my ammonia test is reading zero...

mr.p

Member
So what do I do now? i've tested it twice and it reads zero now. Is there something I should do? maybe let it sit for 2 weeks or so? it's a 16 gallon tank with 20 lbs of live sand and 6-8 lbs of live rock. In my first saltwater tank I don't know if I ever had an Ammonia spike or anything I just let the tank run and had no problems. That was 4 months ago when I just started. Thanks guys!
 

celacanthr

Active Member
well when ur nitrites and ammonia are at 0 then do a water change and ghost feed the tank for a week, of course testing all week to make sure it doesn't spike again.
 

mr.p

Member
I have a 5 in 1 test strip. nirtates 0 nitrite 0/ ph around 8.0-8.2. Thanks for the help.
 

ppm411

Member
hmm... skeptical about 0 nitrates. As far as I know, (and I'm just a beginner like yourself) trates should be closer to 20 not much higher than that. Ghost feeding for a week as CELACANTHr suggested is a good idea, just to make sure the ammonia doesn't spike. You might just want to add a couple of inexpensive hardy damsels to start and see how they do. I'm going to get crucified for saying that out loud on this forum but, to each is own. You said the tank has been running for 4 months!?
 

mr.p

Member
That was my first tank, this is a new one I set-up a week and a half ago. In my first tank I don't know if I ever had an ammonia spike, I made a rookie mistake and added 4 damsels 1 day after I set the tank up lol. They all lived though, and I would bring in my water to my LFS to get it checked for ammonia and I never had a spike. Weird I guess or maybe I had one but the damsels lived. I'll try that ghost shrimp thing. Thanks for the help. My nirtates do read 0 but i will check again later. Good be my test kit. hmmm
 

celacanthr

Active Member
Don't add a ghost shrimp, ghost feed (where u just put in flake food {as much as u would feed ur fish}) for a week,LOL
 

mr.p

Member
opps lol well I feel dumb. I sure did read over that lol. For some reason those Ghost Shrimp stay in my mind sometimes, I guess I like the name. Okay Ghost feed it is. Do you ghost feed when your levels are only at zero? or even when you have ammonia in the tank?
 

mr.p

Member
Originally Posted by Mr.P
That was my first tank, this is a new one I set-up a week and a half ago. In my first tank I don't know if I ever had an ammonia spike, I made a rookie mistake and added 4 damsels 1 day after I set the tank up lol. They all lived though, and I would bring in my water to my LFS to get it checked for ammonia and I never had a spike. Weird I guess or maybe I had one but the damsels lived. I'll try that ghost shrimp thing. Thanks for the help. My nirtates do read 0 but i will check again later. Good be my test kit. hmmm
Dang I must of been distracted early when making that post. My English teacher would slap me upside the head if she saw all the errors I made. (lol)
 

hot883

Active Member
IMO, 1 1/2 weeks being set up, you might not have spiked. Get 1 raw cocktail shrimp, pel it, and toss it into the tank. That will cause a spike. Ghost feeding this early won't really help. The tank is to young. Go with the shrimp theory to cycle the tank. Be patient and start out right. You will be happier in the long run. Also since we are just starting the tank, get like 15-20 more lbs. of LR.
 

celacanthr

Active Member
Oh, Im sorry i thought u meant u already cycled, LOL, but you may want to ghost feed the tank for a week anyways to see wether u did cycle, or if u haven't. There are some cases where tanks don't cycle or happen at such a small level or to quickly that u don't notice.
 

oceanist

Member
did you use LR uncured, if you did your fine . you could have missed your ammonia spike if you werent testing everyday , i tested every day sometimes twice , my ammonia spike onloy last for 2 days , so your probably fine and where you should be right now /.///....... with NO disrespect to Hot
I wouldnt add a shrimp , because if your ammonia did spike your going to start your cycle over , your nitrates should deffinatly be higher , so what your going to want to do is raise your alkilinity , you can do this by putting just a little bit of aqua safe ion your water , and then add a little bit of brine shrimp , Not alot because once again we dont want your cycle to start over ......... Then again if you dont have LR in your tank , go with Hots advise , because you wouldnt even have the bacteria needed to start a cycle ......... also the nitrates are safe at 0 and that is good however it is highly unlikely for you to have executed a perfect cycle in a week in a half your nitrates should be reading around 20-40 , if your using the mardell test kit , which i think you are , make sure that you arent reading the fresh water scale bacause the .colours are slighty different , the salt water scal is behind the freshwater you have to peel it back .......... i use the same test , i hate liquid tests its to hard to determine the colour
 

mr.p

Member
I'm using the mardel test, there's no peel back on the bottle they have they have a seperate paper in the box for saltwater. I tried to peel it off and there's nothing there. I'm going to test my levels again a little bit later on and see where they are. I wish the colors on the color level chart were more distinguished, they are so much alike I have a hard time reading the PH chart.
 
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