ammonia off the chart!

azonic

azonic

Active Member
I brought a water sample to my LFS today to make sure I was reading my tests right, it seems my ammonia levels have gone off the chart for the test kit, which goes as high as 8.0. He said that was REALLY high for the amount of time I've had my tank running( 4 days ). There was only 26 pounds of live rock in the tank...Im thinking the 2 dead shrimp that I put in caused it because when I took them out, they smelled pretty damn nasty. Anyway, I picked up another 10 pounds of live rock today, boosting me to 36 pounds, 14 more to go before i reach my desired amount! Pictures coming soon!!
 
amphiprion

amphiprion

Member
I wouldn't add anymore live rock until the ammonia levels retreat. With ammonia that high, any beneficial critters that came with the live rock are going to die!
 
kris walker

kris walker

Active Member
That's a good point. I agree. If possible, wait till ammon drops before putting this new LR in. You can put the LR in a bucket of saltwater until the levels drop (assuming you keep it at room temp around 70F).
kris
 
m1rodrig

m1rodrig

Member
I agree with the cycle in a bottle.Some people don't like it they say it is not a natural way and they don't like doing anything that is not natural to the tank.I have had success with cycle in a bottle.It provides many good bacterias
 
ren

ren

Member
I wouldn't add any magic cycle stuff - it doesn't do a thing except throw off your readings. Nothing is going to magically cycle the tank. 1 thing though is ya shouldn't have taken out the shrimp Leave em in - the ammonia will go to zero while they are in - they turn into a jellyfish looking thing and slowly desinigrate sp? into nothing. this keeps the bacteria that your building fed.
HTH
 
kris walker

kris walker

Active Member
I think he had the shrimp in producing ammonia for about a week before he took them out. I would guess that a week of non-zero ammonia is long enough, but I could be wrong.
EDIT: nevermind, I see it was for 4 days now. Tough call. I guess the LR have bacteria on them which will seed any other potential media in your tank pretty fast. Tough call.
kris
 
karvis

karvis

Member
my amm is 8 and dropping i bought this stuff called something like fulival 900(sp?) it has live sw bacteria. it works!
 
ren

ren

Member
I've seen alot of posts on here from people that used these bacteria additions. They are always having post cycling problems. On my 54gl I used 4 large grocery shrimp and left em there - never took em out - took about 3 1/2 weeks for the cycle - huge ammonia and nitrite spikes - but everything did zero out with the shrimp still in producing.
As Broomer says - "your tank ~your choice". This is just what I've seen here and experienced myself.
HTH
 
m1rodrig

m1rodrig

Member
I did cycle my tank with the cycle stuff.My next tank I will probably use the shrimp.I didn't know about the shrimp until I started reading this bb.However I did have good results with the cycle.And I did use it on occasions to lower my Ammonia along with a polyfilter.It does work.
 
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