cat contamination

NONNA58

Premium Member
Just curious everybody,
Wouldn't you think that if cat urine got into a nano tank that there would be more than a high ammonia spike? How could the nitrates, nitrites, and ph all be at safe levels?
 
It was not my tank but my friends 24g nano that her cat ****ed
on. I guess it went throught the fans on top. She tells me that the water parameters are fine except for the ammonia and I thought that was impossible. I told her that and she then told me that the nitrites were at 1. and that the nitrates are over 100. I still don't know how high the ammonia is. ph is at 8.8. So I guess she really did not test until tonight. She noticed the tank yesterday when the corals were not opening up.
I don't know how the clowns and the rbt are hanging in.
She is doing small water changes every day to get the parameters back on track.
 
A large water change is better than a lot of small ones. As long as the salinity and temp matches she shouldn't have a problem. Any stress from the reduction of pH is likely better than the gradual decline of elevated A, NO2 and NO3 levels.
 
I agree, i would just do a good sized water change and maybe a protein skimmer would help? lol :lol:
 
nonna the nitrogen cycle is just that, a cycle. ammonia is te first step. if nothing is done to remove the ammonia the others will soon follow. speed depends on how good the biological filter is and then it still takes a while. think of it like the menstral cycle. approximately 28 days. first ammonia then nitrite then nitrate then hopefully nitrogen gas.
people wonder why I don't like cats. filthy little ba........
I would actually think the ph should be lower and possibly the test is faulty. unless it's electronic and she has been monitoring it a while and now it jumped up. who knows with nature though.
I would do daily water changes of at least 50 percent if it was me with that small of a tank. until the ammonia is again undetectable. then worry about nitrite and nitrate reduction.
 
Ha! now was know what you're playing everytime we walk into the store! Caught red handed once again john.
 
I would not worry about it at all.

our cat falls into the one of the prop tanks atleast once a week lol.

dump cat walks around and around until it slips in. you would think it would not go back but now it does not seem to care.
other then some hair in the tank i see no reason for alarm.
I worry more about the cat then the tank because she keeps drinking from the tank.
 
so wrong yet so funny, lol. I hope nothing in the tank dies and she keeps the cat from doing it again. I love my 2 cats but neither would do do anything like that. I have caught my black cat sleeping up on one of the tank braces (tank is empty) and I can totally see her doing some fishing in an open top tank but, that's amusing not nasty like him peeing in the tank. the worst thing they have done is they try to get into things that are white or creamy food wise. lol, one of them pushed a box of powdered donuts that my husband had onto the floor and tried to get into it to eat the donuts the other day.
 
Get that kitty to the vet: when they **** in odd places, it usually means urinary tract infection. A few pills and the manners will improve. I knew one once that managed to do the same on an open pocketwatch on the family mantel. Remarkable aim.
 
it is good to know others are not too concerned about the contamination of their reef's when the feline is around.... i have been *ahem* training the cat to avoid the tank, but as the saying goes "you can teach a dog to stay off the couch. you can teach a cat to stay off the couch... as long as you are in the room"

Mine is much too mischevious to leave that smell alone.... Waiting for him to climb me when i am prepping mysis.

I thought my tank was evaporating kind of fast.... lol
 
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