Alysiak00
New member
I figured i would run this by you guys because i am out of ideas. My buddies 90gal display (30 gal sump), total volume of around 115gals is stumping me. The ammonia will not drop below 8ppms even after doing a 50% water change.
Heres the scoop:
-tank has been fine for about 6 months till now when he bought a new fish (tang of some sort)
-apparently he bought a fish and it died within 8hrs
-I told him to check his params and sure enough his ammonia was at the max on the test kit (8ppm)
-He then told me that the sand bed was from the original owner when he bought the tank used around 6 months ago.
-Ive been running bare bottom on my 40b reef and no issues in the last 18months. so i figured we could remove the sand bed and atleast get his FOWLR easier to maintain.
-I then went over and checked out the tank. Heres where it was at when i showed up.
-No nitrates, no nitrites, ammonia through the roof (8ppm), salinity at 1.020, 8.1 ph, ect ect.
-equipment was good except his new coralife super skimmer (two months) was draining right back into the tank instead of blocking off the cup or running the line into a collection cup.
-I fixed the skimmer line issue, upped his flow, removed the sandbed, checked the RO water's ammonia reading zero, and did a 50% waterchange. Everything has been fine other than the ammonia (its still at 8ppm).
-------------------------------------------------------------
So here is where i am out of ideas. He has about 50-75lbs of live rock, im guessing of course, that looks healthy which i dont believe to be leaching anything. He only has a damsel, green puffer, and as of yesterday he had a snowflake eel but it just died randomly. I have no idea what is going on. I have told him to change 15gals of water every 3 days and he has done so for almost a week and a half with no change at all on the ammonia. skimmer is working, all the pumps are on, theres no dead fish hiding anywhere, what else could it possibly be?
TIA
Heres the scoop:
-tank has been fine for about 6 months till now when he bought a new fish (tang of some sort)
-apparently he bought a fish and it died within 8hrs
-I told him to check his params and sure enough his ammonia was at the max on the test kit (8ppm)
-He then told me that the sand bed was from the original owner when he bought the tank used around 6 months ago.
-Ive been running bare bottom on my 40b reef and no issues in the last 18months. so i figured we could remove the sand bed and atleast get his FOWLR easier to maintain.
-I then went over and checked out the tank. Heres where it was at when i showed up.
-No nitrates, no nitrites, ammonia through the roof (8ppm), salinity at 1.020, 8.1 ph, ect ect.
-equipment was good except his new coralife super skimmer (two months) was draining right back into the tank instead of blocking off the cup or running the line into a collection cup.
-I fixed the skimmer line issue, upped his flow, removed the sandbed, checked the RO water's ammonia reading zero, and did a 50% waterchange. Everything has been fine other than the ammonia (its still at 8ppm).
-------------------------------------------------------------
So here is where i am out of ideas. He has about 50-75lbs of live rock, im guessing of course, that looks healthy which i dont believe to be leaching anything. He only has a damsel, green puffer, and as of yesterday he had a snowflake eel but it just died randomly. I have no idea what is going on. I have told him to change 15gals of water every 3 days and he has done so for almost a week and a half with no change at all on the ammonia. skimmer is working, all the pumps are on, theres no dead fish hiding anywhere, what else could it possibly be?
TIA
