Salt causing ammonia?

Bryan47 · Mar 31, 2015

Thanks Randy! I appreciate your expertise !

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 2, 2015

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing.

Rybren · Apr 2, 2015

deerhunter06 said:
Quit scaring him Greatwhitetang its the DANG test kit. Come on everyone knows API test kit always has a slight green tint when its 0.

Hmmm. I've been using the API test kits for 6+ years and have never seen this 'slight green tint'. I do, however, agree that it is likely nothing to worry about.

deerhunter06 · Apr 2, 2015

Rybren said:
Hmmm. I've been using the API test kits for 6+ years and have never seen this 'slight green tint'. I do, however, agree that it is likely nothing to worry about.

I find it hard to belive u have been in this hobby for 6 years and never heard of this.

piranhaman00 · Mar 23, 2021

BUMP.

I have been doing 40% water changes on a 180 gallon to lower nitrate and planning a 70% this weekend. Is this a bad idea? I am using IO, I can prime the fresh salt water before using?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 23, 2021

piranhaman00 said:
BUMP.

I have been doing 40% water changes on a 180 gallon to lower nitrate and planning a 70% this weekend. Is this a bad idea? I am using IO, I can prime the fresh salt water before using?

What nitrate level is causing these major water changes?

piranhaman00 · Mar 23, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
What nitrate level is causing these major water changes?

100ppm. I plan on doing a 50% sand removal. The 40% water changes work for a few weeks then it starts climbing again. I probably over feed. I just heavily upgraded my skimmer but I want to get the levels much lower to start.

I am having a re occuring bacterial infection on just one fish that comes and goes and I am thinking water quality is the issue.

My current plan is to just use prime on the new water and it should all be taken care of by the BB over night I would assume.

brandon429 · Mar 23, 2021

at no time will adding newly mixed water add dangerous ammonia to your tank

we have threads on file where they dose ml's of actual ammonium chloride into full reefs to nitrogen charge them, what salt brings in is fractional.

that will eliminate the ammonia concern imo, and then water changes + nitrate has been covered by R as inefficient/quickly rebounding.

the major impetus in this thread comes from API testing which isn't seneye testing thankfully, we can see clearer now regarding what adding free ammonia from any source does in a reef tank. its not a concern until its bizarre levels. a cycled reef can take on lesser or more bioload instantly and keep bac equilibrium, we are finding.

piranhaman00 · Mar 23, 2021

It seems odd thought that I will be doing a large water change for nitrate removal which will actually add some nitrate affter nitrification

brandon429 · Mar 23, 2021

if Im not wrong the heart of his article was rebound

nitrate is being pumped from organic stores and feeding and waste metabolism by the minute, not uptaken by plants or other media so it isn't brought in by the water change- its leaked from within from myriad sources right into the cleaned water

that's if I have his article interpreted correctly/about to find out

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 23, 2021

piranhaman00 said:
It seems odd thought that I will be doing a large water change for nitrate removal which will actually add some nitrate affter nitrification

There is much less ammonia than 1 ppm of nitrate equivalent in new salt water. That wouldn't appreciably impact a benefit of a water change if nitrate is very high.

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 23, 2021

Ive seen yellow residue in white salt mix buckets. Im guessing its the small amount if amonia they used to clean the batch.
D

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 23, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 23, 2021

monkeyCmonkeyDo said:
Ive seen yellow residue in white salt mix buckets. Im guessing its the small amount if amonia they used to clean the batch.
D

I assume that was meant as a joke?

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 23, 2021

Ive seen it though. Maybe old salt? Cant remember if it was used.
D

piranhaman00 · Mar 23, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
There is much less ammonia than 1 ppm of nitrate equivalent in new salt water. That wouldn't appreciably impact a benefit of a water change if nitrate is very high.

Sounds good thank you

Harold999 · Oct 6, 2021

This could be a problem when setting up a treatment tank for a sick fish with freshly made salt water, i'm pretty sure many people don't realise they are gonna put their fish in 0.5-1ppm ammonia.

This issue shouldn't be a well kept secret.