that ammonium chloride has been used successfully but as I read it, it must be the non surfactant kind (?) where you can shake the container and it doesn’t froth up like soap, it breaks up fast. Ace was the only brand I’ve seen used, any others that may have soaps or additives ough to be excluded.
*getting a pic of the ammonia test on the undisturbed water is crucial. It's how we calibrate for known zero on your tester so people can see it working, whatever color it reads before we tinker is calibrated zero for that tester. Your tank has no source for ongoing ammonia unless a dead mouse is in it lol
Dose a little bit just barely, turn on circulation and stop when the tester indicates a slight color change. We aren't trying to assess ammonia in still water, we are passing it over suspected fully live surfaces
In 24 hours, should be back to calibrated zero.
ways the nitrifers kept fed the whole time, or if you tested it at fifteen years fallow:
-organics in the live rock alone are likely a permanent source of feed, theyll not breakdown to totally disappear in our lifetime.
-ever sit near a window on a bright early morning, sun rays coming in sideways, and you notice just how much aerial floc is wafting around the room-bacteria air rafts. Incoming vectors, landing in the sample daily and compounding.
-all hydrated media in a non lab setting takes on non aquatic bacteria, fungi, skin cells, gnats, fifty others on a daily basis. Non filtration bacteria form simply because they found moisture. They then die since they’re not reef bacteria, and they degrade into feed right there intertwined with filtration bacteria... alongside them or on top of the slicks that house filtration bacteria. Big source of feed
-bac have their own dormancy options even if you stripped the container clean, but still hydrated. These didn’t have to go dormant
-respiring organisms are alive, worms, excreting ammonia by the minute. Direct feed.
-biofilms are preserved in your description. Those insulate the bacteria from cold effects and heat unlike bac cells teased onto a slide specimen. Those are uninsulated, and weak. Biofilm catches feed and retains it like a net.
