Where is all this ammonia coming from?

[MrPatel]

I'm on Week 3 of cycling my tank, and I can not figure out what's going on! Here's the background

Initial set up of tank: 15G AIO, 10lb Caribsea Live Sand, 10lb Caribsea Life Rock. 77 Degrees F and 1.026ppm. Ceramic Biomedia

Day 7-13: Added two Clownfish. Fed daily for 4 days. Found a pretty bad ammonia spike (0.5ppm). Stopped feeding and started dosing with supplemental bacteria and Prime and tested water 2 times a day. I only used the filter sock during feeding and removed promptly

Day 14: Clownfish didn't make it. Removed the dead fish the same day.

Day 15-22 (today): Stopped doing anything to the water. Ammonia has been steadily declining from 0.5ppm and today is at at 0.25ppm. Nitrite has been at 0 for two days despite peaking at 0.5ppm on Day 18.


So now I'm trying to figure out of I'm missing something or if the laws of chemistry cease to exist in my aquarium. Here's my thought process:


1: There has been no ammonia input for 7 days since there aren't any fish and hence no feedings
2: Ammonia to Nitrite molecules should be 1:1 stoichiometrically
3: Ammonia was present in the water well before Nitrite
4: Ammonia oxidizing bacteria strains reproduce faster than nitrite oxidizing bacteria

Therefore, Ammonia should reach 0 before Nitrite does in this particular system


Here are my thoughts on possible explanations:

1: Prime actually does delay ammonia oxidizing bacteria (but not nitrite)
2: Since supplemental bacteria was added partway through cycling, both ammonia and nitrite oxidizing strains were introduced simultaneously and the nitrite strain established faster
3: The Caribsea Live Sand I bought was bad and has been introducing additional ammonia into the system
4: The ammonia is actually at 0ppm and I can't tell the difference between 0.00 and 0.25ppm on the API Saltwater Master Test Kit color chart
5: The Ammoniaburglar has been sneaking into my house at night and sabotaging my aquarium


If anyone else has any sort of input on this, I'd love to hear some thoughts and ideas!

 

[Lavey29]

Cycling a tank with fish is cruel and often results in death. You need to add nitrifying bacteria then when ammonia gets to 0 check for nitrates.

 

[MrPatel]

Cycling a tank with fish is cruel and often results in death. You need to add nitrifying bacteria then when ammonia gets to 0 check for nitrates.

Thanks. I did notice that! Though this response doesn't even begin to address what I'm talking about in my post.

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks. I did notice that! Though this response doesn't even begin to address what I'm talking about in my post.

Unfortunately you don't know what you are doing and should take a step back and learn the process. If you have ammonia and no nitrate production then tour tank hasn't cycled. Adding prime is doing nothing. You need to add nitrifying bacteria. Then check ammonia and nitrates level. If you show nitrates then dose ammonia again. If it is 0 after 24 hours combined with more nitrate production then your tank is cycled and ready for fish.

 

[Troylee]

You have zero ammonia those api test kits are garbage.. throw it away and have fun with your tank it’s good to go… just stock it slowly..

 

[MrPatel]

So I'm going to try to refrain from being mean because I don't know the community guidelines too well. However it is pretty obvious you literally didn't read my post. Not only did I specify that I did add bacteria, I also provided enough information that concludes I am producing nitrates.

Read my post properly. If you actually have useful information to the CHEMISTRY SPECIFIC inquiry I have (that's on the reef chemistry subforum), I'd like to hear it. If you don't, then just move on.

 

[MrPatel]

You have zero ammonia those api test kits are garbage.. throw it away and have fun with your tank it’s good to go… just stock it slowly..

I had a feeling this was the case. I swear I stare between 0.00 and 0.25 endlessly. They're so similar!

 

[Dan_P]

I'm on Week 3 of cycling my tank, and I can not figure out what's going on! Here's the background

Initial set up of tank: 15G AIO, 10lb Caribsea Live Sand, 10lb Caribsea Life Rock. 77 Degrees F and 1.026ppm. Ceramic Biomedia

Day 7-13: Added two Clownfish. Fed daily for 4 days. Found a pretty bad ammonia spike (0.5ppm). Stopped feeding and started dosing with supplemental bacteria and Prime and tested water 2 times a day. I only used the filter sock during feeding and removed promptly

Day 14: Clownfish didn't make it. Removed the dead fish the same day.

Day 15-22 (today): Stopped doing anything to the water. Ammonia has been steadily declining from 0.5ppm and today is at at 0.25ppm. Nitrite has been at 0 for two days despite peaking at 0.5ppm on Day 18.


So now I'm trying to figure out of I'm missing something or if the laws of chemistry cease to exist in my aquarium. Here's my thought process:


1: There has been no ammonia input for 7 days since there aren't any fish and hence no feedings
2: Ammonia to Nitrite molecules should be 1:1 stoichiometrically
3: Ammonia was present in the water well before Nitrite
4: Ammonia oxidizing bacteria strains reproduce faster than nitrite oxidizing bacteria

Therefore, Ammonia should reach 0 before Nitrite does in this particular system


Here are my thoughts on possible explanations:

1: Prime actually does delay ammonia oxidizing bacteria (but not nitrite)
2: Since supplemental bacteria was added partway through cycling, both ammonia and nitrite oxidizing strains were introduced simultaneously and the nitrite strain established faster
3: The Caribsea Live Sand I bought was bad and has been introducing additional ammonia into the system
4: The ammonia is actually at 0ppm and I can't tell the difference between 0.00 and 0.25ppm on the API Saltwater Master Test Kit color chart
5: The Ammoniaburglar has been sneaking into my house at night and sabotaging my aquarium


If anyone else has any sort of input on this, I'd love to hear some thoughts and ideas!

What supplemental bacteria did you add?

 

[brandon429]

if I ran this thread through my 40 page cycling thread/how to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle it would read this way Mr. P

you are past day ten, the ammonia drop date on any common cycling chart so all retrospective views don't matter. the test kits you are using can be searched to show truly wild ranges on fully aged reefs, much less cycling ones. due to # of days underwater, previous stocking, feeding, bottle bac and now nearly a month, what Troy said is correct, your cycle is done.

in order to answer all your retrospect questions we'd need you to have posted seneye data.

 

[MrPatel]

What supplemental bacteria did you add?

Full Bottle of Dr. Tim's on the first day. Then Seachem Stability every day for as long as the fish were alive. Then zero after that.

 

[brandon429]

where you stand now: no more testing for ammonia and nitrite is needed on this aquarium as long as water is in it. nitrite doesnt factor any longer in reef tank cycles though I know you read it does, that's the old way. what you're getting now is the new new new cycling science.

stopping feeding the fish could have been in play, acclimation stresses, doesn't matter now though as this tank is cycled.

before adding fish you need to read the disease forum on vectoring when skipping qt-it may be too late already.


regardless of what happened in the first ten days, you are done cycling now and those kits you're using aren't helpful any more because you'll expect zero ammonia and the vast majority of reef tanks don't run zero ammonia, on any kit. they're too subjective for you to use. Dr Tims is the single most used fish-in cycling bottle bac in reefing, per your writing it was added in delay. but that doesn't matter now. your cycle is now completely fixed and you didn't have to do anything. there are no three + week ammonia drop charts for cycling for a reason.

 

[MrPatel]

if I ran this thread through my 40 page cycling thread/how to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle it would read this way Mr. P

you are past day ten, the ammonia drop date on any common cycling chart so all retrospective views don't matter. the test kits you are using can be searched to show truly wild ranges on fully aged reefs, much less cycling ones. due to # of days underwater, previous stocking, feeding, bottle bac and now nearly a month, what Troy said is correct, your cycle is done.

in order to answer all your retrospect questions we'd need you to have posted seneye data.

Thanks Brandon! I didn't know that the API test kit was that finicky.

 

[MrPatel]

where you stand now: no more testing for ammonia and nitrite is needed on this aquarium as long as water is in it. nitrite doesnt factor any longer in reef tank cycles though I know you read it does, that's the old way. what you're getting now is the new new new cycling science.

I did read about Nitrite testing not being necessary/old school. Admittedly this is my first tank in over 12 years. I just did it anyway to confirm that something was happening to the ammonia. I am getting nitrates as well, which I didn't mention in the post. But yeah, they are present.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, Prime likely does nothing useful for ammonia, based on careful lab tests, and this is a real life example of it.