Freshly mixed saltwater w/ammonia

[wazupjames]

I am trying to figure out how my freshly mixed saltwater has a 0.5ppm reading of ammonia. I use instant ocean salt, RODI water that comes out with a reading of 0 in ammonia. I am mixing my saltwater in a 30gallon rubbermaid container I got at Wal-mart with a maxijet1200 pump. Is there a certain type of container i am supposed to use?? Could this be adding the Ammonia? Could it be the salt?

[kory]

is the powerhead at all dirty? has it been in an aquarium? this happened to me.

[cheryl jordan]

Is your test kit accurate ? I would double check it before I became concerned.

[Bill Nye]

is the powerhead at all dirty? has it been in an aquarium? this happened to me.

 

 

+1

 

I use an old power head I had in my last tank to mix/aerate my water. I cleaned the living crap out of it as it had alot of algae and other crap on it and then put it in the bucket. Luckily I tested the water before using it and it had a crap ton of ammonia. I let it run in vinegar/water and then just water for a couple days before using it again and now its fine.

[wazupjames]

I am using a brand new Maxijet 1200

[Asureef]

What test kit are you using, with some test it can be difficult to compare color shades. I don't mix saltwater unless I know I will use it within 2-3 days.

[AZDesertRat]

What are you using for water? Are you using your own RO/DI system or purchased water? Does your water utility use chloramines for a residual disinfectant? This could be your problem. RO by itself will not remove the ammonia portion of chloramines you must have a well functioning DI to get the ammonia, the carbon only gets the chlorine portion. Are you testing the ammonia in the treated water yourselfand what are you testing with? Normal saltwater ammonia kits may not work in RO/DI water. Does a TDS meter show any TDS?

[Rem]

Try eliminating some of the possibilities by making a small batch of saltwater in another container like a 5 gallon bucket. Was your 30 gallon rubbermaid container food-safe? Do you still have the label on it?

 

Also did you rinse your equipment in tap water before filling it with RO/DI and mixed the salt? Depending on your tapwater source, water companies use chloramines which is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia in tap, so you may of had a small puddle of tap water when you mixed your salt.

[ajkochev]

How long did you wait after mixing before testing? I think IO says somewhere on the label to let it set and mix for awhile before use. Maybe you are getting a false positive for testing to early? Just a guess anyway.

[brandon429]

Im following along to see what becomes of the associated testing. I too have read about caustic nsw mixes for the first few minutes, but also have some funny experiences using reef crystals where for years before I bought premixed water from the lFS I would get out my bag of reef crystals, pour a pre-measured amount into a gallon of distilled water from wal mart, shake it up, then dump it into my reef 1 minute later for a full water change every week or two. Must have done this 100 times...When the air bubbles cleared up the corals came out and never showed signs of stress. to me that always meant either reef crystals are not caustic, while io may be, animals adapt, etc but I always wondered why people took elaborate steps to mix and age water so delicately... not advocating that just a post.

 

additionally, I found if I let reef crystals or any other salt sit in a capped container for more than a few days, it would smell like rotten death while having no organics Id added to that bucket of water. as a rule I keep my premixed water now uncapped and top salinity as needed. I wondered if ammonia was in that water somehow, to feed bacteria and cause this rot smell.

 

why does capped sw stink to high heaven? and, when I did add it to my tank the first time accidentally without smelling it I noticed 20 minutes later every micro organism I had in my reef migrated to the top water line and was gasping for air, literally trying to climb out of the tank...really looked like ammonia poisoning. distilled water was the base, so where did the ammonia come from if that was the case id really like to know.

[reefer916]

I'd take a look at different test kits.. It's weird to have ammonia readings in fresh mixed water and using decent quality mixes. Did you rinse out the trash bin before you added the mix. Could be that somehow some cleaning product got into your bin, while it was at Walmart.

 

Also, make sure you rinse your hands thoroughly after using the restroom because urine could cause a ammonia problem... Since I started reefing I've had to stop peeing on my hands and making sure I rinse them.. I don't use soap because I don't want to contaminate my tank... j/k