can't get ammonia down

[joshlegs]

So I've had my tank for about 7 weeks or so now. For the last 3 weeks or so, my ammonia has stayed at .25 ppm, no matter what I do. I did a 30% water change and there was no difference in the level. I have live sand and a big live rock in there, plus whatever is growing on the other rocks I have in there (which I know has some growth on them).

Any ideas why it won't go down or what I might do about it?

 

[Amba]

How big is your tank, how many pounds of live rock, how much do you feed, how many fish do you have?

 

[FishyReef]

Also, what type of test kit are you using?

 

[joshlegs]

It's a 29 gallon, with probably about 15 pounds of live rock in it. 3 fish -- two clowns, a damsel, plus a double starfish and 2 snails.

I feed probably 2-3 times a day about a pinch or two of food, but usually it seems the fish eat all of what I put in.

The test kit i use is the saltwater master test kit that i see everywhere. I think the brand is API.

perhaps I'm feeding to much? I use flake food

Edit: i just started messing with some of the dry rock i put in not long ago. it had some dried growth on it that i couldnt get off while it was dry, so i just put it in the tank ..... as i was moving some of it just now, the old growth just brushed off. So i assume that's probably the source of the ammonia .......

So I guess maybe i just didnt cure the rock or something :S oopsy.

 

[FishyReef]

A few problems right off:

(1) You need a lot more rock - rule of thumb is 1-2lbs per gallon - so you need at least 30lbs of rock. You can buy dry rock, which will turn live over time. Rock provides surface area for nitrifying bacteria to grow on, and without enough rock you won't have enough bacteria to process the ammonia and nitrite in your tank.

(2) Flake food can lead to all sorts of problems with your water parameters (though more nitrate and phosphate problems). I'd switch to frozen cubes instead - marine cuisine, frozen mysis, emerald entree, etc. And I'd only feed about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cube every other day. You're fish will do just fine on that amount. With frozen food, just cut off the amount you are going to use, put it in a little container with tank water, swish it around to thaw it, and then use a turkey baster to squirt the food in the tank. Not only will it help with water quality, but also nutrition.

Your test kit should be okay, but if you don't see any movement in the numbers after adding more rock and changing food then you might want to have your LFS double check the numbers for you.

Also, how did you cycle your tank before adding fish?

 

[joshlegs]

I cycled it using live rock and live sand, plus some of that bio-spira stuff (but a different brand). I only did it for a day, but the water levels were all 0 when i added my first fish (the damsel).

Also, see the edit above about the addition of rock. Plus, I'll go pick up some more live rock now.

 

[Kelz88]

Yeah that stuff doesnt always work. Thats why most of us just cycle with a dead shrimp. Toss the flake food or give it to someone with a freshwater tank, its just too messy for a salt tank.

Get some water change water ready, any amount of ammonia is bad for fish.

 

[Amba]

fishy has you covered.

 

[chichimom79]

I've noticed that the API ammonia kit gives a false reading of .25 quite often. Not saying this is the case, but it's possible.

 

[joshlegs]

hopefully so! I went and bought a medium live rock from petco, so probably another 5-7 pounds of live rock. i also got a little hermit crab to start eating some of the junk that gets left behind on the sand bed. If it keeps on for a few more days, i'll take it to petco and have them test the water too, because they use the strips, while my (small) lfs uses the same test kit I do.

 

[FishyReef]

I'd try to up your clean up crew when you can - get a good number of nassarius snails (10+) and a few other types of snails in addition to the hermits. The nass snails will keep your sand sifted and help eat uneaten food (no need to feed any extra), and getting a variety of other snails (cerith, astraea, trochus, nerite, turbo) will keep algae in check. And keep an eye on your starfish - they are notoriously hard to keep, bury themselves in the sand and then starve to death in most aquariums and cause water parameter problems.

 

[yote]

You might have yur LFS test the ammonia too.
At 7 weeks, unless you cycled with uncured rock, you shouldn't have any ammonia.
But like was already posted. The API ammonia kit is NOTORIOUS for giving a false reading of 0.25 when it should actually be 0.

 

[Bifferwine]

If an API test kit is telling you ammonia is at .25, but you are not seeing anything unusual with your tank inhabitants, then you can go ahead and assume it's really at 0.

 

[joshlegs]

yeah everything *looks* fine. Although I did notice my damsel had a patch of white on his tail -- idk if he's just stressed though and still learning how to deal with the new clowns, which are about 2 weeks old now, or so. Related: when I first got him, he had patches of white on his tail, but I kept a close check on him and things cleared up in a couple days. He seems to be acting fine though. My starfish does have a couple stringy looking things on him -- dunno what that is. It could be him disintegrating because they're hard to keep. Or it could be that he is not getting along with something in the water. I *did* have some lava rock in there for a while that I took out yesterday to replace with the new live rock and some dry lace rock.

I think i am going to get some more cleanup crew. i have two snails (some turbo soomething I think) who crawl the walls. But I definitely need more of these fellows.

Also, should i get a conch snail? I think he'd help provide shells for the hermit as he grew right? Or no? (not sure about the whole mollusk thing)

 

[chichimom79]

Certain kinds of conchs are great cleaners, but it would have to die to leave a shell for your hermits. Just buy several empty shells in different sizes for the crabs to grow into. As far as the fish, you might start putting some Garlic or Selcon or both into frozen food to feed with. There are some great threads about how to do that. Good luck!

 

[RockStacker]

Have you tested your new saltwater for ammonia before you add it to your tank.