Ammonia Spike, need advice..

[GunnerO]

In the past few days my Ammonia has spiked up to 2.0. I've got a 75 gallon reef tank, the ammonia has wiped out my pulsating xenias. I've sucked out all the dead xenias. my initial water change was 15 gallon, followed by two five (5) galllon changes within 12 hours. The nitrates have gone down from 20ppm to 10ppm but the ammonia hasn't.
I've also added dry AMQUEL to help remove the ammonia but I need some additional ideas on how to get the ammonia down still. Appreciate any help.

 

[Uncle Salty 05]

Sounds like you might have a dead fish hidden in your rocks somewhere.
Anything go missing lately?

 

[GunnerO]

I had one disappear about two weeks ago (in the rocks), everything seemed ok a few days ago, then I noticed my mushrooms and other softies sort of not acting right. I do remove about 30 pounds of LS from the wet/dry. I rinsed the sand good and put it in the main tank, clouded it up bad, then it went down hill from there. The sand bad was about 2 inches deep, I don't think enough to start a kill off of the xenias.

 

[Uncle Salty 05]

If you rinsed the LS in tap water it is no longer LS. If you put it on top of your sand bed in the DT you smothered some if not all of the bacteria there as well.
If the fish you lost was large I would try to find and remove it ASAP.

 

[reefgeezer]

If your DI Resin is expended it could be leaching ammonium into the top off water and the water you are using to mix your water change water.

 

[GunnerO]

Uncle Salty, I rinsed the LS with the tank water I removed for the water change, so I don't think that would be the problem. I'll change the water again this afternoon and see what happens. I hope it won't change the water so much that the good bacteria in the tank gets sent down the drain.

I'll also do a an ammonia test of my ro/di water to see if I have a leak.