LR & ammonia

I know this is on this site somewhere..it has to be, but I just cannot find it. I just put live rock in my tank a couple days ago and tested late last night for the first time for ammonia and have 0. Most of the rock (fiji) was still in the box from the flight to the states and still wet, and there are a few extra pieces that I added that have been in a "culturing tank" for a while. Shouldn't I see some ammonia, then high spikes, then drop...how long of straight 0 ammonia before I can at least start adding cleanup crew etc.


Thanks again!
Mike

 

I put 20# of rock in a brand new 40 gallon tank and NH3 started to rise within 24 hours, peaked in about 72 hours and was gone within 6 days.

 

strange that I haven't seen any ammonia at all yet..the box that the rock came out of did stink a little but not much at all. Oh also, I have a turbofloater skimmer running and am flowing appx 600gph of water from tank to sump/fuge, and the total amount of rock I put in is 81lbs. (including the small amount I put in the fuge) The display tank is 46gal

 

Was this your first batch of rock to go in the tank? I put another 40 # in my tank two weeks later, and got no spike at all.

 

yup, first batch of LR in this new tank. The tank has been up and running for about a week getting the salinity, temp, and PH levels stable, and checking all piping for any leaks. The only things up to this point put into the tank were distilled water, instant ocean, and sand from home depot.

 

Out of curiosity..how does your nitrite level look? Any movement there? That level will spike in a new tank as well. If you get any reading there, you will atleast know there is/was some NH3 in the tank.

 

Is your skimmer producing much output?

 

my nitrite test packets expired so I just threw them out and am trying to buy some more tonight from my LFS, so unfortunately I am not sure right now. The skimmer does have some skimmate in it...not very foamy, mostly a liquid like substance..pretty dark Looks a lot like this link, but about half as much.

http://www.3reef.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=235&cat=500&page=&sortby=&sorttime=&way=

 

Hum...it should still spike. My Skimmer was churning stuff out like crazy, and I still got a NH3 spike...though it never got too bad. Lets see what your Nitrites come out to. Also, keep testing for the NH3 over the next 24-48 hours. The fact that the rock smelled would lead me to believe you would have some NH3 - lots of rotting stuff on the rock. Maybe have your LFS test for you tonight when you go get the new Nitrite kit. Can't hurt to get another set of eyes and another test kit on this.

 

ok thanks a lot for your input!