Ammonia Spike! no idea why pls help!

[matthew11]

Hello everyone, sorry havent been on in a while been at uni and working a fair bit but will come back to rs on holidays
This is quite an emergency for those of you who dont know i have a rsm 250. about a week ago i had a cynobacteria problem. i decided to treat it with an antibiotic called anti-red. however before i did this i put all my SPS corals (5) in a holding tank. the next day the holding tanks water was white!! i knew their was an ammonia problem so i immediately took out the SPS and put them back into the RSM (without a saltwater bath to try and save them....however about 30mins after introducing them back into the RSM, the ammonia levels grew to .25ppm. i began neutralising it with seachem amguard and that seemed to work however i lost my sailfin tang in the process and ive lost all my SPS my tank is a desert ive only got fish left and i dont want to lose them too! it is a week today that this has been happening, ive done about 250litres worth of water changes over the past week and the ammonia levels are still rising now reaching 1ppm! (tested yesterday). the Algae and cynobacteria have exploded in growth for some reaosn aswell...im dosing algaefix but doesnt seem to be helping. ive just about ran out of all options and its really clashing with all my uni work aswell.....does anybody have any suggestions what i could do?? this is my last resort i honestly cant think of what else i can do to help the tank Thanks again everyone for your help

 

[Frankie]

Hey matt,

Stop dosing anything!!

Do a 50% water change right now. Be sure the new water is treated RO/DI or distilled and the salinity, PH and temperature are good prior to changing out. The temp you want to match your current waters, Salinity 35 ptt or 1.026

Start doign a carbon regiment of 1/2 a cup in a mesh bag. Knead daily to remove any possible contaminates. change monthly.

DO the water change like that every other day for 3-4 days and see where your at by then.

Stop adding anything but water changes, carbon or fish food. Remove any dead coral. Anything that has dies you need to remove.

Please test and report back what your current salinity, PH, tempature, ca++, Mg, alkalinity, nitrates, phosphates and nitrites are.

thanks, Frank

 

[matthew11]

Hey Frankie,
Thanks for the quick response! ok I wil stop dosing chemcials, i will head out again now and get some more water....my PH is only 8 though im trying to get it back up with seachem eight-four. but i turned my protein skimmer on just then and it filled the cup in no time and really stinks so thats not a good sign. alright i havent changed my carbon yet because i only put it in 2 weeks ago but lucky i have spares! will do that right now. I will try only to feed the fish once a day or once every 2 days. ive already removed all the dead coral i did that a few days ago but its strange to see how ammonia is still climbing.

Will test the tank soon once done im done with the water change and fixed a few things then will get back to you with all the results. My salinity is 1.024 i need to get it a bit higher. will report back to you soon! Thanks so much!

 

[Frankie]

OK man, good luck!

Don't try and fix the PH with buffers and crap. Stop adding anything for right now and focus on water changes and carbon.

Looks forward to the test results. Be sure your water source is correct in that it is zero TDS.

 

[PSU4ME]

+1 to what Frankie said....stop dposing, let the PH role and focus on WC's now. Just a question, are all your live stock accounted for? What else do you have in your holding tank (i'm surprised that "turned white"). any possibility of someone spraying household cleaners/fresheners by the tank?

WC's will fix it but I wonder what the source was.

 

[cheeks69]

i decided to treat it with an antibiotic called anti-red.

This could be the source of the problem, maybe it not only killed your cyanobacteria but also affected your nitrifying/denitrifying bacterial levels.

 

[matthew11]

+1 to what Frankie said....stop dposing, let the PH role and focus on WC's now. Just a question, are all your live stock accounted for? What else do you have in your holding tank (i'm surprised that "turned white"). any possibility of someone spraying household cleaners/fresheners by the tank?

WC's will fix it but I wonder what the source was.

Well at the moment yes they are all accounted for apart from losing the sailfin tang over a week ago i still have my 3 dispar, blue tang, canary wrasse, six line wrasse, pair of clowns & a mandarinfish. surprisingly the ammonia didnt affect the fish much at all nor the cleaner shrimp. i only had the SPS corals in the holding tank as i had remember testing algae chemical agents before which had killed my sps so i was trying to save them but my plan ended up killing the very coral i was trying to save. but not a chance as the holding tank stays in my room and i make sure nobody touches my fishtanks haha. Thats good news i did a 50 litre change again today. i hope it fixes is but how long....i still cant figure out what the source was! but...

This could be the source of the problem, maybe it not only killed your cyanobacteria but also affected your nitrifying/denitrifying bacterial levels.

Yes that could definitely be a possibility, i never thought of that however it says on the back that its harmless etc but u could be right.....i cant think of any other reason...its very strange. cynobacteria and hair algae has grown back better than ever though now, its almost as though it worked the opposite. i will try and upload a pic later on tonight to show you guys.

these are my test results from today.

Ammonia - i tried testing 3 times! but i kept getting the colour blue and white! the only colours on the ammonia sheet is light green to dark i will upload a pic later agian to show you. perhaps this could be as a result of she Seachem AmGuard?! i hope so...otherwise its not looking good. when i tested it yesterday it was 1ppm, this was before i began dosing AmGaurd however after what you guys have told me i have stopped dosing.
NitrIte - .2ppm
NitrAte- 5ppm
salinity- 1.025pm
PH- 8.0
Phosphate - another tricky result i tested twice using the new red sea max reef foundation test kits and all i got was 2 clear results!!! (its supposed to be a colour from light yellow to green/blue) its very frustrating....i really have no clue what my tank parameters are up too. hopefully when i test tomorrow i might get some more solid results.....at the moment the tank is cloudy white, evident that ammonia is still present however i think the AmGuard is still neutralising it. hopefully i dont lose anymore coral or fish. Thanks everyone for your help! if you have any other ideas please let me know

 

[matthew11]

hopefully this will help you out as you can see theres heaps of algae! i cleaned all the glass yesterday. my giant sarcophyton it retracted (left hand side) basically all my coral are...the green euphyllia seems to be tolerating it better than my other corals...fish so far ok. fingers crossed*

blue result after testing ammonia..very helpful haha

thanks everyone

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

+3 ^ great advise above !!!

I would do exactly as Frankie suggest...

also, I would get some new (better) test kits...

 

[matthew11]

+3 ^ great advise above !!!

I would do exactly as Frankie suggest...

also, I would get some new (better) test kits...

haha good idea, any ideas on what brand?? ive heard seachem have very good test kits...do you think the new red sea max foundation test kits are good? a bit pricey i reckon.

 

[PSU4ME]

I think the API tests are the best value.....Elos (complicated directions) and Salifert are top of the line ones but i feel the API ones are just as accurate though.

 

[PSU4ME]

Check out our sponser pages, i'm sure some of them have some good deals going on!

 

[Reefmack]

If you've been dosing AmGaurd the only test I'm aware of that will show the free ammonia (the toxic form) is the SeaChem ammonia test. AmGuard will complex ammonia into a non-toxic form, and other tests after using a product like AmGuard will still show total ammonia (both forms), not the toxic form that you're worried about.

 

[matthew11]

Hello everyone, Thanks for the adivde and tips. will probaly invest in salifert kits ive heard from alot of ppl on the forum that they are very good and reliable. but onto other news, ive been completing the 50% water change schedule and washing/changing the carbon. ive also added in some NPX biopellets into the filter compartment to help reduce the massive algae outburst and reduced lighting to only 6 hours a day. here are todays test,

Ammonia - 0
NitrIte - 0
NitrAte - 20ppm
PH - 8.2
Salinity - 1.025

So far good news!!! ive lost no more coral or fish however the coral still are retracted...hopefully they come back over the next couple of days just one more question, when can i resume my dosing of all my marine buffers and return back to normal feeding? im feeding 1 spoon of ZoPlankton & 1 pinch ofspectrum pellets a day that seems to keep the fish happy. ive been dosing ZeoVit aswell but still wondering whether to begin dosing that now or when i get some more coral again.... Thanks again everyone for your advice! you've really saved my tank from disaster!!