ammonia stage lasting for a long time?

knorsk · 03/01/2009, 04:16 PM

I have a 30 gallon that I redid and it has 15lbs of cured live rock and 20 lbs of uncured live rock. 40lbs of live sand and another maybe 20lbs of reef sand. The 20bls of old live rock had to be treated because of major aptasia anemones everywhere. My ammonia levels have been around 2 ppm for about 4 days now and I was wondering if this can last a while or if I should see a nitrite spike soon. I don't have the skimmer or filter on just the koralia powerheads.
thanks

WaterKeeper · 03/01/2009, 04:58 PM

Until the LR regains its biological population the ammonia may last for awhile. You didn't say what was used to treat the aiptasia outbreak but if if killed the stuff growing on the rock it may be the cause of the elevated levels. You will just need to give it some time and don't add any livestock until the ammonia is at zero.

dwd5813 · 03/01/2009, 05:01 PM

4 days is not a long time, especially given that you 'treated' the rock. i suspect waterkeeper's guess of that treatment killing off the bacteria in the rock could be correct, in which case it will absolutely take a while for the levels to come back up. be patient.

03/01/2009, 04:16 PM	#1
knorsk Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 82	ammonia stage lasting for a long time? I have a 30 gallon that I redid and it has 15lbs of cured live rock and 20 lbs of uncured live rock. 40lbs of live sand and another maybe 20lbs of reef sand. The 20bls of old live rock had to be treated because of major aptasia anemones everywhere. My ammonia levels have been around 2 ppm for about 4 days now and I was wondering if this can last a while or if I should see a nitrite spike soon. I don't have the skimmer or filter on just the koralia powerheads. thanks

03/01/2009, 04:58 PM	#2
WaterKeeper Bogus Information Expert Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 16,147	Until the LR regains its biological population the ammonia may last for awhile. You didn't say what was used to treat the aiptasia outbreak but if if killed the stuff growing on the rock it may be the cause of the elevated levels. You will just need to give it some time and don't add any livestock until the ammonia is at zero. __________________ "Leading the information hungry reefer down the road to starvation" Tom Current Tank Info: 130 Now out of service and a 29

03/01/2009, 05:01 PM	#3
dwd5813 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: 813 Posts: 2,827	4 days is not a long time, especially given that you 'treated' the rock. i suspect waterkeeper's guess of that treatment killing off the bacteria in the rock could be correct, in which case it will absolutely take a while for the levels to come back up. be patient. __________________ order some golf shoes, otherwise we'll never get out of this place alive. what can i say? in dog beers, i have only had one. - dublo8 Current Tank Info: 40B aiptasia farm