Ammonia issues...

[Brittastic]

Okay, so I set my 20 gl tank up on November 12th, with 6 pounds of live rock and two hermit crabs. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to cycle so I can add some fish, and at first everything appeared to be going well. I added biozym to the tank every day for the first week, and now I'm only adding it a couple times a week. The ammonia spiked up to about .5, then 1.0 then 2.0... and it's sat there at that amount for at least two weeks now. Everything else is testing at 0. What on earth is going on? Why isn't it turning to nitrite and then nitrate? I've thought to do a partial water change, but I just don't see what good that does if I want the nitrogen cycle to get going. Removing the ammonia can't be good if I'm trying to promote bacteria... right?

Ugh... don't know what to do! ???

[pinkorchid]

hmmm...not sure. I'm also a newbie, I somehow missed any trace of ammonia in my tank. Didn't start testing right away. I started feeding the tank with flake food daily. After doing that for a few weeks and still no trace of ammonia and small amounts of nitrate came to the conclusion (with lots of help from here) that it had cycled. This was after about 6wks.

Wonder if you added something more...ie: flake food or raw shrimp? Maybe that would kick things into full gear?? I'm not familiar with biozyme.
I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will chime in....
Good luck! It can be frustrating  :-\

[Bergy]

stop adding the biozyme...

Cold turkey....

Please let us know the salinity and temperature an dpH of your tank...

Also, can you verify if your test results are accurate?  sometimes test kits go bad and give false readings..

Also, was the rock that you added LIVE rock, and LIVE sand???

If not, then you might need to wait a little while longer...  You can dd a piece of dead shrimp from the market, and then after 3 days, pull it out...

if you can find some cured rock, then add a piece of that also..

[Brittastic]

The pH in the tank is 8.4

The salinity is 1.023

Temperature is a steady 80 degrees

The rock is live rock, I bought it cured from my local fish store. We did not use live sand, I went for gravel.

The brand of test that we are using is API saltwater master test kit... testing ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH... all that fun stuff.

How would I go about verifying the test results? Take them to the lfs, maybe?

[Bergy]

hello,

yea, basically comparing yoru results to someone else's test kit would be  agood start, but basically if you can test a known substance would be best.. but not practical...

If you were to double the amount of salt water used in the test for ammonia, would the test results be half???

And where do you live, btw???  europe???  britain??

Gravel is not the best choice, as it will trap the fish poop and left over food bits...


IT will also not help in the pH department, which might explain why your pH is at 8.4, (not that is a problem, but it is on the 'high' end of the scale...

you might want to try testing the pH , in the morning, as early as you can.. dark outside if possible...

pH should drop overnight... again, just checking your test kits, as again, you dont have a pH problem...