Think I have ammonia ??

[deerhunter06]

Pretty big mistake on my part..... I took about 20lbs of established rock put it in 100g of new water/ new tank thinking I would avoid a cycle boy was I wrong...

 

[brandon429]

lets see pics of the tank and rock, we skip cycles all the time when moving tanks, setting up tanks, cleaning etc

lets see what died in yours

it is possible to have dieoff, and it register like this. just curious if we can see it


also the smell test, if that test is accurate your rock should have pronounced rot smell, does it

 

[deerhunter06]

 

[deerhunter06]

Everything in the middle was added after the ammonia started sky rocketing the initial "established rock" is everything covered in macro algae

 

[deerhunter06]

It's a 300g stock tank I'm not sure what died but something did.

 

[brandon429]

nice detail~ so the ammonia source is coming from the algae mass possibly (or dead tubeworms and pods etc since plants wont rot into ammonia like meat will)? I put in an edit above to see if it smells, only because we like to try and correlate smells to test readouts as ways to validate testing, fun sniffing biology lol. if its not crazy lol, can you lift out a little section and see if it smells obvious ammonia, per the reading it would be quite bad. .25 is quite bad.


the dry rock portions of the pic have no way to leak ammonia, but that tangled mass sure might. neat post

 

[deerhunter06]

nice detail~ so the ammonia source is coming from the algae mass possibly? I put in an edit above to see if it smells, only because we like to try and correlate smells to test readouts as ways to validate testing, fun sniffing biology lol.


the dry rock portions of the pic have no way to leak ammonia, but that tangled mass sure might. neat post

There is actually no smell.

 

[deerhunter06]

There were a substantial amount of bristle worms in the macro. Not sure if they have died or what either way my plan has back fired

 

[brandon429]

then we are on the hunt for ghost readings, which is also common in reefing (false ammonia)

the plants will not cause it, has to be meat. hermodice rotting sure might, but they need time to rot. they wont just die and decompose that quickly, takes maybe 5-10 hrs guessing maybe less to start a true ammonia pump due to bac digestion of the mass.

just a fun exercise that's all, to see what the actual readings are. to get 300 gallons up to that much ppm above signifies a real source of meat/protein degrading, not plants, fascinating.

for once in my life im curious to see what API ammonia reads, do you have any other test kits to compare

also, a neat trick of ammonia hunting is you can -see- and quantify the source, its never microscopic with readings this big. can you find such dead worms


also handy

is any part of the tank including the sand known to be cycled and can handle some bioload?

 

[deerhunter06]

then we are on the hunt for ghost readings, which is also common in reefing (false ammonia)

just a fun exercise that's all, to see what the actual readings are. to get 300 gallons up to that much ppm above signifies a real source of meat/protein degrading, not plants, fascinating.

for once in my life im curious to see what API ammonia reads, do you have any other test kits to compare

Been crossing checking with Red Sea/api both are sky high. When I first set the stock tank up I thought for sure everything would go as planned and I had a chevron in there from DD wasn't getting much ammonia and was adding prime just Incase. I was also checking ammonia daily, just Incase cause I don't want to lose the Chevy. Well ammonia starting getting high enough to make me uncomfortable about having the Chevy in there so I pulled him and put him in another QT. I was feeding him in the stock which is also playing a part im sure. All of the sand was live from an established tank.

 

[deerhunter06]

thing I don't really understand is I felt sure the established rock and sand would be enough to handle the bioload of one fish. I guess it could of been a combination of things.

 

[brandon429]

not finalized yet, you have some neat factors at play.

Prime is a known adulterant of ammonia tests goog it
its not that the reading is false, its that its bound and uneventful but can be re released in 48 hours or seomthing Illhave to reread

your live sand carries a massive ability to remove ammonia

no smell

no dead animals

hmm!!

you have nitrification abilities pronounced in both the sand and the live rock itself. Those readings aren't just bare readings though, they are pretty pronounced what a fun challenge. The dilution factor you are working with is unusual, rarely are our ammonia mystery tanks that big.

also, your fish wasn't mentioned as panting and acting crazy, this backs up the side of no free ammonia. what a tug of war we have lol

just fun to brainstorm to see if its leaking ammonia

 

[deerhunter06]

There is a substantial amount of nitrites as well.

 

[brandon429]

well how about this option just brainstorming. take out the added rocks, suspects, hand clean them of all that potential sourcing. add back only rocks with bac>

defeats the purpose of fine live rock for sure, but this is atypical. they are housing rotten meat in them tangles, or dead worms within (its possible to break off a small portion of test rock, look for rot inside, I predict its normal no rot)

of course you could just pull the fish and let it all cycle out in time, I just like to hunt down ammonia sources for fun that's all. our cycling threads work off a rule that ammonia generation in verified large/sustained amounts has sources you can see with the unaided eye as a cause/origination point. fun to test that theory. if its false, a lot of tanks are subject to recycle at any moment~

 

[deerhunter06]

I could but I might as well let it ride now there's nothing in there that I'm worried about. Might as well Let it get a good cycle. Only thing now is I'm changing water every day for the chevron in QT. wish it would hurry up the ammonia has gotten so high I'm thinking about doing a 100% water change you think it would speed things along in this circumstance?

 

[brandon429]

It cannot hurt, but I must expect quick rebound predictably, nulling the change.... Somewhere a meat pump exists!

 

[deerhunter06]

It cannot hurt, but I must expect quick rebound predictably, nulling the change.... Somewhere a meat pump exists!

Pulled all the macro cranked the PH up to full blast and aimed them towards skimmer hopefully I can oust the source!!

 

[brandon429]

Also consider having test bucket clean sw verified no ammonia

Set suspect rock as is into container, anything pumping true massive amounts into 300 gallons will register in that container within 10 hours

 

[deerhunter06]

Also consider having test bucket clean sw verified no ammonia

Set suspect rock as is into container, anything pumping true massive amounts into 300 gallons will register in that container within 10 hours

It's a 300g stock tank only about half full but I see what you are saying

 

[deerhunter06]

Also consider having test bucket clean sw verified no ammonia

Set suspect rock as is into container, anything pumping true massive amounts into 300 gallons will register in that container within 10 hours

Well over the past 48 hour ammonia has gone to 0. Whatever it was Mother Nature has sorted it out. Now for these sky high nitrites