NO3,NO2 & ammonia
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0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 2-15ppm nitrate. The nitrate value there is my preferred but nitrate isn't well understood in reef tanks as to what is a good vs bad value. Nitrite shouldn't be present, but I wouldn't be too concerned in a new tank unless it's more than a few ppm. 25ppm nitrite is known to cause damage in one study on clownfish. Ammonia should never be present with fish in the tank and no non 0 value should be acceptable.
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dedragon
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I wouldnt ever look at ammonia or nitrite past when the tank is cycled. Based on the fact that api sells all three together I would guess that is the test kit you have as well, so I would recommend buying a better nitrate test kit as api is trash.
Havent seen that one but from what I have read it needs to be much higher that 25ppm to effect anything, though here they might have used another measure for toxicity other than some damage (possibly just deaths), not too sure
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The 25ppm nitrite damage is from an academic paper on scholar that should be pretty easier to look up if you want. If you search nitrite effect on clownfish google scholar it should be one of the first ones.
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no reef tank will ever see 25 ppm nitrite in any setting, on any day at any time
its a made up fear
you can't get that from 2 ppm ammonia dosing, or 4 ppm ammonia dosing etc. you can't get it in a display reef, ever.
its a made up fear
you can't get that from 2 ppm ammonia dosing, or 4 ppm ammonia dosing etc. you can't get it in a display reef, ever.
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the recommend not to test ammonia and nitrite in a display reef tank will never be endorsed by 90% of online reefers because they were trained using old cycling science from 1998, it will only be endorsed by people who fix up false stuck cycle threads
testing for ammonia and nitrite in a reef display is begging to become fearful of two params you should never, ever fear. don't own the two test kits UNLESS you are running a quarantine setup
not for a display reef, don't run them at all. (the surface area in a display reef makes the two params always in control, without testing to verify)
here's the equation:
someone tests for ammonia, expects it to be zero because the old rules/LFS rules/tell them it must be zero or their tank will die.
then this happens:
www.reef2reef.com
see all those scared, angry, arguing reefers? it's solely because they tested ammonia in a normal display tank vs not ever owning the kit. not one tank had ammonia issues, but its eight pages of fighting over the matter.
failure to trust that ammonia and nitrite are in control in a reef display will lead to the dark side of the force.
the only time ammonia is an issue in a display is when all your fish die of disease and are left to rot, driving up ammonia. ammonia can not rise before the fish loss, to kill fish. it doesn't happen
if you don't have a bunch of dead fish in a tank, you don't have an ammonia problem. if you do have a bunch of dead fish, no ammonia testing will help on that matter: must remove them.
of course dumping a month's worth of food will rise ammonia with fish in the tank, so will turning off the circulation altogether. I'm not listing abnormal actions, anyone of 100 abnormal reactions might kill the tank.
ammonia is not an issue in a normally-running reef display.
testing for ammonia and nitrite in a reef display is begging to become fearful of two params you should never, ever fear. don't own the two test kits UNLESS you are running a quarantine setup
not for a display reef, don't run them at all. (the surface area in a display reef makes the two params always in control, without testing to verify)
here's the equation:
someone tests for ammonia, expects it to be zero because the old rules/LFS rules/tell them it must be zero or their tank will die.
then this happens:
Sustained Ammonia spikes are misreads
The reason you think your reef tank can’t control its ammonia is due to false training from old cycling science. That and you don’t own a seneye on the tank in question: if you did, you wouldn’t ever think your ammonia was out of control...
www.reef2reef.com
see all those scared, angry, arguing reefers? it's solely because they tested ammonia in a normal display tank vs not ever owning the kit. not one tank had ammonia issues, but its eight pages of fighting over the matter.
failure to trust that ammonia and nitrite are in control in a reef display will lead to the dark side of the force.
the only time ammonia is an issue in a display is when all your fish die of disease and are left to rot, driving up ammonia. ammonia can not rise before the fish loss, to kill fish. it doesn't happen
if you don't have a bunch of dead fish in a tank, you don't have an ammonia problem. if you do have a bunch of dead fish, no ammonia testing will help on that matter: must remove them.
of course dumping a month's worth of food will rise ammonia with fish in the tank, so will turning off the circulation altogether. I'm not listing abnormal actions, anyone of 100 abnormal reactions might kill the tank.
ammonia is not an issue in a normally-running reef display.
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before you test for nitrate, pull up and read nitrate test kit comparison threads where 1 water sample is tested across 3 or 4 nitrate tests and the results are logged for comparison
there are probably 30+ different nitrate comparison threads written by multiple authors to help us gauge accuracy in parameter testing for no3
and they range 100 ppm across brands. 100ppm between API nitrate and red sea, for example, myriad posts.
*to what degree are reefers deluding themselves in parameter testing becomes the next valid question...don't go down that path with ammonia and nitrite.
there are probably 30+ different nitrate comparison threads written by multiple authors to help us gauge accuracy in parameter testing for no3
and they range 100 ppm across brands. 100ppm between API nitrate and red sea, for example, myriad posts.
*to what degree are reefers deluding themselves in parameter testing becomes the next valid question...don't go down that path with ammonia and nitrite.
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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While I cannot say with confidence that 25 ppm nitrite is fine in a reef tank, I would make just a few comments on that paper.
25 ppm nitrite is not ever maintained in any operating reef tank. During cycling? Maybe, but it might take effort to do so.
They tested at low salinity. 27 ppt (sg = 1.020). It is well known that it is the salinity that reduces toxicity of nitrite in fish. Perhaps the aquaculture folks they were aiming at use low salinity to save money, but the results may not reflect toxicity in a 35 ppt reef.
While they did see some gill effects at 26 ppm nitrite, it took 100-200 ppm to kill half of the fish over 1-4 days.
I would have been more impressed with the nitrite result reliability if they had tested for ammonia during that experiment. With all that nitrite around in an uncycled vessel, who knows what happens to 25 nitrite in a few days? Maybe some is converted back to ammonia. The symptoms they saw were the same.
Ammonia and nitrite toxicity to false clownfish Amphiprion ocellaris - Aquaculture International
False clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris, is one of the most commercialized fish species in the world, highly produced to supply the aquarium market. The high stocking densities used to maximize fish production can increase ammonia and nitrite to toxic levels. In this study, A. ocellaris juveniles...
link.springer.com
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While I cannot say with confidence that 25 ppm nitrite is fine in a reef tank, I would make just a few comments on that paper.
25 ppm nitrite is not ever maintained in any operating reef tank. During cycling? Maybe, but it might take effort to do so.
They tested at low salinity. 27 ppt (sg = 1.020). It is well known that it is the salinity that reduces toxicity of nitrite in fish. Perhaps the aquaculture folks they were aiming at use low salinity to save money, but the results may not reflect toxicity in a 35 ppt reef.
While they did see some gill effects at 26 ppm nitrite, it took 100-200 ppm to kill half of the fish over 1-4 days.
I would have been more impressed with the nitrite result reliability if they had tested for ammonia during that experiment. With all that nitrite around in an uncycled vessel, who knows what happens to 25 nitrite in a few days? Maybe some is converted back to ammonia. The symptoms they saw were the same.
Ammonia and nitrite toxicity to false clownfish Amphiprion ocellaris - Aquaculture International
False clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris, is one of the most commercialized fish species in the world, highly produced to supply the aquarium market. The high stocking densities used to maximize fish production can increase ammonia and nitrite to toxic levels. In this study, A. ocellaris juveniles...
Yeah I more or less refer to that paper to have some sort of number for what actually might be damaging to the fish we keep. I definitely was not trying to say it's at all something likely to arise but hypothetically what's a bad number. Ive only known one tank that may have gotten near that number but it was uncucled dry rock dry sand
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if you eschewed testing for these three params and instead focused 100% of preps from the disease forum stickies it'd be the most beneficial thing you can do for your reef. I will never need to test for nitrate in reefing either. wherever it lands, fine by me. I'm feeding and changing water just fine regardless.
none of the three params considered for measure here kills fish in a display reef as an originating cause, so they're not important to focus on. disease control issue is the largest cause of fish loss on this site or any other, followed distantly by hardware failures and salinity acclimation means
none of the three params considered for measure here kills fish in a display reef as an originating cause, so they're not important to focus on. disease control issue is the largest cause of fish loss on this site or any other, followed distantly by hardware failures and salinity acclimation means
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