For the past couple of days I've been experiencing an ammonia spike in my tank. Yesterday it tested 2.0ppm so I dosed Prime and did a 25 gallon WC. This morning it is back at 1.0ppm. I dosed prime again and have another 20 gal of fresh saltwater cookin. Any thoughts or ideas on how/why my tank is experiencing an ammonia spike? Nothing new added (except coral), nothing missing or dead (maybe a nassarius snail or two), still running bioplastics. All other parameters are normal and my nitrates continue to drop. I'm puzzled and interested in getting some of the clubs thoughts.
What test kit are you using? My thoughts are that you may have a bad one. After the cycle, I never test for ammonia or nitrites unless something looks amiss in my tank.
What do your corals look like? If your ammonia was really 2.0 things should be dead or dying. Make sure you have good aeration (skimmer and powerheads should be more than adequate) as ammonia detoxifiers can lower dissolved O2. Haven't dosed anything recently that would be harmful to the bacterial population?
Hi everyone thanks for the reply. @John i'm using the API test kit. I tested the fresh saltwater I made and it seemed accurate (read 0 ppm on it). @David the corals look good. Everything has good color and nothing looks like it's dying. Shawn saw my tank yesterday. Haven't dosed anything except 2 part calcium. The fish don't seem to be laboring to breath either. @Rayzback I hope there isn't chloramine in my RO water, my RODI unit is brand new...... Could the bioplastics be causing a bacteria bloom and maybe this is leading to the spike in ammonia? I'll continue to do waterchanges and dose Prime until I get it down. Did 25 gal saturday and 20 gal today.....
If the new water test zero, I agree. I'd think the test kit is working. Nothing died, puzzling to say the least. You're doing everything I would to bring it down. Stop feeding for a few days also... sounds like you know that though
What did it test today? That's really weird. Maybe you had some ammonia but the test over read it? I would think things would have started dying pretty quickly, especially SPS and LPS. Fish would take a little longer. Fingers crossed. That is not my picture! I guess the mystery attachments are at it again.
Hey David, ammonia tested at .25-.50 ppm. Did another 25 gal WC and just took these readings. Ammonia still readable but nitrates are lowest I've seen in months. Now if the Ammonia will go away I'll be headed in the right direction. I do have a birdsnest that receding at the base, but I'm not sure if it's being stung by this favia that's about 5 inches away or a casualty of the ammonia spike.
Do you have a test for alkalinity? Sometimes a big change there can cause SPS recession. You would think if you had that much ammonia your nitrates would be rising not going down. Beats the heck out of me.
