That ammonia test seems wayyy wrong. At such a high ammonia concentration your fish would've melted or something, and whatever corals in the tank would be bleach white. I would get your params tested by a LFS, cuz something is definitely wri=ong with either the reagents or the testing procedure.The anemone died with the nitrateas around .25 and .50 ppm all 3 fish are alive and still have color in my coral as well.
My aquarium has been up and running for almost a year now. I do have coraline algae growing in my tank as well my previous system had many problems but never had coraline so I felt like I was doing something write for once. But I left to take my brother home and was gone for a week and a half and with my wife doing what she could while being sick things just took a turn for the worse. I did notice I have unusual little white worms floating around in my water as well... From research that I have come up with they seem to be young bristle worms or of the same family as the bristle worm. I can not get a photo because they do not show up on the photos that I take with my phone. The photo I am sharing is similar to what they look like; however that is not my tank.
I was previously just rinsing out the test tubes and letting them air dry. I recently just started using the feeding tweezers I have to use a piece of paper towel to clean the test tubes out. I tested the theory of a "dirty" tube vs a tube that I cleaned via the paper towel method and have seen much different results in both my Saltwater Mixed RODI water and the aquarium water. I tested the Ammonia and Nitrate levels with changes in test results from the new method of cleaning the test tubes but the tested parameters that I have shared with the community involving the higher levels of Ammonia and Nitrate are from the new method of cleaning the tubes. I am also thinking that the worms in the water column may have a very negative effect on my tests but am still looking for answers online and the assistance from any aquarium hobbyist that can help.
I am following you. I'll summarize for the group:
Thank you Merkey. I will be going to my LFS to acquire more water along with having them test my parameters for me. The fish are not gasping for air at the top of the tank and I am running carbon.Nem died and you still need to clear the water regardless of test kits.
Watch your animals....and don't worry about the worms.
Are your fish at the top gasping for air? If not then there is not enough free floating ammonia in your water to kill your fish. As others stated API is terrible and don't rely on the readings.
Do you have carbon you can run to help pull out some of the nasties the nem released?
With a year old tank a good size water change would be good but definitely source your water from a LFS so you know it's parameters are on.
Sounds like your bacteria is working to clear the bad waste. The carbon will help with that.
Until your fish are freaking out you don't need to freak out
Nitrates did not kill your anemone. Nitrates are a food source for anemones. If your ammonia is at what your test kit shows that would kill it, but also your fish as well. As I said before
Get some decent test kits. Otherwise your wasting your time trying to figure out what is going on with bad information.
I wholeheartedly second that. I used the API strips and thinking my dkh was consistently low i kept dosing soda ash to increase it. Then I got a real test kit from Red Sea and found i had gone all the way to 14! Strips aren't just a waste of money they could potentially cause you to OD your tank. Randy has been pretty consistent in saying he doesn't see how a test strip can test for alkalinity.
