High ammonia level on corals

[destroyer56]

I have a nuvo 20 and my ammonia levels spiked really high and most of my corals are closed up tightly except for one of my zoas that are still open some.  I'm going to do almost 100 percent water change tonight.  The bio load is two clown fish, emerald crab and a bunch of snails.  I threw in two bags of purigen in while I'm at work to hopefully lower them.  I also run phosgauard and chemipure blue normally.  I have 3 small cubes of marine pure block in the back.  Should my corals survive this? Once I get the levels down.  How could I add more biological filtration?

[Clown79]

What caused the ammonia spike?

 

A fully cycled tank shouldn't have ammonia present.

 

I would use seachem prime to detoxify the ammonia and seachem ammonia badge for the readings.

 

Prime with other testers won't show proper readings for 48hrs after dosing with liquid testers, so the seachem badge is recommended.

[destroyer56]

I'm not exactly sure yet. I had a nitrate spike last week that was caused from bad rodi filters. Fixed that and then this happened.  

 

Would you recommend adding it to the tank and still doing a water change but maybe like a 50% change?

[Clown79]

As long as there is ammonia present with livestock in the tank, I recommend using Prime.

 

You can do a waterchange, it won't hurt, waterchanges are always good but depending on the ammonia level or what caused it, it may only reduce it to a certain level.

[destroyer56]

4 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

As long as there is ammonia present with livestock in the tank, I recommend using Prime.

 

You can do a waterchange, it won't hurt, waterchanges are always good but depending on the ammonia level or what caused it, it may only reduce it to a certain level.

Okay thank you.  Yea I'm not sure yet what happened. I added prime and the fish seem to be doing a lot better and the zoa that was opened basically fully opened now and the others are definitely opened a bit not shut tight anymore. I got some bacteria on the way to hopefully help with my biological filtration.  Is bacteria die off common?

 

[Clown79]

9 minutes ago, destroyer56 said:

Okay thank you.  Yea I'm not sure yet what happened. I added prime and the fish seem to be doing a lot better and the zoa that was opened basically fully opened now and the others are definitely opened a bit not shut tight anymore. I got some bacteria on the way to hopefully help with my biological filtration.  Is bacteria die off common?

 

No it's not common. There is usually a cause for an ammonia spike.

 

How old is the tank?

[destroyer56]

35 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

No it's not common. There is usually a cause for an ammonia spike.

 

How old is the tank?

I figured not. I thought bacteria is pretty Hardy. The tank is about 2 months old

[Clown79]

The tank is young, anything can throw it off.

 

Why so much chemical media? 

[destroyer56]

1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

The tank is young, anything can throw it off.

 

Why so much chemical media? 

I normally run phosgauard and chemipure blue. Threw in the purigen to help lower the levels.  Do you think that's to much to run normally?

[Clown79]

7 minutes ago, destroyer56 said:

I normally run phosgauard and chemipure blue. Threw in the purigen to help lower the levels.  Do you think that's to much to run normally?

What levels are you trying to reduce? None of these will help with ammonia.

 

Chemipure already has media in it that does the same thing as phosguard and purigen.

 

You can easily strip a nano of nutrients with using too much media.

[destroyer56]

1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

What levels are you trying to reduce? None of these will help with ammonia.

 

Chemipure already has media in it that does the same thing as phosguard and purigen.

 

You can easily strip a nano of nutrients with using too much media.

Thank you. I'm still very new to this hobby and have much to learn.  I'll take out everything but the chemipure blue.  I was running both phosgauard and chemipure because when I was researching still I found a few videos of people doing it.

 

I thought I read on the packaging that purigen would Lower ammonia but that's me being a noob lol.

 

Fish are definitely back to normal and corals are starting to peak out again.  Prime really works well.

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, destroyer56 said:

Thank you. I'm still very new to this hobby and have much to learn.  I'll take out everything but the chemipure blue.  I was running both phosgauard and chemipure because when I was researching still I found a few videos of people doing it.

 

I thought I read on the packaging that purigen would Lower ammonia but that's me being a noob lol.

 

Fish are definitely back to normal and corals are starting to peak out again.  Prime really works well.

Phosguard does work well but it should be used as a need to basis, so if you aren't having phosphate issues, it can do the opposite of good. Its important to test every few days with a good tester while using it.

 

I use purigen but I only use a small bag in my 25g. I stripped my tank using too much.

 

So using a bit of purigen is ok but using too much can have negative effects on the system.

 

 

[destroyer56]

30 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Phosguard does work well but it should be used as a need to basis, so if you aren't having phosphate issues, it can do the opposite of good. Its important to test every few days with a good tester while using it.

 

I use purigen but I only use a small bag in my 25g. I stripped my tank using too much.

 

So using a bit of purigen is ok but using too much can have negative effects on the system.

 

 

Makes sense. I've read bad things happen when you strip all nitrates and stuff out and Dino's show up.

 

I definitely need to do more testing. Right now I use the API kit but want to upgrade. What do you use?

[FlytheWMark]

43 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Phosguard does work well but it should be used as a need to basis, so if you aren't having phosphate issues, it can do the opposite of good. Its important to test every few days with a good tester while using it.

 

I use purigen but I only use a small bag in my 25g. I stripped my tank using too much.

 

So using a bit of purigen is ok but using too much can have negative effects on the system.

 

 

Ditto this... i stripped my system with Phosguard about 2 months ago, took me a while to get nutrients back up.  Pull that and use as needed if Phosphates climb.

[destroyer56]

25 minutes ago, Mark L. said:

Ditto this... i stripped my system with Phosguard about 2 months ago, took me a while to get nutrients back up.  Pull that and use as needed if Phosphates climb.

Thank you I'm going to pull it tonight.  Currently I use API test kit and salifert for phospate calcium alk and magnesium.  What kit do you use for nitrates?

[FlytheWMark]

4 minutes ago, destroyer56 said:

Thank you I'm going to pull it tonight.  Currently I use API test kit and salifert for phospate calcium alk and magnesium.  What kit do you use for nitrates?

Loooadddeeeddddd question here 🙂 . You'll get all kinds of opinions on test kits.  I personally dont like API as I've had issues with accuracy (whereas some people swear by them).  I prefer salifert for everything except calcium which I use Red Sea.  

[destroyer56]

20 minutes ago, Mark L. said:

Loooadddeeeddddd question here 🙂 . You'll get all kinds of opinions on test kits.  I personally dont like API as I've had issues with accuracy (whereas some people swear by them).  I prefer salifert for everything except calcium which I use Red Sea.  

Haha I know.  But I've definitely seen multiple form threads about accuracy issues with API. 

Thank you for your help. Everyone has been so helpful so far

[Clown79]

4 hours ago, destroyer56 said:

Makes sense. I've read bad things happen when you strip all nitrates and stuff out and Dino's show up.

 

I definitely need to do more testing. Right now I use the API kit but want to upgrade. What do you use?

I use the hanna ULR tester. Love it. No colour guessing.

 

The Api phos is high range, it will not read low levels, it's more appropriate for freshwater.

 

For ammonia, Nitrate and ca I have used Api but for Alk and Phos I prefer Hanna