Help finding root cause of ammonia spike

[Clarinuto]

I have a 75 gallon tank with a pair of ocellaris clowns and an orange stripe prawn goby. Tank has been doing beautifully. I test the water every few days and results have been great (will post current and recent past results below). Over the past week when the ammonia spike must have started, I installed a UV sterilizer and started providing the fish and clean up crew with nori rubberbanded to the rock. There have been no livestock changes or other food changes. On Sunday, I realized that the fish/cuc had dislodged the rubberband somehow and I could not find the thing for the life of me. Monday I still couldn't find it, so I used a piece of string to tie nori to the rock. I finally found the rubberband this morning. Is it possible that the rubberband or the uv sterilizer could have caused the spike?

Results from 9/11/2018:
Ammonia 1.2, Nitrate 10, PH 8.2, Phosphate .5, Alk 12.3, Salinity 1.025
Results from 9/10/2018
Ammonia 2, Nitrate 10 (didn't get any farther, immediately stopped testing, added prime, and started WC)
Results from 9/4/2018:
Ammonia 0, Nitrate 2, PH 8.0, Phosphate .025, Alk 12.3, Salinity 1.025
Results from 8/31/2018
Ammonia 0, Nitrate 2, PH 8.0, Phosphate .03, Alk 12.1, Salinity 1.025
Results from 8/29/2018
Ammonia 0, Nitrate 2, PH 8.0, Phosphate 0.1, Alk 11.5, Salinity 1.025
Results from 8/24/2018
Ammonia 0, Nitrate 5, PH 8.15, Phosphate .25, Alk 10.5, Salinity 1.025

I have 2 cleaner skunk shrimp, 2 urchins, 2 peppermint shrimp, a few hermit crabs, and a few snails. I pulled out all snail shells that were empty or not moving to rule out dead snails causing an ammonia spike and returned any snails that showed signs of life. No deaths have occurred. All fish and cuc members have been accounted for.

I have done 2 water changes (yesterday and today) and ammonia level has dropped a little, but is still extremely high considering. What the heck happened!? Thanks for your help in advance

 

[Clarinuto]

I should mention that I’ve removed the uv sterilizer just in case that is causing the problem

 

[Clarinuto]

My best guess is that the uv sterilizer killed too much good bacteria, causing a lack of nitrifying bacteria to cycle the nutrients properly. However I am really not sure. I read that they supposedly shouldn’t kill enough good bacteria to effect your biological filtration. But, today I also read here in a featured article that I should have only ran it during the day and had it shut off at night so microorganisms like phytoplankton could still thrive. I definitely did run it 24/7 for a week... so maybe that’s what did it? I’m at a loss :/

 

[Clarinuto]

Well I think I have the ammonia level down to .8 for now. We will see what it is at tomorrow morning. Would still love to hear if anyone has ideas about what might be causing it.

 

[Clarinuto]

Sigh. Ammonia is back up again. Starting to get pretty frustrated at this point.

 

[Clarinuto]

Spirobid worm population growing again. Good sign or a reaction to ammonia?

 

[brandon429]

everything indicates full test error here for free ammonia. post tank pic

options for ammonia in your case:

a dead fish

massive organic waste in the sandbed, years old, recently disturbed.


adding it via topoff water from a well

I struggle to think of a fourth option, uv never causes ammonia even if you run pond sterilizers on a nano reef.

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

That's more than just a cycling thread, it's how to predict ammonia without a test kit. If we find a true source for your ammonia misbehavior I'll update that new finding in our thread immediately, with tank pics we'll know.

 

[Clarinuto]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

That's more than just a cycling thread, it's how to predict ammonia without a test kit. If we find a true source for your ammonia misbehavior I'll update that new finding in our thread immediately, with tank pics we'll know.

Thank you. I will read this in a minute. Apologies for the bad photo. The lights are already off for the evening and I’ve been trying not to mess with the tank more than necessary since I assume everyone is stressed as is. None of the options you listed in the first post could be an issue since I have so few fish and the tank is new within the last few months. Sigh. I don’t have another reputable test to retest ammonia. I’m currently using Red Sea. I have API, but that hasn’t proven itself very reliable. I stopped using it a long time ago. Could it have been the rubber band, the string I used in absence of the rubber band, or maybe feeding too much nori? I leave it until it disappears and then replace?

I added the hob filters with fresh carbon I have from fw leftovers and seeded the tank with dr. Tim’s one and only because I suspected that my tank was fully cycling again...

I also have an hob small refugium that seems to be doing well. Tons of copepods crawling around in there and the chaeto hasn’t grown a ton but it is growing... though maybe ammonia doesn’t affect these guys. I haven’t looked that part up. Anyway, thanks for the help

 

[brandon429]

Nice pics and nice new tank as well

Is that real reef rock type rock?

I feel even more certain you never had ammonia and the test is reading wrong, let’s evaulate the tester what kind is it

The actions that cause ammonia after a cycle is complete are restricted to what is mentioned above, it’s a compound that only comes about in highly predictable settings it’s never hard to locate a true ammonia reading

it’s presence in a reef tank excluding the factors above is a misreading test usually

 

[Clarinuto]

Thank you! Yep, real reef rock

I have been using the Red Sea Ammonia Kit

I considered that maybe the test was problematic (it is comforting to hear that someone else thinks this as well). I couldn’t find any reason why though. I retested after rereading the instructions to be sure I wasn’t the issue and I checked the expiration (2020). Since it was consistent up to this point, I couldn’t figure out why all the sudden it would go haywire (unless maybe I am still the issue and just didn’t see why?). I do hope you are right though!

 

[Clarinuto]

Nice pics and nice new tank as well

Is that real reef rock type rock?

I feel even more certain you never had ammonia and the test is reading wrong, let’s evaulate the tester what kind is it

The actions that cause ammonia after a cycle is complete are restricted to what is mentioned above, it’s a compound that only comes about in highly predictable settings it’s never hard to locate a true ammonia reading

it’s presence in a reef tank excluding the factors above is a misreading test usually

And I should mention that I was sort of astounded that the fish were doing okay when ammonia was at very toxic levels... which might be even more proof that my testing is off for some reason

 

[Clarinuto]

everything indicates full test error here for free ammonia. post tank pic

options for ammonia in your case:

a dead fish

massive organic waste in the sandbed, years old, recently disturbed.


adding it via topoff water from a well

I struggle to think of a fourth option, uv never causes ammonia even if you run pond sterilizers on a nano reef.

How often should I be cleaning the refugium? The whole bottom has a layer of this stuff... wondering if that might be contributing to any issues. It’s been up and running for maybe 10 weeks? I’m not sure how to effectively clean it without accidentally wiping out the pods in there so I haven’t tried currently....

 

[brandon429]

Anyone who keeps a regular deep sand bed has way more detritus than that at all times. This is a no ammonia tank I know it seems weird. The cycling thread mentions a few water additives common in reefing that lend false positives but there’s no issue here. I have a couple Red Sea misreads on the thread as well

 

[brandon429]

What’s does your test show for yesterday and today the trending helps to see patterns

 

[Clarinuto]

What’s does your test show for yesterday and today the trending helps to see patterns

Yesterday it read at 1.2 and today it was showing .8. I took a picture of the test today just in case. I’ll attach that here. In the picture it looks a little more like 1.2 again, but in person it was definitely lighter than that. Thanks for the continued help

 

[brandon429]

hey can you test just basic spring water or distilled real quick just curious if that's zero, it prob is but was wondering. even some new mixed saltwater a few hours old or a day old would be a neat set comparative point as well

 

[Clarinuto]

hey can you test just basic spring water or distilled real quick just curious if that's zero, it prob is but was wondering. even some new mixed saltwater a few hours old or a day old would be a neat set comparative point as well

Sure, I'll grab some of my premade RODI and report back

 

[Clarinuto]

Sure, I'll grab some of my premade RODI and report back

Here’s the latest using rodi water

 

[Clarinuto]

hey can you test just basic spring water or distilled real quick just curious if that's zero, it prob is but was wondering. even some new mixed saltwater a few hours old or a day old would be a neat set comparative point as well

Updated tank water test (same result as this morning ultimately)