Help, is Ammonia too high

[cbramsey]

My ammonia is at 1 ppm, nitrite are 0 and nitrate around 5. Should I be concerned? Water changes? Fish seem fine.

 

[twilliard]

Welcome to R2R!
How new is the tank?
Ammonia is toxic and sounds like the bacterial population is not well formed yet.

 

[cbramsey]

10 weeks, it cycled completely in four weeks. I have 2 clowns, 2 cardinals, 1 yellow tang

 

[cbramsey]

If it helps, I started seeing brown algae today

 

[4FordFamily]

Any ammonia is too high. I would do water changes.

 

[DannyB]

How long have those fish been in your tank? Were they added at the same time?
What test kit are you using to measure the ammonia?
What size is the tank?

 

[cbramsey]

90 gallon, API kit, Clowns have been in for about 5 weeks, tang for 2 1/2 weeks and cardinals added this past weekend. How accurate are the API kits?

 

[DannyB]

Api kits are a little sketchy. Have you double/triple checked results? I agree with @3FordFamily and would do a WC to be on the safe side.

 

[cbramsey]

I'll do a couple more tests and post the results

 

[Devon93274]

Every time I had stock to my tank my ammonia spikes. I do water changes every Sunday and my tank seems to maintain healthy water perimeters. Also I have used an Amonia Water Conditioner by Kent. Seems to do the trick.

 

[cbramsey]

While I do this, what is a good test kit

 

[cbramsey]

Thanks for all the info, I absolutely love this site.

 

[DannyB]

I prefer Salifert for precision in testing. I do have some Red Sea test kits as well which seem to be good but have only had them a short time and still getting the curve on them. Hanna checkers are great but wouldn't get one for ammonia. I am sure there are other good brands, i am just not going to recommend something I don't have personal experience with.

You really can't go wrong with Salifert test kits though.

 

[cbramsey]

3 more tests all came back between 0 and .25, slight difference in color. Going to do 20% water change and see where we are after that

 

[DannyB]

.25 is much better than 1. That is an amount which may be 0 as well with the API kit and could mean there is nothing to worry about. I would still do the WC to be on the safe side.

 

[cbramsey]

Thank you all again, after tank cycled I reduced to testing water twice a week, looks like I am going back to every day for awhile. I am going to get water from LFS and do water change. Also, I have an Eheim filter that sits in cabinet under tank, how often should I clean this out, I don't want to rid the bacteria from the filter media but something tells me I should probably clean it.

 

[4FordFamily]

Water changes are a good thing and you're smart to perform one. When in doubt, change water. Not worth the risk.

 

[FlyinBryan]

If you have any ammonia you have too much. Let it finish its cycle. Imo

 

[guitarvp]

How much live rock/sand do you have in the tank?