Ammonia reading on my DT and Refugium

[babyduke]

Just did the ammonia testing on my 55G tank and I would say it's not completely ammonia free at maybe about .10ppm according to the color chart. I then tested the water from my refugium with chaeto and it shows same color. Shouldn't the reading in my refugium be lower than DT?

BTW nitrate is 20ppm in my DT and I haven't checked it on my refugium.

It's a 55G tank with 70lbs of liverock, set up for over 5 years, residents are:

tomato clown
yellow damsel
yellow tail blue damsel
blue velvet damsel
black ocellaris
coral beauty
coral banded shrimp
4 cleaner clams
hermit crabs
turbo snails
nasarius snails
nardoa starfish

green mushrooms
3 different colonies of zoas
green star polyps

[thegrun]

Why does an established tank have any ammonia at all (bad test kit or did something die)? Either way your refugium doesn't remove ammonia, only nitrates and phosphates assuming you have either macroalgae or a deep sand bed in the refugium.

[babyduke]

I tested it with newly purchased the API master test kit. I thought chaeto removes both ammonia and nitrate.

Perhaps I'm reading it wrong? Tested color shows faintest ever so slightly green but much closer to solid yellow. Perhaps I'm overfeeding?

[disc1]

Your refugium and tank share the same water so they should have the same readings. The chaeto doesn't take it out faster than the water turns over.

[disc1]

API is notorious for showing a little ammonia where there is none.

[thegrun]

I suspect it is a bad test result, the API test kits are difficult to read at the low ends and not all that accurate. Are there any problems with the fish or corals? If not I wouldn't worry. Heavy feeding should not cause an ammonia spike in an established tank like yours, although a large fish death might.

[babyduke]

Cool. No I see no abnormalities in fish or corals.