Elevated Ammonia levels and Nitrate

[FindingNemo]

Hi,

My levels are reading 0.25ppm for ammonia and 5.0ppm for Nitrate. The nitrate has been elevated for a while, the ammonia is new though. My tank is 46 gallons and has been running for just over a year. I just started using RO water and have put about 10-13 gallons in within the last 3 weeks. I recently lost one of my corals, the others seem to be doing ok, however my torch coral has just shed another one of its sections, so it is currently sitting wedged in one of my rocks. What do I do about my levels, how often should I be doing a water change, and will the torch coral be ok, is it normal for it to do that???

THANKS!!!

[Reefing Madness]

Need to do water changes every couple of days, or do a couple of huge water changes to get that Ammonia out of the tank, immediately. As far as the head coming off its base, well when mine did that, it died. All of its head come off or is it shedding the head? The Nitrates at 5 are not a huge factor yet. Ammonia on the other hand is very bad for your tank. You have something die that you missed? RO without the DI should not have any Ammonia in it, did you test your new RO water for that?

[FindingNemo]

Need to do water changes every couple of days, or do a couple of huge water changes to get that Ammonia out of the tank, immediately. As far as the head coming off its base, well when mine did that, it died. All of its head come off or is it shedding the head? The Nitrates at 5 are not a huge factor yet. Ammonia on the other hand is very bad for your tank. You have something die that you missed? RO without the DI should not have any Ammonia in it, did you test your new RO water for that?

It shed its head and this is the second one, nothing has died in the tank except for the one coral, all my fish are fine, along with my 5 snails and 2 hermit crabs. I will do more water changes and later test the RO water next time I make a bucket. How many gallons would you consider a huge water change??


I have also attached pictures of the torch coral. And a picture of the algae that I have been fighting, could this be elevating the ammonia??

[Reefing Madness]

WOW. The coral still looks healthy. Its even extended. Weird. Got me on that one. Keep cleaning up the tank, you'll beat it out in a week of 2. Those diatoms dn't last very long. But, what did you put in the tank that would hav caused them to bloom. More rock prehaps? Huge water change in my books is 50%. Do 2 of those and check the water again to see if you need a third one.

[FindingNemo]

WOW. The coral still looks healthy. Its even extended. Weird. Got me on that one. Keep cleaning up the tank, you'll beat it out in a week of 2. Those diatoms dn't last very long. But, what did you put in the tank that would hav caused them to bloom. More rock prehaps? Huge water change in my books is 50%. Do 2 of those and check the water again to see if you need a third one.

The only new thing that was put in the tank was a cleaning shrimp because I had a parasite that was nibbling on my fish, I had to turn up the temperature to 82 could that have caused it to grow quicker?

[Reefing Madness]

Never seenit do that by just raising the temp. But, never know. If thats the only thing you changed, then all yo have to do is wait it out. So you bought a Cleaner Shrimp and raised the temp to try and kill ICH I take it.

[FindingNemo]

Never seenit do that by just raising the temp. But, never know. If thats the only thing you changed, then all yo have to do is wait it out. So you bought a Cleaner Shrimp and raised the temp to try and kill ICH I take it.

I believe thats what they were, and it worked they are gone, I think the RO water is starting to help because it seems to take longer for it to start to grow back after I have vacuumed the tank! I will be doing a massive water change this weekend as well to try and control the ammonia levels!!
Thanks for your advise!!

[FindingNemo]

It has been a couple of weeks now and the levels are just climbing!! I tested the RO water and it was positive for Ammonia at .5ppm why is it testing for that the point of the RO water was to get rid of the ammonia. The unit is brand new, what do I do to stop it from creating ammonia??? I just completed my second large change, the first one 30% and the second one 50%.

[Reefing Madness]

If you've got Ammoni in your RO water, your RO membrane is shot, or your test kit isn't accurate. Are you able to take your water to LFS and have them test to make sure?

[chrisfont23]

It has been a couple of weeks now and the levels are just climbing!! I tested the RO water and it was positive for Ammonia at .5ppm why is it testing for that the point of the RO water was to get rid of the ammonia. The unit is brand new, what do I do to stop it from creating ammonia??? I just completed my second large change, the first one 30% and the second one 50%.

Three "mini cycle" guesses and why:

- mini cycle related to death/decaying carcass you haven't found
- mini cycle related to adding new live rock
- mini cycle related to adding two many new fish at once

Another option:

- buy a new test kit

Final option, which I wouldn't want to do:

- two successive 50% daily water changes