echoofformless
08-24-2008, 10:56 PM
So here is the deal: my FOWLR tank has been up and running for a good two months now.
When I first set it up I bought a Red Sea marine ammonia kit and it registered between .25 and .5 for the first two weeks of running.
Yet my API nitrite showed the normal steady rise and drop off to zero over that period. And the API showed the slowly rising nitrate after that.
But the Red Sea kept registering the same reading.
Then I added some hermit crabs. The ammonia went up slightly and I got some readable nitrite.
The ammonia was back down to the same .25 to .5 within a few days. Nitrite was gone again.
So here I had stopped testing for the last month or so figuring whatever ammonia must be long gone by now. I've added two peppermint shrimp and a feather duster and they've been quite happy the last few weeks.
Tonight I was going to do a water change and figured I'd see what my parameters were just to get an idea of how fast I get nitrate and phosphate in this system.
Decided to check ammonia.
And it's still there! No nitrite, very little nitrate...but still readable amounts of ammonia!
Call me crazy but I really don't see how in this system where the few added animals are doing perfectly well and there are copes and amps everywhere that there could be ammonia even still.
Ok so long story short all of the creatures are doing fine. No algae outbreaks (plenty of young coralline taking hold though) no noticeable issues at all. Yet ammonia shows up in my tests.
Does Red Sea suck or something?? Naturally I'd rather not spend the money on another test kit but I suspect foul play.
When I first set it up I bought a Red Sea marine ammonia kit and it registered between .25 and .5 for the first two weeks of running.
Yet my API nitrite showed the normal steady rise and drop off to zero over that period. And the API showed the slowly rising nitrate after that.
But the Red Sea kept registering the same reading.
Then I added some hermit crabs. The ammonia went up slightly and I got some readable nitrite.
The ammonia was back down to the same .25 to .5 within a few days. Nitrite was gone again.
So here I had stopped testing for the last month or so figuring whatever ammonia must be long gone by now. I've added two peppermint shrimp and a feather duster and they've been quite happy the last few weeks.
Tonight I was going to do a water change and figured I'd see what my parameters were just to get an idea of how fast I get nitrate and phosphate in this system.
Decided to check ammonia.
And it's still there! No nitrite, very little nitrate...but still readable amounts of ammonia!
Call me crazy but I really don't see how in this system where the few added animals are doing perfectly well and there are copes and amps everywhere that there could be ammonia even still.
Ok so long story short all of the creatures are doing fine. No algae outbreaks (plenty of young coralline taking hold though) no noticeable issues at all. Yet ammonia shows up in my tests.
Does Red Sea suck or something?? Naturally I'd rather not spend the money on another test kit but I suspect foul play.