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A Look at Ammonia It's not uncommon for reef keepers to either fixate on, or ignore ammonia levels. When in reality, it's just another parameter which provides information about the state of our reef tanks. We'll look at the different types of ammonia, their toxicity levels, and how to interpret a positive test result. Types of Ammonia NH3 represents free ammonia, which is toxic in higher concentrations NH3-N represents the nitrogen content of NH3 without the hydrogen component NH4 represents ammonium, which within normal ranges, is harmless to marine life NH4-N represents the nitrogen content of ammonium, without hydrogen Total ammonia (a.k.a. TAN, or total ammonia nitrogen) is the sum of NH3 and NH4 The concentration of NH3 is greatly dependent on the potential of hydrogen (pH). Chemical reactions will quickly convert free ammonia to ammonium, and vice versa based on pH. The lower the pH, the less NH3 will be in the water. The following graph shows the percentage of NH3 to NH4 at different pH levels: Figure 1: Percentage of Ammonia in Seawater[1] Note: Here are a couple of calculators which (by entering your water's: salinity, pH, and temperature) can either compute total ammonia from NH3, or NH3 from total ammonia. Toxicity Levels of Ammonia Reef tank parameter tables often recommend keeping ammonia levels undetectable, or they might mention "typical" ocean values of less than 0.1 ppm. Plus, we've probably all read that free ammonia (NH3) is toxic to marine life, which I feel has led to some confusion about ammonia levels in our reef tanks. It's not the presence of NH3 which is a problem, but the concentration which determines toxicity. Our livestock is typically much less affected by low (but still measurable) levels of ammonia than many of us realize. So what level of NH3 is considered safe? Both the Seachem Ammonia Alert badge and the Seneye Reef monitor categorize NH3 toxicity levels as follows:[2] Safe: up to 0.02 ppm (or up to 0.25 ppm of total ammonia) Alert: up to 0.05 ppm (or up to 0.63 ppm of total ammonia) Alarm: up to 0.20 ppm (or up to 2.53 ppm of total ammonia) Toxic: up to 0.50 ppm (or up to 6.33 ppm of total ammonia) Note: The above total ammonia levels were rounded to the nearest hundredth, and computed assuming 1.026 sg, 8.2 pH, and 80° F. Scientific papers often refer to lethal concentrations which kill a specified percentage of organisms within a stated number of hours. So "96 h LC50" describes a level of lethal concentration which kills 50% of the organisms within 96 hours. It's been reported that marine fish experience 96 h LC50 levels that range from 0.11 to 4.07 ppm of NH3 (or 1.39 to 51.50 ppm of total ammonia at: 1.026 sg, 8.2 pH, and 80° F).[3] Note that this is a very broad range of ammonia levels, and that ammonia sensitivity varies by species of fish. Plus, this is a very high rate of mortality within a short period of time; although even sub-lethal levels of ammonia can potentially cause problems.[1] Fish excrete a good portion of ammonia from their bodies through their gills, via diffusion (whereby the higher level of ammonia is diffused into the lower level of your tank's water).[1] Acute toxicity can occur when high levels of ammonia in aquarium water prevent diffusion from occurring. While this is simplified take on the subject, it helps to illustrate the point. Based on the NH3 toxicity categories above, (at a pH of 8.2 or less) I'd consider 0.25 ppm of total ammonia to be safe, with no corrective action required. And while often well tolerated, we should typically look into the cause of total ammonia levels up to 0.5 ppm. Our goal should really be to keep ammonia to a minimum. Testing alerts us when something has changed, so we can decide if we just want to take note of it, or try to address it. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything which tells us what levels are considered safe for inverts. So I could only guess if corals are equally affected by NH3 or not. However, I speculate that they might be less affected. But in any case, for the sake of our animals, I still feel that we should strive to keep NH3 to a minimum whenever possible. Ammonia Testing While ammonia is an important parameter, after the cycle is fully established, most reef keepers rarely test for it because spot checks almost always confirm that ammonia is within a safe range. However, you might decide to check the level after observing visual signs of distress, experiencing a significant death in your tank, or following a particularly disruptive maintenance procedure or tank transfer. There are a number of ammonia test kits on the market (like API, Red Sea, Salifert, and others); all of which can be used to test for ammonia. API is probably the most widely used ammonia test kit. It's affordable, easy to use, and can effectively detect low levels of total ammonia before they become a danger to our livestock. As someone who has used API's ammonia test kits for nearly two decades, I feel that it's gotten a bad rap for detecting safe levels of ammonia when there are no visible signs of livestock distress. I actually feel that it's good when a test kit can detect these elevated, but safe, levels of total ammonia. Seachem uses a rather unique color changing disc to monitor NH3. It comes in two options: the convenient Ammonia Alert badge (shown in the pic above) which continuously monitors NH3 in your tank for up to a year, and their MultiTest Ammonia kit which uses these same discs to report NH3 (but can also test for total ammonia). Finally, There are testers which use sensors to interpret the results (like Hanna and Seneye). While they tend to be more expensive, a digital display might be helpful for people who have problems distinguishing colors, or shades of colors. Notes: The use of Seachem Prime can affect the color of Nessler and salicylate based kits (respectively, either changing the color of the result, or showing an inflated level of ammonia).[4] In addition, people have questioned the claims that dechlorinators such as Seachem Prime can actually detoxify ammonia; apparently, these products have little to no effect on NH3 (or the ratio of NH3 to NH4). Sources of Ammonia Dead organic matter, which is broken down by heterotrophic bacteria, will result in the production of ammonia. So a substantial death or deaths can cause elevated ammonia levels. Likewise, uneaten food which is broken down by bacteria is a source of ammonia. And when fish consume food (a nitrogen source), they excrete the excess nitrogen through their gills in the form of ammonia.[1] While we don't want to underfeed our animals, we should realize that overfeeding not only increases the ammonia production in your tank, but it adds to the organic material and inorganic nutrients in the water. A lesser known source of ammonia is from our salt mixes. Ammonia is a common contaminate in magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. This contamination can vary by the brand (and batch) of salt. I've seen freshly mixed saltwater test as high as 0.25 ppm of total ammonia. While this might sound like a lot, your tank's biofilter should typically be able to process the ammonia fairly quickly. Resources https://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-02/rhf/index.php https://answers.seneye.com/en/water_chemistry/what_is_ammonia_NH3_NH4/what_ammonia_level_is_safe Ammonia in estuaries and effects on fish. Eddy, F.B. Environmental and Applied Biology, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK. Journal of Fish Biology (2005), 67(6), 1495-1513. https://www.seachem.com/prime.php Also check out: A Guide to Cycling.
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hi. my new 20 gallon tank currently has 0.25 ppm ammonia( based on the api test kit) 0 ppm nitrite (based on the api test kit) and 2-5 ppm nitrate based on the salifert test kit. any idea how much more time i have to wait until i add hardy fish like clowns. thanks
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Hi I set up a new nan reef tank in Jan 2019 I rinsed the sand for a few hours filled the tank and sump with water from the reef shop added 12 kg of of rock. Then 1 bottol of colony to start the cycle. Since then I have added 2 small clown fish 2 small damsal 1 goby one bleney som coral a rew hermit crabs and two sales nemmis I change water 30 Ltr per week all fish and corals are looking fine but no mater what I do my ammonia won't go below 0.02 I small feed every other day. All other readings are fine. Stuck for answers
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My ammonia has been a 0.0 for the past two days, and this morning my nitrites were also 0.0. Of course nitrates were sky high so I did a 75% water change, and lowered it to 10-15. My pH is at 8.2. Does it seem like my tank is done cycling? If it is, this may be a stupid question ,but do I have a certain amount of time to add livestock before the nitrifying bacteria start to die off?
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Hello, iv'e had a Biocube 32 running for nine days now, two days ago I added Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride and Fritzzyme bacteria. Yesterday my results were 2 ppm for ammonia, and 0.2 ppm for nitrites. Today however, my ammonia still seemed to be around 2 ppm, but my nitrite was seemingly 0.0 ppm, and my nitrates were 5-10 ppm. What might be an explanation for this? Is there any way it could be a false reading somehow? I'm using the Red Sea marine test kit which the guy at my LFS recommended.
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I have had my Biocube 32 running for a week now, and just did my second water test, in my first water test last week I only had an ammonia reading of 0.3, so yesterday I added the recommended dose of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride and fritzzyme bacteria. Today my results were 2 pmm for ammonia, and 0.2 ppm for nitrite. Does it seem like I am on the right track?
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Added ammonia and bacteria to cycle my tank, now what?
antigonus posted a topic in Beginners Discussion
Having had my Biocube 32 running for almost week without an ammonia spike, I resolved to "jump start" the process by buying ammonia and live bacteria from my LFS, and adding it to my tank, following the instructions. I will test my water soon to make sure the initial spike has happened, but my question is, do I need to continue adding a small amount of ammonia everyday to make sure the bacteria has something to feed on? Or is that not necessary? Sorry is this is a rookie question but i'm still most certainly a newbie and am just curious what the best course of action is. -
I have had my Biocube 32 running for five days with dry rock, live rock, and live sand, I did one ghost feeding, but other than that haven't added anything. I just did my first set of water tests, here are the results. Temperature: 77.3 F Specific gravity: 1.025 pH: 8.2/8.3 Ammonia: 0.2/0.3 Nitrite: 0.0 Nitrate: Didn't test, but I assume it has to be 0.0 Other tank conditions: No visible algae growth, though there are many small hyrdroids on the glass, a small number of copepods, tiny feather duster worms, a few Aiptasia and Asterina starfish, plus some other unidentified hitchhikers. I know i'm still at an obviously very early stage, but does everything seem "normal" so far?
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Hello guys, So late last night, as so many bad stories, I started my tank cycle. I want to do what I can to prevent fish or inverts from getting hurt so I opted for a fishless cycle with bio-spira and ammonia. I purchased Ace's janitor ammoni. No surfactants and did the bubble test, looks good. I was having trouble finding the conversion online for ML of ammonia to gallons of water. I found a conversion of 15ML for a 30 gallon. So I figured I'd start at a third of that 5ml, test levels and titrate to get up to 4ppm. Well right from the start I was off the charts. My gut told me to just start with 1ml of ammonia and titrate to get to 4ppm but of course I didn't listen and here I am. So last night Ammonia: of the charts >8 ppm Nitrite: .25 ppm this morning, about 10 hours later (attached img) Ammonia: of the charts >8 ppm Nitrite: ~1-2 ppm Nitrate: 20 ppm I'll check the 3 levels again in 12 hours. Prepping freshwater to make more salteater. I imagine I'll need to do a huge water change, maybe 50% or more to get ammonia down to a measurable level? It looks like the bacteria is doing their thing I just don't know if those numbers of ammonia will end up stalling cycle (read differing opinions) and even if not, concerned about the potential side effects of so much ammonia in tank. Anyone been through this? I'm so annoyed, with myself. I've been pretty deliberate in my approach to this and usually err on the side of caution. But last night was stupid and I should've listen to that voice telling me what I should've done. But of course hindsight is 20/20 so I have to deal with the reality. I have a Biocube 32, ~30lbs of reefcleaners dryrock, 20lbs of caribsea arg-alive, RO/DI water from my brand new filter and Instan-Ocean salt (non-reef). Since I'm just cycling I'm only running heater, pump, powerhead and lights (I know there's different schools of thoughts on lights vs no-lights during cycle - I was leaning towards lights on but with all this ammonia maybe I should got back to dark). Any other info useful? I feel like I'm missing something here. Thanks so much in advance.
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Hello, I’m cycling my tank and I had 3 pieces of dry rock in it before, but i decided to swap those out for about 16 pounds live reef rock yesterday. My ammonia was at 2 ppm yesterday and I’m testing it today and it’s giving me results of 4-8 ppm. I’m freaking out because I have 2 stomatella snails in there that came as hitchhikers on my rock, but I’ve grown to love them already and I don’t want anything bad to happen to them. Can adding live reef rock increase the ammonia? Will my snails be okay? I thought adding the live rock that already had the bacteria would decrease the ammonia faster. Please help!! Picture of my tank for reference. (p.s I do have some rock residue on the bottom from them slightly chipping while I was arranging them. Might sound dumb but could it be that that's increasing the ammonia?)
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Hey guys my tank has roughly 0.25-0.50 ppm ammonia, and I have 3 fish and 13 clean up crew members. To kick start the tank I used Bio-spira, then added fish 3 days later. I probably should've waited longer for the tank to cycle more. I tested the water parameters yesterday and all were fine. I did a 10% water change and added ammo-lock. Anything else I should do? I almost want to drain the whole tank and start the cycle over.. but where do i put my fish?
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My quarantine tank does appear to be handling the bioload anymore. My fish, 2 clowns, have been in there for just over a week. I had tank transferred all my rock to a new tank last week and put my fish in the QT just in case. My ammonia level will not drop far in the QT, even after large water changes of 80-90%. This is the ammonia reading in the DT today: What do you think? I think I'm seeing 0 or very, very close. My QT is reading 0.5-1... Thanks in advance!
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I picked up two bins of dry, old live rock that I want to start prepping for the future. I already have a batch of rock cycled for the 40g breeder I am building now. But I imagine I will want to upgrade even bigger in a year or so. I'd like to do everything right so I'm taking my plan to the forums before enacting it. 1st Stage - Cleaning 2nd - Phosphate Removal 3rd - Cycling 4th - Coralline Growth 1st: Cleaning will involve washing the rock off and scrubbing any old life that I can find. Bleach or vinegar solutions seem to be a common choice. 2nd: I am already using Lanthanum Chloride to remove phosphates on my cycled rock, I believe I will use this to remove it from this new batch. So far it has been working well. And it seems to be the most efficient method, combined with large water changes. 3rd: I prefer to do Cycling fishless, so I will be using a janitor's solution to provide ammonia to the bacteria. I want to get it heavily seeded and will dose ammonia multiple times to build up the bacteria 4th: Coralline Growth, what may be the hardest stage. If I could do everything I want, I would culture some coralline in its own aquarium first in order to get a clean sample. Probably won't have the resources to do that and will just scrape some from one of my tanks. I will also be adding a CUC to manage other algae during this ~1year process of growing out the coralline. The algae starter and CUC will be the first possible entrances of pests and something I would like to work on. Did I mess any secret techniques or is this a pretty solid plan?
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Hello, I have a 14 gallon biocube tank. I have had the same two clown fish for about 3 years now with no issues. About 2 weeks back I did a water change and my test kit was out/expired and my new one was about 2 days out. I thought nothing of it because I tested the salinity and it came back at a .024. Well before I was able to test the water the clowns began to swim sideways and along the bottom of the tank. I ran to the shop where they can test the water for me and my ammonia spiked to 7-8 ppm. The fish were about to die. I did an 8 gallon change that day slowly and then 4 more each day after that for 3 days. I am now testing and checking daily and everything is coming up normal. pH 8.1, nitrates and nitrates just at 0. calcium around 460. ammonia between 0 and 0.25. kH at 143.2. Temperature is at 78. The problem is the clowns are still swimming weird and not eating too much and it has been a week of near perfect parameters. The have no red in their mouth or gills which I know is something to look for. I am wondering if it was too late or if anyone has seen them make a recovery from this issue. Thanks
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Looking for opinions on best testing kits to use while cycling a new tank and thereafter. We’re planning on being pretty vigilant and patient when cycling this new tank up and are interested in what everyone else recommends. I did not realize there were so many brands ?
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Hello everyone, I'm currently in day 5 of my cycle, these are my parameters so far: ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 40 Keep in mind the following: I have a nuvo 10 gallon tank, I bought 10 lbs of live rock, used 5-7 lbs of live sand, and I also used 70% of my water from my local fish stores show tank (owner was nice enough to give it to me) and 30% of new saltwater. It is possible that my cycle has finished, however I did a 25% water change and my nitrates did not decrease. How can I make them go down to a reasonable level so I can start adding my first clownfish (live stock will be added slowly, but I want to have something in there to keep the tank healthy) thanks everyone
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Hello everyone, I have anew 120 gallon tank with a 30 gallon sump. Yesterday i added pure liquid ammonia "unscented"and by accident i put around 500ml of liquid ammonia in the tank. Does anybody know if the cycling process will still work? will it continue through time? or do i have to flush it? need some light on this problem of mine. thanks,
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How much ammonia should I dose for Fluval EVO 13G with live rock and sand? I'm going to use bacteria and (from what i know they need a food source), which is where the ammonia comes in.
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Hello guys, I'm mew to the SW hobby. So i have cycled my 24 gallon nano and I added 2 clowns. After 2 weeks I added a yellow tank, and 2 small chromis. then 3 days ago my tang died. I acclimate it for more than 45 minutes, SG and temp matches the tank. I think i got a sick tang... anyways the ammonia and nitrite spiked. Ammonia is around .5ppm and my nitrite is off the roof at 1ppm. What can i do to reduce the parameters? I did 50% wc yesterday, Added 5 more pounds of LR and some BB in a bottle. Did not feed them yesterday and today to stop adding nutrients. What can i do to rapidly eliminate the ammonia and nitrite? Is there a media out there that can fix these? BTW i'm adding seachem safe every 24 hrs. Any help would be great. Thanks much!
