Still at.25

Hi,

The ammonia has been pretty steady at .25 for about 11 days now. Is this
fairly normal? Should I still play the beer-drinking waiting game? (dont
mind it so much
Or is there some action to take?
I have only done the 1 water change.
Lots of pods,snails and little feather dusters have emerged. Also a lot of
plants springing up.

My ammonia barely got passed .5 during the whole thing. You can always
throw some cocktail shrimp in there if you wanted to see higher ammon.
levels but I wouldn't worry. Everyone's tank is a little different.

All that other living stuff is a good sign. Kinda cool to create your own
little universe isn't it?

B


"StringerBell" wrote in message
...
Hi,

The ammonia has been pretty steady at .25 for about 11 days now. Is this
fairly normal? Should I still play the beer-drinking waiting game? (dont
mind it so much
Or is there some action to take?
I have only done the 1 water change.
Lots of pods,snails and little feather dusters have emerged. Also a lot of
plants springing up.

"Bryan" wrote in message
...
My ammonia barely got passed .5 during the whole thing. You can always
throw some cocktail shrimp in there if you wanted to see higher ammon.
levels but I wouldn't worry. Everyone's tank is a little different.

ohhh---I definitely dont want to see higher levels! I just theought the
sucker would be going lower by now. Theres a pretty hefty Diatom bloom in
there too,

StringerBell wrote:

The ammonia has been pretty steady at .25 for about 11 days now. Is this
fairly normal? Should I still play the beer-drinking waiting game? (dont
mind it so much

Two weeks is not unheard of, but it should start dropping soon.

Or is there some action to take?

You could change 25% of the water, but the decrease in ammonia will be
temporary. You just need to wait out this part of the cycle. IIRC, you don't
have fish yet, so there's no need to worry about it.

FWIW, I added 30 lbs of rock to my 125 on 9-1 and another 40 lbs on 9-21 (I
already had about 70 lbs). I don't measure ammonia; just nitrites. The nitrites
didn't go up until I added the second load of rock, but they hit 1.6 on 9-22. As
of yesterday, they're down to 0.2 and seem to be going down about 0.1 every 48
hours.

This is the first time I've cycled live rock, but I've cycled FO tanks before.
IIRC, nothing would happen for about a week; then the ammonia would start to
climb. It would peak after about another week, stay stable for another week
after that, and then start a fairly rapid decline. In the meantime, the nitrites
would start to climb about two weeks in (right before the ammonia level peaked).
They would top out about a week later, stay high for about two weeks, and then
start down. This was in the days of undergravel filters (about 1980), so my
memory may not serve me as well as I would like.

I do recall well that a 50% water change from an established tank would have the
expected effect (a 50% reduction in ammonia), but the level would be right back
up there about 3 hours later in a small tank.

Lots of pods,snails and little feather dusters have emerged. Also a lot of
plants springing up.

Great! I've got some pods I'm feeding, some things that look like they might
turn into aipstasia (hope not), something that looks like tiny sea fans, and one
or two other items that look like they will be interesting. My oldest rock has
sprouted some bivalves and a plant that seems to be spreading. No feather
dusters yet (I'm envious), but one can hope.

George Patterson
All successes in conservation are temporary. All defeats are permanent.

* George Patterson wrote, On 10/3/2006 7:14 PM:
StringerBell wrote:

Lots of pods,snails and little feather dusters have emerged. Also a
lot of plants springing up.

Great! I've got some pods I'm feeding, some things that look like they
might turn into aipstasia (hope not), something that looks like tiny sea
fans, and one or two other items that look like they will be
interesting. My oldest rock has sprouted some bivalves and a plant that
seems to be spreading. No feather dusters yet (I'm envious), but one can
hope.

I just put another 15 lbs of rock in my newest tank. Algae plants,
feather-dusters, sponges, bright red clusters of something, weird little things
on it. One of the rocks has a little round white ball about 1/8" across, with
wide-spaced stiff white spines a bit over 1/8" long coming off it. I placed the
rock so I could see it, but it hasn't changed or moved. A critter came in on
the rock too, because it's digging under one of the base rocks, left a little
pile at the edge.
My problem is I enjoy watching the rock come to life so much that I can't quit
buying it. I really didn't NEED any more, but they got a new shipment, and this
one piece had so much stuff on it that it looked like its own little reef.
Beautiful pink/orange coralline, which of course has faded...
I made a mistake the last time we went to the beach and brought home a little
crab. Not a hermit crab, looks like a stone crab maybe. Dark brown, pretty big
claws, stalks around the tank like a muscle-bound bodybuilder, ya know how their
arms don't hang straight because the muscles are too big...Yeah anyway I put him
in my 8-gal, and he dug ALL the sand out from under the rocks and piled it
around the edges and ate my peppermint shrimp. So he got moved to a 2-gal., and
he guards it jealously. It was one of those little oval plexi tanks that has an
airline built in that goes along the bottom of the tank under the sand. I turn
on the air once in awhile and he RUNS out and attacks the bubbles -- it's
hilarious. VBG I call him Rocky.

Cindy

StringerBell wrote:

Hi,

The ammonia has been pretty steady at .25 for about 11 days now. Is
this fairly normal? Should I still play the beer-drinking waiting game?
(dont mind it so much
Or is there some action to take?
I have only done the 1 water change.
Lots of pods,snails and little feather dusters have emerged. Also a
lot of plants springing up.



My first suggestion to you is to test out your test kit to make sure it
is reading correctly. I have seen lots of "bad" test kits that would
read low levels even if non are present. The ammonia staying level for
11 days does seem a little strange to me, it should be going down. With
the other life doing good in the tank, it makes me think that you really
do not have an ammonia problem (not that .25 is a problem.) My real
question is what has happened to your nitrite and Nitrate levels? Has
your nitrite level gone up? If so you have the ammonia eating bacteria
and so your ammonia level should have peaked some time after you started
seeing nitrite and then started dropping down. If your nitrate level is
climbing you not only have the ammonia eating bacteria but the nitrite
eating bacteria also, so your cycle should be getting very close to
being done.

A question for you are you adding anything to the tank right now? Some
additives can cause false ammonia readings.

Kim
www.jensalt.com

Sounds like your doing pretty well!

I was also wondering about the test itself. Mine is Red Sea---Ihe ammonia
test always starts yellow (good) but ends up at .25 after the directed 15
minute wait.Theres also 19 total drops of chemical to be made into the test
tube. I`m a total novice----but these factors seem like they could leave a
lot of room for innacuarracies.
Is there another relatively inexpensive test kit that leaves less variables
to human error?

"StringerBell" wrote in message ...
I was also wondering about the test itself. Mine is Red Sea---Ihe ammonia
test always starts yellow (good) but ends up at .25 after the directed 15
minute wait.Theres also 19 total drops of chemical to be made into the test
tube. I`m a total novice----but these factors seem like they could leave a
lot of room for innacuarracies.

If you are not sure of the test, and it happens for some test showing
fake residual ammonium (on the first level above 0 on the color scale)
than just test freshly made sal****er with tap water or - better -
your RO/DI water and see if the test will show zero ammonia...
It shoud show zero (undetectable).

Is there another relatively inexpensive test kit that leaves less variables
to human error?

No. All aquarium grade test work on the same principle of
comparing color of the sample to the printed color scale.

My first suggestion to you is to test out your test kit to make sure it is
reading correctly. I have seen lots of "bad" test kits that would read
low levels even if non are present. The ammonia staying level for 11 days
does seem a little strange to me

Why is this strange? Every tank is different and there are many variables
than can influence ammonia levels. As long as the ammonia doesn't continue
to climb, he is OK. Because his ammonia level is no longer climbing this is
an indication that his nitrosomonas are beginning to do their job.


, it should be going down. With the other life doing good in the tank, it
makes me think that you really do not have an ammonia problem (not that .25
is a problem.) My real question is what has happened to your nitrite and
Nitrate levels?

I suggested testing nitrates several days ago, but Pzemol dumped on me for
the suggestion. I think he should definitely be monitoring BOTH nitrite and
nitrate and obtaining nitrate by difference.


Has your nitrite level gone up? If so you have the ammonia eating bacteria
and so your ammonia level should have peaked some time after you started
seeing nitrite and then started dropping down. If your nitrate level is
climbing you not only have the ammonia eating bacteria but the nitrite
eating bacteria also, so your cycle should be getting very close to being
done.

A question for you are you adding anything to the tank right now? Some
additives can cause false ammonia readings.

Such as?

StringerBell wrote:

Is there another relatively inexpensive test kit that leaves less variables
to human error?

I'm using Nutrafin, but that's just because two stores recommended this brand as
the one they use in house. The nitrite kit, for example, uses 5 drops each of
two reagents, and I haven't messed that up yet. You still have to deal with a
color card.

I find that the FasTest products from Aquarium Systems are the easiest for me to
read. Instead of a color card, they have a column of colored liquid, against
which you compare your sample. The main drawback to these is that they use dry
powder reagents, which have a limited shelf life (about 3 years). If the kit has
been sitting in the store for 2 years, it won't be a very good buy. The reagents
can be purchased separately, however, so you don't have to buy a new kit when
they go bad. The foil packets are marked with the expiry date.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/prt...fastestkit.htm has a review.
http://www.aquariumsystems.com has product info.

George Patterson
All successes in conservation are temporary. All defeats are permanent.