Day 51 and Ammonia is high 4.0?

[mlovelace]

Hello, I am on day 51 since I first started my tank.

I am very concerned with my ammonia levels (I have a clean up crew in the tank now).

Here are my numbers

Salinity 1.021
Temp 81
PH 8.2
Ammonia 4.0 OUCH!
Nitrate 20

I am taking it I should do a water change?

I was pretty sure my tank had finished cycling or could this be the final process? It had increased in ammonia and dropped back down to zero. I did have one snail die (very small astra) and I left him in there to feed the pods and other critters. Should I take it out and do a water change? I also took out a small amount of fiber filter to help with my quarantine tank, could this be the problem? I did my first water change of about 20% on day 30.

I have been following Lee's post on starting a FO tank and have followed very closely.

Thank you, Mike

[ToddTT]

What size is the tank again? And what are its contents? And when were those contents introduced?

Not sure leaving the snail in there was beneficial. I don't know if the pods needed feeding, but if they did it might be better to use something like:

Reef Nutrition - Phyto Feast?

[mlovelace]

My tank is a 75g, which is about 55-60g of water including the sump. I have the copods, 6 snails (1 astrae and 5 mexican turbo's) and that is it. I have been adding .5g of frozen fish food to feed the pods and adding a sheet of seaweed once a week.

I forgot to mention the nitrites were zero. Last week, the ammonia was .5, now it is up to 4.0?

Thank you, Mike

[ToddTT]

My tank is a 75g, which is about 55-60g of water including the sump. I have the copods, 6 snails (1 astrae and 5 mexican turbo's) and that is it. I have been adding .5g of frozen fish food to feed the pods and adding a sheet of seaweed once a week.

I forgot to mention the nitrites were zero. Last week, the ammonia was .5, now it is up to 4.0?

Thank you, Mike

I was also wondering about rock, sand, etc.

I'm very skeptical of the frozen food, and the seaweed. How big is the sheet? Do you see the food piling up anywhere?

What kind of frozen food, and do you rinse it clear first?

Are you running a skimmer yet? Is it producing any gunk?

Hopefully others will have more advice, I haven't started a new tank in a long time.

[mlovelace]

Hello Todd, I just took a sample again of my water and tested it and it was showing 0-.25. Maybe I made a mistake in the number of droplets I applied yesterday? I should have went ahead and retested then, but I guess you live and learn. It did allow me to go ahead and mix up 14g of salt water for my next water change! Has anyone else had problems out of your test kits or was it usually your fault? Either way, it is far from 8.0 that was showing yesterday!

Thank you for your input!

Mike

[Parrothead]

oooops

More than likely user error,

I'd error on the side of caution though, I'd test it again several times over the next few days, just to be sure.

[leebca]

Be sure you are using a good test kit and one that hasn't expired. There have been some reports on some manufacturer's ammonia test kits giving incorrect readings.