2020. Recently, I've added a new dry rock and 2 media bricks.

I haven't tested ammonia in a long time. The red sea kit I have, I purchased in July of 2020.

I just tested ammonia because a firefish I have, I haven't seen in a while. I have no idea if it's alive, but thought since I haven't seen it, to test my ammonia. Well, red sea says it's 0.2. I fed reef frenzy about 7 hours ago.

I have a starfish, urchins, bubble tips, lps and softy corals, and other fish (clowns, fox face, yellow tang, a couple wrasses, hawkfish, clams) and they don't seem "bothered". I'm wondering what to do here. My nitrate is about 40, phosphate (using nopox) is at 0.28 (coming down from 0.36, using Hanna, but taking it slow as to not have big swings). My alk, calc, mag are all at the ideal numbers (testing daily) and I use red sea coral pro salt.

I do 10% water changes every Saturday (yesterday), and now that I see this reading I'm wondering two things.

1) could this be a bad test? Could the test kit be expired? If no sensitive inverts appear to have problems and all fish seem ok, what should I trust?

2) if I do another water change today (Sunday), how will the red sea coral pro salt impact my alk, calc and mag? Is that something I shouldn't worry about?

Alk 8.6, calcium 450, mag 1450. Dosing red sea bottles.

Sorry if this is all over the place. I'm posting from my phone, and the textbox isn't very easy to view as I type. Lol

If anything nitrates and phosphates are higher than optimal. Ammonia is not an issue here. Put that test back to the place it was hiding in the last few months and don’t get it out again. Honestly there is a reason nobody test ammonia in the cycled tank unless there is a disaster for a reason.