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Ammonia in Seachem?


moovinfast

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So one or two of our corals weren't looking happy so we decided to test the water. And everything looked fine except the ammonia. Ive been having a hard time figuring out why the ammonia in our tank showed up suddenly. Its always been 0 since our first cycle. Its a 72 gallon with a 20 gallon sump and 120+lbs of live rock. We have 2 small clown fish, a blenny, a coral beauty, 3 chrommies and a bubble anemone and a carpet anemone. We did a 15 gallon water change 2 days ago and tested the water yesterday and the ammonia was still high. So I looked for anything dead in the tank. Took out a zoa frag that never opened since we got it and looked like it was melting. Also cleaned out the overflow. Didnt find anything dead in the tank or sump. So today I did another water change of 20 gallons. And here are the results a few after hours after:

 

Ph 8.2-8.4

Temp 79

Salinity 1.025

Nitrate 0-5

nitrite 0

P04 0

Ammonia .5

 

I think its from our salt. We just changed salts the water change before. What should I do? Everything else looks happy except for one zoa frag.

 

 

From left to right. 1.Water from tank 2.Ro/di water with salt 3. Ro/di water

4070730796_5264ce5261_o.jpg

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ive been told for years that the strips just arent reliable at all, if i could make a recommendation, take a trip to seahorse or rose city down in portland, they're both great stores, and have them test your water, just to make sure your kit isnt bad.

 

on a side note, ive never heard of ammonia being affected by the brand of salt, you may have had something die in your tank, a crap, snail, something, and that could be what is causing the ammonia spike.

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ouch, thats a rough trip, but i feel your pain, its over an hour for me

 

how long did you let the water sit before you did the change? i try to let my new water sit with a powerhead and heater for at least 24 hours before i do a change, just to give everything a chance to stabilize. that could be whats causing the spike, if thats the case, id recommend mixing up new water, and letting it set for at least 24 hours and then doing a 25% or better change

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Yes its an API kit. But it hasn't tested high before and I took the water in to Petco (its the only fish place around here) and they tested it with whatever their strips are and it came out the same as our test but their ammonia read .3

 

In my experience, the test strips arent accurate. I have some and they never read the same as Salifert or API tests for the same water. I would do the same checks with another kit. Im on my 6th bucket of Seachem Reef Salt and have never measured any ammonia in a freshly mixed batch.

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I have never tested ammonia from a fresh batch of salt water. Do you have much for a cleaner crew, are you sure there is nothing dead? I would say that chances are if you tested a few days prior and then again now and they were that different that one of the tests (probably the first one) has failed to test correctly.

 

Just do another water change and get a new test kit.

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Its hard to tell in the pic' date=' but the tube on the far right is just the ro/di water and it looks like 0ppm in person. The strip thing comes from earlier. I took a sample of the water to our LFS which is Petco. They use the strips to test the water.[/quote']

 

My bad! The salifert test i use is clear when there is nothing so I was just thinking to fast, sorry. seriously though how long has your tank been setup? I think I can talk for most when I say that if its an established tank and you arnt detecting any nitrates or nitrites then ya shouldnt need to test for amonia! I usualy only test for nitrate's cuz if they show up the odds of nitrites being presint are better so at that point I will test for nitrites and the same for amonia, I only test for it if I test posative for nitrite. Its logical and saves $ on test kits. sure ya need all of them but you wont be going through all of them so fast. I replace my amonia kit once a year and normaly dont even need to use it but I replace my nitrate test kit every 3 monthes or so. cuz I use it.

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