Mrs. Gixxerman
New member
Size of tank: 75 gallons
Age of tank 3 Months old
Sump: We are in the process of making one
Skimmer: Grr...I'm drawing a blank here...it's a HOB skimmer and I can't find my cheat sheet with the brand and type
nitrate: 0
nitrite: 0
ammonia: .25 (tried the test three times with API Saltwater masters kit and got three different results .50, .25 and just shy of .25)
temperature: 78 F
Water source: RO
Salinity: 1.024
Alkalinity: 8.4
Lights T5
Calcium: 420
Magnesium: I'm not sure. Don't have a test for it.
Dosing: Chemi-pure for phosphates, and although we have a PH buffer, we haven't used it since we first set up the tank
We have two filters: a Cascade 1000 cannister filter, and a HOB standard Cascade filter that is rated for a 100 gal. tank. It was leftover from our freshwater days, and we thought it couldn't hurt to keep using it until we decided what we wanted to do with our primary filtration method. We cleaned it throughly, and replaced all the cartridges to be safe in setting up the new tank. Both filters have been with the new saltwater setup from the beginning.
We have 75 lbs of live-rock, roughly 20 lbs of base rock which has been in our tank since about the beginning. The live rock was added in groups of 20 lbs over the first week or more.
Livestock: We have two maroon clowns, 2 blue chromis and one Kole Eye Tang. 12 Hermits, 2 peppermints, 1 coral banded shrimp, 4 turbos and a few various smaller snails. We also have a few beginnner corals...finger leather coral, frilly green mushroom and a xenia. Quite a few hitchiker creatures...bristle worms, strange looking white snail/slug like creatures that I finally found ID'd on someone else's thread several weeks ago that escapes my memory at the moment, but is beneficial to the aquarium.
So here's my question...where is the ammonia coming from? We (well my husband does while I supervise...haha) do 10% water changes weekly while cleaning off and rinsing out our filters. We are using Reef Crystals for our saltwater mix. We top off every two days with a gallon of fresh RO water. We have good water movment, with two Koralia powerheads. We DID have an "oh ****" moment on Wednesday. The last water change done Tuesday apparantly didn't include turning the cannister filter back on after we were done. I discovered it the next day, when I noticed that there wasn't much water movment at the top of the tank from the return. I had tested the ammonia the day after the water change, and noticed it at .25. Checked all other params, and everything looked spot on. After about a half hour of wondering what the problem was, I checked the cannister, and whoops! Hubby forgot to plug it back up. By the end of that day, the ammonia was reading zero. Now, over the last two days I've noticed the weird spike.
So what could be causing it? Is it possibly die-off from leaving the cannister filter off for 24 hours? Everything else looks normal. The fish are eating like little piglets, no stress, or breathing changes. No unusual behavior. Everyone seems to be healthy and happy. We've been in freshwater for 10+ years and this is our first saltwater tank. So I'm not an uber-noob...just a minor-noob.
So as a minor-noob...am I missing something here?
(btw, my apologizes in advance if I'm over doing it on the params...I think I've lurked too long on the forum and have to skim over multiple posts of...more info please...haha...so this may be a bit overkill) :spin2:
Age of tank 3 Months old
Sump: We are in the process of making one
Skimmer: Grr...I'm drawing a blank here...it's a HOB skimmer and I can't find my cheat sheet with the brand and type
nitrate: 0
nitrite: 0
ammonia: .25 (tried the test three times with API Saltwater masters kit and got three different results .50, .25 and just shy of .25)
temperature: 78 F
Water source: RO
Salinity: 1.024
Alkalinity: 8.4
Lights T5
Calcium: 420
Magnesium: I'm not sure. Don't have a test for it.
Dosing: Chemi-pure for phosphates, and although we have a PH buffer, we haven't used it since we first set up the tank
We have two filters: a Cascade 1000 cannister filter, and a HOB standard Cascade filter that is rated for a 100 gal. tank. It was leftover from our freshwater days, and we thought it couldn't hurt to keep using it until we decided what we wanted to do with our primary filtration method. We cleaned it throughly, and replaced all the cartridges to be safe in setting up the new tank. Both filters have been with the new saltwater setup from the beginning.
We have 75 lbs of live-rock, roughly 20 lbs of base rock which has been in our tank since about the beginning. The live rock was added in groups of 20 lbs over the first week or more.
Livestock: We have two maroon clowns, 2 blue chromis and one Kole Eye Tang. 12 Hermits, 2 peppermints, 1 coral banded shrimp, 4 turbos and a few various smaller snails. We also have a few beginnner corals...finger leather coral, frilly green mushroom and a xenia. Quite a few hitchiker creatures...bristle worms, strange looking white snail/slug like creatures that I finally found ID'd on someone else's thread several weeks ago that escapes my memory at the moment, but is beneficial to the aquarium.
So here's my question...where is the ammonia coming from? We (well my husband does while I supervise...haha) do 10% water changes weekly while cleaning off and rinsing out our filters. We are using Reef Crystals for our saltwater mix. We top off every two days with a gallon of fresh RO water. We have good water movment, with two Koralia powerheads. We DID have an "oh ****" moment on Wednesday. The last water change done Tuesday apparantly didn't include turning the cannister filter back on after we were done. I discovered it the next day, when I noticed that there wasn't much water movment at the top of the tank from the return. I had tested the ammonia the day after the water change, and noticed it at .25. Checked all other params, and everything looked spot on. After about a half hour of wondering what the problem was, I checked the cannister, and whoops! Hubby forgot to plug it back up. By the end of that day, the ammonia was reading zero. Now, over the last two days I've noticed the weird spike.
So what could be causing it? Is it possibly die-off from leaving the cannister filter off for 24 hours? Everything else looks normal. The fish are eating like little piglets, no stress, or breathing changes. No unusual behavior. Everyone seems to be healthy and happy. We've been in freshwater for 10+ years and this is our first saltwater tank. So I'm not an uber-noob...just a minor-noob.
So as a minor-noob...am I missing something here?
(btw, my apologizes in advance if I'm over doing it on the params...I think I've lurked too long on the forum and have to skim over multiple posts of...more info please...haha...so this may be a bit overkill) :spin2:
