Amonia Question

[Shane_pcs]

I have been cycling my tank now for 1 month, and while my amonia levels jumped upto 1 ppm at the start, they quickly came back down to .5 ppm and have not budged. Being the impatient person I am, I have fought off the urge to get a fish by buying some very small hermit crabs last week. I also have 2 snails (good ones with long snouts) that were inherited with the live sand I purchased. (they survived the cleaning surprisingly). I started they cycle with 60lbs of live sand (40lbs were from another persons saltwater tank and 20lb's were the caribsea fiji pink "live sand") and 50 lb's of dead base rock. I was actually talked out of buying my water from the DNA by the sales person, who said that to start the cycle it was ok to use tap water instead of RO water. His logic being that as long as I use the R/O water for topping off and regular WC's that the inital tap water will be gone soon enough. It made sense at the time (I had not found this forum yet) so thats what I did. Within a week and a half, my base rock started to spot pink.

Question #1 is that pink growth a good growth?

Last weekend I bought 25 lbs of Live rock from a member here, and it has some hitchhikers.

Question #2 Can Aptasia sting me or my fish or does it just hurt sps's?

Question #3 Since it is the only thing besides a few mushrooms that I have, is there a way I can contain it without killing it all? (Its the only cool looking thing in my tank at the moment)

Today I got soo tired of seeing the same amonia level, I decided that I would test for amonia in my tank, my R/O water from a LFS, and the tap water. My tank tested the usual .5 ppm, the R/O tested 0, and my tap water test the exact level .5 ppm that my tank is at.

Question #4 Is it possible that the cheap "Master saltwater kit" I purchased is reacting with something in the tap water to give a false reading? (The hermits and snails are doing great and I have not lost a single one)

I am sure I will have a ton more questions, but ill save those to improve my post count

Thanks, and I cant wait for the next meeting.

 

[Ashlar]

@Shane_pcs wrote:

It's likely coraline algae, and is a good thing.

@Shane_pcs wrote:

Some people are sensitive to them (especially on thin skin areas like the inside of your forearms), and they will sting almost anything that you would like to have in the tank.

@Shane_pcs wrote:

Nope, not really.. trust me, it won't be long at all before you start seeing more cool hitchhikers. Kill it now while you can.

@Shane_pcs wrote:

Well, some municipalities include chloramine in the water supply, which can test as ammonia (since chloramine is made by mixing ammonia and bleach).

Have you tested your nitrite? Your cycle should consist of three sharp curves- the ammonia goes up, then down, and shortly after the ammonia peaks, nitrite should start coming up. As the nitrite peaks, the nitrate should start coming up.

@Shane_pcs wrote:

Welcome to DFWMAS!

 

[kwl1763]

Either that or your ammonia is in the tap water! It happens

Best to use RO water no matter water.

If the test kit is good, with so little in there your best bet would be to do basically a 100% water change. The bacteria are on the rock and sand much more so then in the water so get some RODI, mix it up with salt. match temp to the existing and do a massive water change and you should be fine.

The other thing is upgrade your test kit. During cycle it's really importnat to know where you are.

The pink spots are probably corraline algea which is a good sign. Have you been topping off with RO?

If so then your test kit is probably just bad. The nitrifying bacteria are fast growing and wll grow to the amount of food (aka ammonia level) so it is hard for me to believe at a month the ammonia is still zero. Have said that starting with all dead rock doesn't help but wil most likely affect the dentrifying capability rather then the nitrifyng action that converts ammonia.

 

[newtofish]

Looks like you got the answers to your questions so I will just add.

I have always started tanks with tap water. Then moved over to top-off and water changes with RO. I never really worried about it because I go pretty slow with them.

Welcome to DFWMAS. Ask away you post count needs you.

 

[Shane_pcs]

Yes, I have already had to top off about 5 gallons with R/O water.

and for clarification, my amonia levels are at .5 ppm, not 0.

I should also add that my nitrite levels did go up to as high as .5 ppm but are now at .25 ppm. I have not tested my tap water for nitrites. My nitrates are one step above 0 (on the color chart) but I cannot remember the levels. I rarely test for them yet.

I will follow your advice and kill the aptasia now, I remember reading about limejuice or joes juice after I first identified what it was.

 

[eman]

I am still new at this but it seems that none of your levels spiked very high. My amonia jumped to 8.0+++ and stayed there for 2 weeks then my nitrite jumped to 5.0 then nitrate jumpet to 80.0ppm. Do you think that your bacteria has built up to substain your tank? I don't know if this helps just thought it might.

 

[Shane_pcs]

I wonder the same thing. I did start with 60 lb's of live sand, and a canister filter that was used when the tank was freshwater (canister media stayed wet entire day of changeover) and I have added 25lb's of live rock to seed the 50lb's of dead rock.

I would not have been surprised if my cycle was shortened, but I would have expected my amonia levels to be zero at this point instead of the .5 ppm they are stuck at.

I think I may take my water to the LFS and ask them to test it. Anyone have experience with this test and know how much I need to bring them?

 

[Shane_pcs]

Well The results from the LFS were that my amonia was at 0, nitrites at 0, and nitrates almost at zero. Which is good news, because it means after a waterchange I get to add my first couple fish to the tank.

 

[hegi]

Shane, first it was nice to meet you last night at the meeting. Second, concerning the Master Saltwater Test kit. I also bought the package that included all the basic stuff. I was told, and my own experiments later proved this, that the ammonia test would always read at the same level no matter what it actually was. So, I know for sure from my own experience and others that the ammonia test is probably faulty. I am not sure about the others. I still have my all the master test kits but since then I have replaced all them all with salifert tests, which are excellent. My $.02.

 

[Shane_pcs]

was nice to meet you as well. I have already decided to get new test kits. I will keep your recommendation in mind.