Ammonia 0.25 on old tank. HELP!!!!

[alco1]

Hi all,

New to this website.

I'm having an Ammonia issue, I have a fully stocked aquarium that's been working for about 2 years.

Stock I have is:

Yellow Tang
Blue Tang
Lopezi Tang
Labouti Wrasse
Foxface
Archiles Tang
and 2 small other tangs (can't remember the names)

Currently running a 1000l tank.

Full with live rock, refugium, skimmer, biopellet reactor, crushed coral and filter media/sock.

My ammonia has decided to go up to 0.25 with 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate and ph 8.2

Can't work out a way to remove this ammonia.

Hoping someone may be able to help.

Any advise would be great, Thanks.

 

[Evo8]

Try adding some chemipure in your filtration!

 

[alco1]

thanks for the reply but wouldn't chemipure just neutralise the ammonia level and get it non-toxic like all the other products like prime or stress coat. but with all the fish in the tank, wouldnt the ammonia just re-appear over time???

really want to work out if I should just risk it and leave it and let the aquarium do its little ammonia-nitrite-nitrate cycle.

I understand that this cycle normally happen on new setups but why now after a 2yr setup???

 

[huma-huma]

This is roughly a 260g tank? Id say either you lost a fish and its decaying or you recently changed feeding habits
Oh and dont add any chems, thats not addressing the problem, you would just be covering it up.

 

[Evo8]

Your not missing any fish? Crabs any of that stuff? I would just watch it..daily water tests..and expecially watch the fish closely and make sure they are not showing signs of illness from stress this can induce..what are the rest of your levels? What kind of test kit are you using? Is it new? Whens the last time you did a water change? What do you use for water?

 

[aquandrew]

if you aren't missing anything in the tank, like a crab, shrimp or fish that could have died and caused an ammonia spike, and you added the wrong chemicals you may have killed some BB. just thinking of all the possibilities have you cleaned anything in the sump? did you use RODI or tank water? the sump actually holds quite a bit of BB and if you cleaned that too much you could have killed some BB. has your skimmer started skimming less than normal? it removes compounds that cause ammonia and if its changed it could cause a spike.

 

[alco1]

thanks all for the replies, theres only been 1 death (scotts fairy wrasse) but got it out about 30 seconds after it died so that wouldn't of caused ammonia I wouldn't think. Havent cleaned the sump for a long time and the skimmer/refugium etc is working perfectly. I did a 25% water change about a week ago doing my usual monthly/6 weekly water change. I use tap water with to top up/water change with the De-chlorinating chemical that ive always used, never use an RO filter.

All the other fish are living healthy lives and no other fish missing. I use API Ammonia testing kit, its probably about 3 months old.

Can't seem to work it out, all I could think is that maybe the tap water has ammonia in it, but where I live the regulations of tap water has to be 0 ammonia.

But Evo8 i'll try and watch it daily and hope fully it'll go away.

 

[MarinaClown]

My ammonia has decided to go up to 0.25 with 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate and ph 8.2

Based on this I say either something died or you are overfeeding. At first I thought something "anti-bacterial" got in your tank and de-nitrified your system. When that happens, ammonia readings go up but no detectable nitrites/trates. Another possibility is that you have a chemical that's causing the ammonia spike in which case I suggest a poly pad.
I would do water changes for 2-3 days and it will come back to normal. Stuff happens.

 

[huma-huma]

id look into chloramines. some water conditioners (like Prime) will actually break the bonds between Ammonia and the chlorine. so in essence if you had high levels of chloramine in your waterm then used Prime or something similar, it may leave traceable amounts of ammonia.

thats a possibility, however id really try to get on a more frequent water change schedule. once every 4-6 weeks isn't good.

 

[alco1]

Nope, not using any poly pads or anything like that.

Possibly could be overfeeding.... never really thought about that lol.

I'll just daily test it for the next 2-3days (without feeding them) and if there's no improvement ill do a water change until it's all fixed up.... hopefully.

I'll keep everyone posted, any other advice would be great
Again thanks a lot, really appreciate it.

 

[Evo8]

Test your tap water for ammonia..I tested Myne and came up with between. .25 and .5 ppm..

 

[alco1]

thanks evo8. I tested the tap water. its on 0 ammonia.

tested the tank its still on 0.25 ammonia, 10 nitrate and 0 nitrite.

ill guess ill keep testing the aquarium for the next few days and hopefully itll drop without feeding the fish for a few days. if it still hasn't dropped, guess ill do a water change.

 

[Evo8]

try testing your fuge water also..

 

[alco1]

Day 1: originally ammonia on 0.25, nitrite 0 and nitrate 10
Day 2: ammonia still on 0.25 nitrite 0 and nitrate has moved down to 5.

Also tested ammonia in the fuge Evo8, it's on 0.25.

Is there any reason why nitrate has dropped to 5 and ammonia hasn't changed?? I double tested the nitrate to make sure and it's definitely moved to 5. I always thought the cycle was ammonia-nitrite-nitrate, shouldn't ammonia be dropping and not the nitrate??

Is it possible that there may be a whole bunch of fish crap under some live rock or something that's causing all this???

Thanks

 

[Evo8]

Possibly..and that is weird your nitrates went down.. .25 is minimal ammonia (still toxic though) so the nitrates might nor be reacting as one would think..is there any dead spots in your tank? Maybe an accumulation of food in a corner somewhere?

 

[alco1]

I think i've found the source of this ammonia. I tested for ammonia in my spare tank, it's a 200l tank that i use to make sea water for water changes. The test in the spare tank has 0.25 ammonia!!! how?? all it is, is a tank with a powerhead to mix the salt with the water and a heater, and the only chemical i use is a DE-chlorine chemical.

Also tested ammonia on the tap where i get the water from to put in the spare tank and it's on 0 ammonia.

Can sea-salt carry ammonia???? has anyone ever experienced this????

Thanks,

 

[Evo8]

I think i've found the source of this ammonia. I tested for ammonia in my spare tank, it's a 200l tank that i use to make sea water for water changes. The test in the spare tank has 0.25 ammonia!!! how?? all it is, is a tank with a powerhead to mix the salt with the water and a heater, and the only chemical i use is a DE-chlorine chemical.

Also tested ammonia on the tap where i get the water from to put in the spare tank and it's on 0 ammonia.

Can sea-salt carry ammonia???? has anyone ever experienced this????

Thanks,

the only thing i can think of right now, is it's going threw a cycle seeing as it's an empty spare tank..you must keep an ammonia source in there to keep it going..perhaps a blue damsel? maybe all the good bacteria died because it had "nothing to eat" (no ammonia source) and kickstarted a cycle..