Ammonia readings

[azul17]

I bought an Ammonia Hanna Checker and my readings were

.7ppm NH4

Or
.66ppm NH3

Which one should I be looking at?
Is my ammonia high? Where should the reading be at?


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[mcgyvr]

Is your tank new/cycling?

 

[azul17]

It's 3 months old. But it cycled already. I found a few death snails. Could that be it.


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[mcgyvr]

Yes that is possible but that IMO is quite a lot of ammonia for a tank at 3 months old with only a few snail deaths..
What size tank? Must be small...

The test levels may also be false..

 

[azul17]

Yes that is possible but that IMO is quite a lot of ammonia for a tank at 3 months old with only a few snail deaths..
What size tank? Must be small...

The test levels may also be false..

It's a Red Sea Reefer 250 (65gallon)
Hanna checker read .7ppm
API reads around .25ppm

Not sure which one to believe lol. I did a 20g water change last night and will be doing another one tomorrow. I will test again tomorrow and see what it comes out.

Should I add more beneficial bacteria?


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[mcgyvr]

How many pounds of rock in the tank?

Have you been adding bacteria lately? It may be the reason for the higher readings as the supplement may contain a food source

At 3 months you shouldnt need to add bacterial products.

 

[azul17]

How many pounds of rock in the tank?

Have you been adding bacteria lately? It may be the reason for the higher readings as the supplement may contain a food source

At 3 months you shouldnt need to add bacterial products.

I have about 60lbs of rock. I haven't added any more bacteria. I bought the IO bio spira last night. I was thinking of adding it tomorrow after the other water change.


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[nereefpat]

Could you tell us more about the cycle?

Did you use some sort of nitrogen source to cycle the tank? Did you see a rise in ammonia levels, and then a drop to zero?

 

[azul17]

Could you tell us more about the cycle?

Did you use some sort of nitrogen source to cycle the tank? Did you see a rise in ammonia levels, and then a drop to zero?

I bought this tank from a guy. He had it for a year. He had it in really bad conditions. When I got it I pretty much put new water In with new sand and I used the same live rock he had. It came with a couple fish so I added bacteria to speed up the process since tank was already stablished. Before adding anything else I waited about a 2 months and during that month it I did not see any spikes of ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. Phosphates were a little high.

I figured tank was cycled already so I added a skimmer and a gfo/carbon reactor.

Now I'm having high nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, phosphates 0. Ph 8.4.

My only guess is the dead snails plus over feeding maybe.

Also 2 weeks ago I was in Japan for 2 weeks and I feel like my tank sitter was over feeding because I found gunk on top of the tank.

Those are my two guesses.


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[mcgyvr]

At 3 months old ANY tank regardless of the process has "cycled"..
High nitrates in a new tank is also quite normal too..

I would simply ignore the ammonia readings
(Not sure why anyone would measure ammonia on anything but a new cycling tank anyways)
Its very unlikely to be a realistic number IMO at this point..