Mysterious Ammonia Spike

[Darth_Tater]

Hi all,

So I've got my 40 breeder that has been running a little over a year. There is about 1" of sand in it. Wednesday I came home from work to a terrible smell in the tank (smelled like dead snail) and most of the hard corals looking really bad. There was also ammonia in the tank for the first time since my initial cycle.

I don't have any large snails in the tank, and most of the small ones I could see looked fine and were moving around. All fish and shrimp are accounted for and look fine. All equipment was running fine.

I have a couple theories, but I'm wondering if this could have been the cause: Last week I added 60 dwarf and 30 regular Cerith Snails. Before adding them, the sandbed had remained undisturbed for probably 6+ months. Remembering that the sandbed is only 1" deep, does anyone think the new snails stirring it up could have caused a major ammonia spike?

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[thegrun]

You may have had several of the new snails die. I would make a large water change,35% or larger, add carbon and dose with Prime or one of the other ammonia neutralizing products.

 

[Darth_Tater]

I had that thought too, but I've had large Turbo snails die on me and not cause any issue. I figured a turbo would be MUCH more pollution than a few small ceriths. But either way, I did a 10 gal water change on Wednesday and another yesterday. The tank smells much better but the corals are still looking really bad. I didn't do an ammonia test yesterday since there is still a small amount of smell so I kind of knew there was a little in there. I didn't think about adding carbon or ammonia neutralizing. I may try that this afternoon when I get home. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[Darth_Tater]

You may have had several of the new snails die. I would make a large water change,35% or larger, add carbon and dose with Prime or one of the other ammonia neutralizing products.

Thanks again for the advice. I lost most of my corals, but your tip about Prime may have saved my fish. I knew it neutralized Chlorine and Chloramine, but didn't know it also took care of ammonia!