Ammonia and Inverts

[Vinnie71975]

Ok i have kinda a weird question, i have been cycling my tank and my ammonia has been running VERY high avg of 5.0 Mg/L up to 8.0Mg/L and everything thing i have read says that 5.0 or higher ammonia kills all things in a tank other than the Bacteria that converts Ammonia. Here is the question. I have Bristle worms in my tank that as of yesterday were very much alive at 8.0MG/L ammonia on my test kit and today at 5.0mg/L Ammonia they are still alive as are the Brine Shrimp i just put in the tank. Is it possible that something is throwing off the tests?I have Dosed the tank for Calcium and ALK along with Magnesium and Added Seachem Prime to remove chlorine. Other than that the only things put into the tank were Salt( Instant Ocean) water,Black Marine Sand,Some Live Rock, Macro Algae. I also Put in some Soaked dissolved Algae Wafers And Flake Food (blonde moment trying to feed the Aptasia i found in some macro i got) and the Brine Shrimp. Could any of these things be causing 2 different test to show High on the Ammonia when its really not that high? Is it Possible for Brine Shrimp and Bristle worms to Survive if the ammonia is actually that high? If so what is the Likely hood Of them actually Living through it as high as the ammonia is?

 

[Chibils]

I imagine the dissolving food is raising it way up as it decomposes.

Can't tell you about the bristle worms, but they seem like pretty hardy little critters.

 

[hmello@bermexin]

Vinnie, stop feeding during the cycle. There is nothing in your tank that needs food. Let the cycle continue and it will stabilize. The decomposition of the food you are adding is contributing to the high ammonia reading. You may want to do a 30% water change to bring it down a tad. Then leave it alone except for testing. When your ammonia and your nitrite get to zero then you are ready for another 30% water change. The WOO HOO you can start to add your clean up crew.

JMO FWIW

 

[Aquarist007]

please humour me here so I can sort this out a bit:
your tank has been cycling --how long? This is a very important question and will help reefers help answer your questions

why are you dosing with for cal and alk etc for a cycling tank?

are you using r/o water--if so why do you need to add Seachem Prime.

why are you feeding the Aptasia--- I would not think you want that in your tank to begin with---it can take over and kill everything.

why are there brime shrimp in your tank. are you feeding something with them.

its likely the brime shrimp won't survive but the bristle worms can crawl deep down in the live rock and survive.

The reason your ammonia spikes is because the live rock supplies this--this is what starts the cycle--bacteria grow in response

 

[Chibils]

I'd imagine the OP is dosing Prime because it's supposed to neutralize ammonia.

 

[Vinnie71975]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10799171#post10799171 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by capn_hylinur
please humour me here so I can sort this out a bit:
your tank has been cycling --how long? This is a very important question and will help reefers help answer your questions

why are you dosing with for cal and alk etc for a cycling tank?

are you using r/o water--if so why do you need to add Seachem Prime.

why are you feeding the Aptasia--- I would not think you want that in your tank to begin with---it can take over and kill everything.

why are there brime shrimp in your tank. are you feeding something with them.

its likely the brime shrimp won't survive but the bristle worms can crawl deep down in the live rock and survive.

The reason your ammonia spikes is because the live rock supplies this--this is what starts the cycle--bacteria grow in response

why are you dosing with for cal and alk etc for a cycling tank? Trying to help Coraline algae growth

are you using r/o water--if so why do you need to add Seachem Prime. No im using tap water thats why i am using Seachem Prime

why are you feeding the Aptasia--- I would not think you want that in your tank to begin with---it can take over and kill everything. Cause he was cute and i have since gotten rid of him.

why are there brime shrimp in your tank. are you feeding something with them. Yes A small amount of DT's

 

[bertoni]

Dosing calcium and alkalinity won't hurt anything, although the alkalinity can be depressed temporarily by organic acids, so watch that it doesn't pop up too high.

I agree that there's no need to feed at this point except to keep the brine shrimp alive.

I'd do some water changes to try to save animals that are more sensitive to ammonia than bristleworms and brine shrimp. The Prime is likely neutralizing some of the ammonia in the tank. That's one of its jobs. That makes the results from the test kit less meaningful, though, since the neutralized ammonia probably is still showing up on the test kit, for technical reasons.

 

[Aquarist007]

Vinnie --thanks for answering all those questions. I am glad you got rid of the Aptasia--that would have been real trouble later.
I agree with everyone that you really don't need to dose for calcium and alkalinity at this time--the live rock is probably still curing so your alkalinity and pH will flip flop for awhile until the tank matures and stables off--at that point you can raise your alk to 12.5 or so and with calcium you should get lots or corraline growth.