Causes of ammonia

[keisersosei]

My ammonia got up to about .5 the other day so I did a 25% water change. The next day I tested again for ammonia and it was just a little below .5, maybe .35 or so. It should have made more of an effect, right? I realize that just changing the water is only temporary and I need to find the source, but I have no idea what it could be. I have about 5 snails, a couple of hermits, coral banded shrimp, cucumber, clown fish, and a linckia star. They are all doing fine with no signs of stress. I'm thinking it may be my test kit. Would my livestock be dead with ammonia like that? The only thing that I can think of that would cause the ammonia spike is that I've had about 10-15 snails die in about a week. But I never actually see the snails and sometimes see the hermits eating their remains, so I wouldn't think that they had polluted the water. Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[broomer5]

Assuming your test kit is giving your good information - and having an ammonia reading of .5, then doing a 25% water change would give you a reading of .38 or .39 or so.
Your reading of .35 makes perfect sense to me.
You removed 25% of the saltwater that contained the ammonia and replaced it with an equal number of gallons of newly mixed saltwater.
One would expect this result doing a 25% water change.
You didn't mention the size of your tank - but having 10-15 snails die, and not removing them could certainly cause an ammonia spike in my opinion.
Even if the hermit crabs eat them - hermits are not total waste eliminators - they convert waste by eating it - but do produce waste to some degree as well. What goes in - some comes out as waste.
If you think you test kit is giving you funky readings - have the tankwater tested by your lfs and compare their results to yours.
If you have high ammonia - you should continue doing water changes to get it down - or risk losing more livestock.

 

[ruaround]

The only reasons why there would be any ammonia in your tank is that it hasnt cycled ~or~ your filtration isnt working ~or~ overstocked ~or~ death. How old is your tank, and what do all do you have in your tank? Please list everything...DSB, CC, LR, Inhabitants...

 

[keisersosei]

That's true. I guess it was kind of dumb of me to expect the problem to go away completely when I only take remove part of it. How often can I do water changes? Once a day, twice a day?

 

[keisersosei]

Runaround:
Maybe I've been misinformed or have misunderstood, but I don't think that's correct. Ammonia occurs when there is unremoved die-off or from overfeeding.
I have a DSB (well, almost, 3-4"), 60 lbs live rock, Emperor 280 and Penguin Biowheel 125 hang-on filters, and a Rio 1100 powerhead. The tank is 55 gallons and 4 months old. It has definitely cycled.
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: ~15
Calcium: 350
Phosphates: 0
Alkalinity: Normal
pH: 8.3

 

[keisersosei]

Nevermind, ruaround, you must have modified your posting while I was replying. And sorry about the mispelling of your name, I must have been thinking about the Blues Traveler song.

 

[ruaround]

I did modify...sorry i was alittle qwik to reply, I thought i had put everything in my reply i wanted. I re-read as i hit post reply and realized i hadnt. Its all good about the misspelling, happens all the time...my name is actually a question...Are You Around? doesnt have anything to do with the Blues Travlers...

 

[ruaround]

<a href="http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html#how-much-ammonia" target="_blank">read this</a>

 

[keisersosei]

So, how often can I change the water?

 

[ruaround]

You can do them as often as you like. In small amounts (5 to 10%) 2 or 3 times a week. Some people say large amount less frequent, some less water more frequent. Its up to you.

 

[sgt__york]

I had a similar problem the other day. I have been cycling my tank and had really expected it to be done.
I saw the ammonia spike up, then fall off.. then nitrates spiked off the charts.. then tracked them on their way down. My last testing (1wk ago) showed ammonia at .25 (not sure why), nitrate at .25 (was on way down), and nitrate at 10ppm.
THIS tells me.. there is bacteria that is both consuming the ammonia and nitrite - thus producing the nitrate. Except for the trace of ammonia - this seemed quite normal for the initial cycle.
However - 1 week later... i am reading 0 nitrites and 20 nitrates - which is perfect. I know i need to do a 50% water change at the end of an initial cycle - and this shows nirtites are being converted - thus the "END" of the cycle.
HOWEVER - my ammonia took a readin go 4-5ppm! WHOA! What's going on here?
Now, the night before i DID overfeed. I only have 6 sm damsels, ive been feeding flake food. They had already eaten for the day - but I had a house sitter over that wanted to know how much they needed to be fed. Dummy me, showed em and put in a tad too much - fish were half asleep as it was - so i'm SURE that was part of it. But would this cause a spike up to 4-5ppm????
And if so, in such an ammonia spike - if u have an esablished system of bacteria - shouldn't this stimulate their growth and "QUICKLY" return it to 0 (granted increasing ur nitrate levels) since ur bio media is not starting from scratch?
I hate to go zebra hunting... but I wondered as well.. is it possible to have lagging ammonia due to improper currents in the tank? Not INSUFFICIENT flow, but IMPROPER currents? ie, a constant cycling of the 'same' water in circles rather than getting an actual TURNOVER of all the water? Or does simple water displacement guarantee a full turnover???
The reason i ask, i notice when i place something floating in the top - it doesn't usually make it to the overflow - but circles around the tank. I have PLENTY of current/flow.
ALSO - my overflow has 2 sponges in it (filters for debris). Is it possible that these capture things that slowly decay - actually grow bacteria on the sponges that are in a constant produce/die off - thus producing cyclings of ammonia - that appear as a low .25 constant reading?? My tank is an older reef style - it has a small overflow box in 1 corner - water overflows into it - it's drilled in the bottom, but has a tall piece of mesh plastic for water to flow into it - w/2 spong filters around it. I think this may be a little different that some of the large units i've seen on others tanks.