Quote:
Originally Posted by MotoReef  Hi,
There are many reasons ammonia can be present in an aquarium.
Is the tank in question aged somewhat? What type of filtration do you use? Do you have any live rock or live sand and how much?
How many fish do yo have and what type? How much do you feed the fish? Do you dose it with any chemicals? Have the tank gone through any medication recently?
These are all very important questions we must all ask before delving further into investigating the causes. But before we do, I "definitely suggest" you do at least a 25% water change immediately and test again, then after a day take another reading and see if ammonia levels change at all.
While 0.25ppm ammonia may not be enough to make fish gasp for better water by acting weird, it's definitely NOT a healthy thing to have in your tank by any means. It causes immune systems to weaken greatly, and it is seriously detrimental to the life and growth of any corals and most invertebrates.
Ammonia and nitrites should ALWAYS be at untraceable level or ZERO in any testing we perform in any established aquarium. Having ammonia present means there are not enough bacteria to break-down all of the waste from fish and whatever you put into as food as well as something dying and decomposing.
The nitrate level you have of 20 ppm is also a bit too high for most people to call a healthy tank. While nitrates are more tolerated by hardy fish, it's still not a healthy situation to have...and with today's availability of nitrate scrubbing media and advanced equipment, there isn't really an excuse to accumulate nitrate in our tanks. Perhaps 10 would be 'tolerable' immediately before a change...but keep doing water changes till its at least 10ppm or less and repeat often enough to keep it that way.
I hope you can get to the bottom of the cause for ammonia accumulation...
Also, while efficiency of protein skimmer varies, its not wise at this point to remove it until you can resolve the ammonia issue. I say this because the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite, and from nitrite to nitrate are all aerobic bacteria need that skimmer going. And they depend greatly on availability of oxygen as well as the tank's capacity to dissipate CO2 out of the tank. While the skimmer's main goal is to remove wasted by-product of animals physically out of the water, it also has a secondary effect of mixing tons of water with air, helping exchange gasses with environment surrounding the tank. The existing bacteria, which are fighting hard to keep your tank less toxic are REALLY depending on this gas exchange process to keep breathing oxygen.
So adding or replacing the skimmer with a better one will help, but don't remove or stop it until you have a new one installed and ready to fire up immediately. |
Ok here we go.
I have a 75 gallon tank. I have a fair amount of live rock and about a 3" bed of live sand. I use 2 maxi-jet 1200's and have been using a cpr bak pak skimmer. i have had the tank for about 4months. I basically bought the tank, added the LR and LS and mixed my salt mix and let the tank cycle for 3 weeks. I then purchased 5 blue chromis, 3 turbo snails and 10 hermits. All was looking good. About 2 weeks later added some more fish. 2 clowns and a spotted goby. Never checked anything for the first month all the fish ate and acted just fine. I was feeding them the frozen food cubes. I would feed one cube a day. I have never dosed my tank with anything. I simply fed, cleaned skimmer and did 10 gallon water changes every 2-3 weeks. It wasn't till recently when I wanted to get a clam and had learned more about the hobby that I started testing. Bought a blue tang, he developed ich and gave it to my 2 clowns, 2 firefish, and purple dottyback all of which died. I removed from tank one they were dead. I did a fresh water dip and water changes for the tang, I can't believe the dude is still alive he looked so bad but he fought it off and killed the others. I recently bought a cheap skimmer at petco a red sea one not sure of the brand it has a maxijet pump on it as well. That thing sucks!!! I was using it and the CPR at the same time.
Anyways here is where Im at today
1 watchmen goby
1 lawnmower blenny
5 blue chromies (the og's)
1 six line wrasse
1 blue tang
1 flame hawkfish
3 pepperment shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
10 hermits
3 turbo snails
I feed 2 cubes about 4 times a 7 day week. Sometimes a mysis and a mix but mostly the mix.
I was using RO/DI water from a stand by the store. I just purchased a Bulk reef Supply 5 stage dual DI system got it in the mail yesterday. I heard the store RO water an be crap if the filters are not changed.
Even with the die off of other fish my nitrates still have not come down. I have never dosed the tank, I removed the fish the day they died so Im not sure what is keeping my ammonia high?
Hope this info helps. Kinda sucks at the moment but I have a really nice 125g tank I am in the process of drilling and setting up. I plan on using about a 50gallon sump/fuge with that tank and hope that will help keep my ammonia and nitrates down.
This is a pic of my tank the first moth I had it. I should take one of it now
