Ammonia level question

[Swiftler]

I had a spike not to long ago that killed my fish, but luckily my corals survived. Anyways been doing water changes weekly and I think things are back to normal. My question is could we use products such as AmQuel and Novaqua in conjunction with water changes to lower levels of ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite?

 

[mr_X]

That stuff won't lower levels, it just makes them less toxic. You need to figure out why this ammonia is showing up, and correct that. Did you figure out what caused it?

 

[Swiftler]

I think it was die off from some new rock that I put in the tank last weekend. I checked my levels this morning and they seem to be holding near zero on both ammonia and nitrate. My corals (frogspawn, green star polyp, and leather toadstool) and doin fantastic and my hermit and camel shrimp are doing great too

 

[mr_X]

Those camelback shrimps are not reef safe. They will eat corals.

I would add fish sparingly once you've reached zero on ammonia and nitrite.
Any late rock additions must be cured in a separate container.

 

[EriksFish315]

Or get dry base rock would be a good idea. That's what I plan on doing down the road.

 

[Swiftler]

Camelbacks are bad huh? Are peppermint shrimps safer? I'm going to the LFS to pick up some more cc today.

As for the rock, the guy I got it from said that he just removed it from his tank and so the rock was still fresh. Well that was obviously a lie. I learned the hard way not to trust all aquarist. I'll be qt all rock for a month from now on

 

[mr_X]

Yes, peppermint shrimp are safer.