ammonia high. screwed?

H

hamf

New member
my sps frags are not doing well. no poly extension and one is going white from bottom up. almost as if it is deteriorating. i did 80% water change yesterday. i have a 75 gal display and 30 gal sump. the tank was established when i bought it but was not taken care of that well imo. i have had it since dec. i bought some sps frags about 2months ago. too soon probably, too late now. i ran my tests today and looked good. took to lfs to confirm my tests and looked good other than ammonia. alk 8, cal 500, mag 1400, nitrite 0, nitrates 0,phosphate. 25, salinity 1.025. ammonia .25 or .5. cant remember what lfs wrote down since i left it at the store. the phosphate from lfs was .25. if im doing my red sea test correctly, i am more closer to 0. everything in tank is ok other than the coral. rbta are fine, fish and other inverts are all fine. i have diatoms on rocks and sandbed. almost as if im cycling again but not sure why. would the ammonia be doing thism
 
i am missing my wrasse. thought it might be hiding but that was 3wks ago. i figured if something happened to it, i would have already seen the damage? it wasn't big. maybe 3" figured crabs and urchin and shrimp would have taken care of it before it messed up water? idk. i looked all over other than moving every rock. didnt want to mess with 80+lbs of rock
 
hamf said:
i am missing my wrasse. thought it might be hiding but that was 3wks ago. i figured if something happened to it, i would have already seen the damage? it wasn't big. maybe 3" figured crabs and urchin and shrimp would have taken care of it before it messed up water? idk. i looked all over other than moving every rock. didnt want to mess with 80+lbs of rock
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I doubt a 1 dead fish would spike your ammonia, the tank is a pretty decent size. I had fish die in my display which I was unable to fish out and never had ammonia spike because of that. Scavengers usually help avoid that

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You say the tank was established when you bought it. How did you empty it and transport the live rock and sand? Did you keep any of the original water? How long was everything out of the water or how long did it sit in water? If you used fresh water to house the stuff did you use dechlorinated salt water?
 
Did they use API test kits? They are notorious for showing a little ammonia when there probably isnt any..

Corals need stability in parameters.. Have you been keeping alk stable? Swings in it can certainly cause SPS corals to go through RTN/STN rapid/slow tissue necrosis..

Frankly the parameters you posted are more or less fine so its likely something else.. or just swings in parameters making it not happy..
 
we put all the rock in containers with original water. i did a water change a couple days after i got. had to wait for my ro water. everything was out for maybe a couple hrs. out of tank, not water
 
i did not ask what they used. i probably should. im beginning to think i was feeding too much. could this cause a diatom outbreak and coral issues? that was only thing i have done different in last couple weeks
 
Corals tolerate ammonia that would kill a fish, but can fail to thrive with a nitrate or phosphate reading that wouldn't be a problem for a fish.
 
+1^ if you had an ammonia spike for any reason it was caused by something else. Did you use the same sand bed? That can easily cause an ammonia spike. Every time I've upgraded tanks, I always swap out the sand for new sand to avoid unleashing nasty diatoms trapped in the sand bed. Specially if you don't have anything solid stirring it up like a sand sifting goby or starfish

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see. that what i thought. i figured if my ammonia was badn my fish and inverts would be first to show signs. but they are all doing well. i thought i have a small bio l9ad and so a few weeks ago i started feeding more. alot more. had a hair algae problem and used vibrant reef cleaner. i used more than recommended. maybe that did it? it worked great but maybe i messed up using too much. right before all this, i noticed i started growing more corraline algae and then this.
 
i definitely did not change out sand bed. i didnt see that i should have until after i set everything back up. ughhh. my goby moves the sand a bit plus i have a few nassarius snails. thought about a sandsifting star. worried i might not have enough to keep it alive.
 
hamf said:
lfs used api ammonia test. ive done 2 and both read 0.
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If you did two tests and the ammonia is 0 you're probably fine. If it were me I would dump some prime in the tank for the sake of the fish and get a salifert badge for ammonia. Nice for peace of mind IMO. Don't get a sand sifting star it will go hungry and die.


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how can there be ammonia but no nitrite or nitrate. Something is wrong there. You either have a non functioning nitrogen cycle (which is impossible for an established tank) or your kits are not working.
 
i got some purigen. i took a bag out a few days ago. just put a new bottle in. will that be ok or should i get prime?
 
im beginning to think lfs test was off or she read wrong. i use same test as lfs and got 0. something is definitely off or was before water change. i will try to get pics up to give u all an idea whats going on. thanks for the advice already.
 
 
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