Test still showing .25 ammonia

[sunnycadreamer]

I've had reef tanks and fresh water tanks before but, never tested as much as I'm doing with this one because, I cycled our tanks the old way with fish. So since I wasn't familiar with this less abusive way I've been OCD with testing.

 

So I have a new Biocube 32 reef tank. I plan on it being a soft and LPS tank only with about 4 fish. I started it up on July 1st using Dr. Tim's and bottled ammonia. I've been recording my levels from day one so I could accurately watch the cycle. I used Caribsea Life Rock (20 or so lbs) and 20 lbs of Caribsea pink fiji live sand. My ammonia after dosing was about 3 - 4ppm and stayed that way for 6 days. After 6 days my Nitrites started to rise until they reached such a high level it was off the chart on day 9. I watched it for two days and it was not moving and neither was my ammonia it seemed my cycle had stalled. Per Dr. Tim's website once either ammonia or nitrites get above 5ppm it stalls the cycle. So I did a 20% water change and voila my cycle started to move again. On the 11th the nitrites got as high as 3.0 but then slowly started going down until on the 15th they showed 0. My ammonia showed 0 as of the 11th. So I dosed with ammonia again up to 1ppm to see if it was processing ammonia and it was back down to 0 in 24 hours or less. By my nitrates had been showing since the 6th day. On the 15th I now had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 20 nitrates after my re-dose of ammonia.

 

In the mean time I was bad and had my lights on which gave me a nasty diatom bloom so after everything showed 0 I got a clean up crew. (I'm thinking I added too many my bad but, my lfs said they didn't have a huge bioload so I should have been fine) 1 turbo snail, 1 lg hermit, 2 sm hermits, 4 trochus snails, and 3 nassarius snails. My tank looks soooo much cleaner now. I can see the rock color again.

It's been 5 days and my ammonia is still reading .25ppm. I did check it in natural light so it's not a lighting issue. My Nitrites are still 0, and my Nitrates are at 20. All my CUC is alive and accounted for. I also understand that API tests for total ammonia so NH3 & NH4 so I may have NH4 in my tank and no NH3. However, from my reading it shows the NH4 although not toxic can turn into toxic NH3 in a mater of minutes if anything is off in the tank. So scary. Anyway from what I can tell bacteria should be eating both NH3 & NH4 so, it shouldn't matter int he end which kind is still present.

 

PH is at 8.0

Alk is at 9.5

Gravity 1.025

Ammonia .25

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 20

 

I'm using Chemipure Elite, Matrix in a bag, aquarium floss, and a small protein skimmer. I do have a red sea test kit coming tomorrow. I'm also going to get a seachem alert badge today but, I'm still worried about the NH4 if that's all there is. My LFS uses API so that doesn't help.

 

So my question is, is it normal for my bacteria to take this long to compensate for a new bioload even if I screwed up and added too many?

[A.m.P]

API ammonia kit consistently produces a false 0.25 ammonia reading, you need your own test kits -API are fine for Alk and Nitrate, Seachem makes a decent P04, Salifert is cheap and accurate for Calcium.

[sunnycadreamer]

@Amphrites I do own an API kit, a Hanna Alk checker, and just ordered a red sea ammonia test.

 

I for sure need to get a couple of the others. I was trying to buy the recommend tests by BRS for accuracy but, some have been out of stock and my LFS was out of some of them as well. Stupid COVID. I'll see about the salifert and seachem tests.

 

My understanding was that the API test gives a false positive because it's total ammonia and is showing NH4. Seems weird that it was at 0 and now isn't. Thanks for the advice.

 

[A.m.P]

Ah, I misunderstood when you mentioned your lfs, yeah when you search through the forums here or on R2R you'll find a ton of hits for "API ammonia still showing .25".

[sunnycadreamer]

I added a seachem alert and it's still showing zero after 20 minutes. 

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

Oh yeah, API does that. I used that kit when I first started and it'll always read that. -___-" Heck even the cheap Tetra ammonia strips are better.

[Clown79]

Api seems to do that for some and not others.

 

I haven't experienced false readings with Api.

 

you were using the exact Api kit that clearly showed it rise and fall to 0.

 

Why would it give you a false positive now? When it was accurately reading ammonia before? 

 

Snails do add bioload, they eat and poop alot so there could be ammonia present after adding so much cuc at once. 

[sunnycadreamer]

@Nano Reefer I agree there could be ammonia present after that CUC addition. What I don't understand is why if my ammonia was processing in 24 hours or less why it's still showing present 7 days later now. I would have thought the bacteria load would have caught up by now.

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, sunnycadreamer said:

@Nano Reefer I agree there could be ammonia present after that CUC addition. What I don't understand is why if my ammonia was processing in 24 hours or less why it's still showing present 7 days later now. I would have thought the bacteria load would have caught up by now.

Its only 20 days after you started cycling. Anything can change.

 

Some people have tanks that cycle in 7 days and others after 6 weeks they still have ammonia readings.

 

Things can happen and change quickly in a reef tank.