High Ammonia

very nice but the air bubbles wont help with ammonia it will help with nitrates to a certain extent but not really worth it. really as long as you have surface movement with the powerheads you will be just fine. how long has the tank been set up? nitrates that low wont hurt the fish thought they need to be around 40-80 before you really need to worry about that but ammonia is another story ammonia lock is not a good product to use it will only cause problems in the long run i know from experiance once it wears off the ammonia will shoot up alot higher than it was. best way to solve ammonia is do 10% water changes daily to keep your fish alive. sad to say but unless you get ammonia fixed fast more than likely your gonna loose most of your fish mainly the tangs will be the first to go... the hippo tang is very sensitive to any change and ammonia will take a toll on it quickly i recommend setting up another hospital tank and move the tangs. the clowns should make it just fine i dont know how the sixline or angle fish will react to the ammonia i wish you the best.

 

Saltwaterboy,

Bummer on the ammonia spike...

When did you add your live rock? Was it recent? Did you cure it? If you've only added the hippo I couldn't see your ammonia spiking so quickly from just one fish... It sounds to me as though your live rock may be experiencing a die off for the levels to hit like that.

Setting your skimmer to wet should help, and I'd be pulling a water change as quickly as possible. Sounds like most of the replies here are pretty spot on, I'd take them to heart.

There have been studies on ammonia and aeration and it has worked in some situations, I'm unsure though as I've never used it for that purpose.

Feel like reading some research on aeration and ammonia? Here you go: http://www.patoczka.net/Jurek Pages/Papers/Kinetisc of Ammonia Desorbtion.pdf

Cheers and best of luck to you.

 

Check your test kit as being expired... I am not 100% but IIRC, if your ammonia was actually 5ppm, all of your fish would be dieing/dead.

 

yea i am using api test kits and they are pretty crappy. I have had the live rock for 1 year and i just replaced the sand bed. Could this be the cause for the ammonia spike? My kenya tree corals are closed and so is my hammer and some zoas. i did a 4 gallon water change just now. maybe i should test the water i use for ammonia? Thanks

 

I just bought the test kit about 2 months ago from my Lfs. Just checked expiration date on it and it was 2007. HAHAHA lol thats hilarious maybe that is why i think i have high ammonia. Does ammonia stink if its in the water?

 

Yes.

 

I would do several water changes, bud. Your corals don't look so hot with that ammonia level, according to the video. Unless it was taken shortly after lights went on.

When I changed y substrate from gravel to sand, I did not experience any noticeable ammonia spike, but I did have 5 times the amount of cured live rock you do and only 3 fish, so that may have helped.
Wish I could help more. WC'ing is all I can naturally think of.

 

ok thanks. Yea the corals werent opened because they are stil acclimating to my new 216 watt t5 lighting system from a single 24 watt t5 bulb lol. Also the new light has caused a diatom bloom.

 

Here are some pics of everything in my tank.

 

Here are some more. Fish are showing no side affects from bad water.