Lowering Ammonia

[garnet13aj]

My system is about 5 months old and I just tested the water and the ammonia is at about 25 ppm. I haven't added any new LR lately and as far as I know there are no dead creatures giving leaking ammonia into the system. Any ideas on what could be causing this and how to fix it? I just added new snails and hermits a few weeks ago because there was a lot of extra waste on the bottom but it's mostly gone now. Its a 55g FOWLR.
Thanks.

 

[quads4_lif]

you may have had a couple of snails or crabs die behind some rocks. I would start by doing a couple of water changes

 

[ifirefight]

Originally Posted by quads4_lif
I would start by doing a couple of water changes
Yup

 

[geridoc]

That's a lot of ammonia! What fish are in the tank? Have you verified the ammonia reading with another kit, maybe at your lfs or using a friend's kit? If the reading is correct, then something is decaying in your tank or your bioload is very high. How about the other nitrogenous waste readings (nitrite, nitrate), and pH. I would change water and then add Amquel Plus as emergency measures, and keep looking for the source of ammonia.

 

[ophiura]

What test kit do you use?

 

[garnet13aj]

I just did a 20% water change last night. The kit I'm using is a Red Sea Marine Lab kit and I'm pretty sure that it's right although I haven't verified it w/anyone else's because seattle isn't exactly the hub of saltwater aquarium keeping. One thing though is that the 25 ppm isn't exact because it's a color changing test kit so it's somewhere between the 0 and the 25, but it definitly wasn't at zero.
I saw one relatively large turbo snail die in the back yesterday, but from what I can tell the hermits ate it...
My fish list is:
-2 ocellaris clowns
-1 sixline wrasse
-1 royal gramma
-1 baby sfe
I just changed out the bags on my filters and added a new block (whatever that thing is...) to my protein skimmer skimmer today. Could that make a difference?

 

[ophiura]

Red Sea is pretty notorious for a false .25 reading. It would not be uncommon if you had recently fed the tank to see a transient "trace" of ammonia.
Water changes probably won't hurt but I would test with another kit and keep an eye on things.

 

[scsinet]

Originally Posted by ophiura
What test kit do you use?
Yes... methinks you are either interpreting the results wrong, are somehow testing wrong, or are using a defective test kit. If you had 25ppm of ammonia nothing would be alive.
Or did you mean 0.25ppm?

 

[scsinet]

Ok those two replies came in as I was posting...
Is your sixline showing any signs of ammonia poisoning? Lethargy, labored breathing ("gasping")?

 

[garnet13aj]

I'm going to go w/the third option! I really meant .25. So I guess that's better and I did feed recently so I guess that could be good, but what test kit would you say is the best so in the future I really know what I'm seeing?

 

[garnet13aj]

No, the sixline is fine, healthy appetite, swims the whole lenght of the tank etc...

 

[geridoc]

Now you know why your science teachers always insisted that you use a leading zero when there is a decimal: 0.25 and 25 are very different values. Like I said, 25 would be a lot of ammonium, 0.25 isn't.

 

[garnet13aj]

Definitely true, I'm generally a big fan of the leading zero So do I need to do anything to lower the amount of ammonia (in case it isn't a false reading) or is 0.25 actually an acceptable amount?

 

[scsinet]

IMO your sixline would be the first to show signs of stress from elevated ammonia levels. I'm thinking your are fine here, but given the consequences from me being wrong let someone else chime in here as well.
I like the Seachem test kits. The ammonia test uses a reuseable indicator that you stick into a water sample that is either yellow (0.0) or varying degrees of blue (<0.0). Since ammonia is always supposed to be undetectable it's easy to tell if you're in good shape.
Other great kits are made by Salifert, Lamotte, and FasTEST. I use Seachem for everything but Copper, which I use Salifert for.

 

[garnet13aj]

Thanks!

 

[scsinet]

Originally Posted by garnet13aj
Definitely true, I'm generally a big fan of the leading zero So do I need to do anything to lower the amount of ammonia (in case it isn't a false reading) or is 0.25 actually an acceptable amount?
Any measurable ammonia is unacceptable.
However, you are using a cheap test kit, your animals are showing no signs of NH3 poisoning, the system is well established, and your system has had time to "realign itself" to the bioload of your new additions since it was a few weeks ago that you added them.
I'd say you are okay. I'd get a better test kit somewhat quickly and test for it just to be sure though.