Still at.25

I started mine with the yellow Quick Dip ammonia test, and it almost
ALWAYS said .25. Every now and then is seemed a slight shade lighter,
like around .125 or so, but was never white, or 0. Having a LFS
double-check them showed that they were just reading it weird and that
Amm really was at 0.



kim gross wrote:
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

..It always starts out at 0 (Yellow) and then turns to .25 after the 15
minute
wait time.
I dont know anything about chemistry---but it occurs to me that I could
really mess the reading up by checking it a little too late or a little too
early.



"Brandonb" wrote in message
...
I started mine with the yellow Quick Dip ammonia test, and it almost
ALWAYS said .25. Every now and then is seemed a slight shade lighter,
like around .125 or so, but was never white, or 0. Having a LFS
double-check them showed that they were just reading it weird and that
Amm really was at 0.



kim gross wrote:
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

I just saw a pistachio-nut-sized clam in there that got me a lot more
excited than it probably should have


"Cindy" wrote in message
m...

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

b0ooger wrote:
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.

After a few days of low ammonia/nitrite levels the die off on the rock
comes to a stop so the production of ammonia drops not increases, so if
the bacteria is able to eat the current ammount of ammonia, and there is
extra the bacteria should be able to reproduce, so the next day it can
eat more ammonia causing the level to drop. With the amount of live he
is finding in his tank, the die off is pretty much completely done so
the ammonia production should have decreased conciderably so unless his
bacteria is dieing off (which would be strange) is readings are not correct.





, 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.

I would be more interested in nitrite readings than nitrate, if the
nitrite has peaked and then dropped the nitrite eating bacteria have
grown enough to consume the amount of nitrite being produced so unless
another ammonia or nitrite source is added to the aquarium both ammonia
and nitrite should drop down to close to zero. With the life in the
tank doing well, it has to be close to zero, so his main cycle is done.






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?





If he was adding any type of a ammonia/nitrite/nitrate reducing agent,
like amquel prime etc, it does not remove the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate,
it binds it up so it is non toxic, and so that the bacteria have a much
harder time consuming it, so you will detect ammonia in your test even
though it is not available to the tank, which will increase the time of
your cycle since the bacteria are not able to consume the ammonia.

Kim

* StringerBell wrote, On 10/5/2006 12:47 AM:
I just saw a pistachio-nut-sized clam in there that got me a lot more
excited than it probably should have

That's cool! I've never got a clam on my rock...

Cindy wrote:

That's cool! I've never got a clam on my rock...

I've got several, and they seem to be proliferating. I'm no longer sure this is
a good thing?

But, yeah, it's more exciting than it logically should be. They don't do much.

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

* George Patterson wrote, On 10/5/2006 5:21 PM:
Cindy wrote:

That's cool! I've never got a clam on my rock...

I've got several, and they seem to be proliferating. I'm no longer sure
this is a good thing?

But, yeah, it's more exciting than it logically should be. They don't do
much.

But they're ALIVE, and they're from the ocean! BG

I can't recall ever getting any animals from my LR :-( I've always been
jelious of those got them. (free live stock)
Good luck with your tank, sounds like its progressing nicely
"Cindy" wrote in message
om...
* George Patterson wrote, On 10/5/2006 5:21 PM:
Cindy wrote:

That's cool! I've never got a clam on my rock...

I've got several, and they seem to be proliferating. I'm no longer sure
this is a good thing?

But, yeah, it's more exciting than it logically should be. They don't do
much.

But they're ALIVE, and they're from the ocean! BG

"Peter Pan" wrote in message Good luck with your
tank, sounds like its progressing nicely

Thanks. The thing is---most of the time I dont know what I`m really looking
at. There are some soft things coming out of the rock. Some look like what I
would think are "sponges" but I really have no idea.
BTW---how do clams grow? Do they shed their shells? Or do the shells grow
with them?

"George Patterson" wrote in message

I've got several, and they seem to be proliferating. I'm no longer sure
this is a good thing?


How do they proliferate? I keep thinking I see more---but am never quite
sure. There are a few empty shells that must have dropped from the rock. If
they died in the cycle, I dont know why I dont see any "meat" in the shells.
All the shells are about Pistachio-nut sized or smaller.

Also---in the Pod department---there is a handfull of much larger animals in
that "scene" that seem very aggressive. It looks like they are eating
voraciously---almost "pumping" through the water in repetetive short bursts.
There are tons of Pods in there. I was thinking if the first fish introduced
was a pod-eater it could be a very successful acclimation.