My ammonia is high???

[Jon]

My ammonia has been quietly creeping up recently and I don't know why. A month ago when I did my biweekly 15 gallon water change for my 58 gallon tank, my ammonia was reading .25 Than yesterday I did another water change and the ammonia is now reading .50 What can be causing this? I do not have anything dieing and everything looks relatively healthy in my mixed reef tank. All of my other water parameters are as follows ph 8.3, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, calcium 440. alkalinity 10 and magnesium 1400.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[adesimone1]

Check your nitrite level too

 

[JRWOHLER]

If you nitrates and nitrites are zero then get another ammonia kit ... could be something as simple as that. If everying looks good then maybe the kit is bad.

 

[panmanmatt]

Test your source water. If your town adds chloramines to the water supply, an RO/DI unit cannot remove them and they will usually show up as ammonia. Only carbon filtration will remove them.

 

[MadReefer]

I too find it hard to believe that nothing else is testing high. When I had high ammonia my nitrates were high and my nitrite spiked a little. How often do you feed and how much? I know that sounds basic but sometimes you have to go back there. Also, is your tank covered? I had an open 55g and when my wife sprayed air freshener I would notice the skimmer kicking up and testing would be up some.

 

[Jon]

When I feed the five fish that I have a give them a cube of mysis shrimp a day and twice a week I feed my coral a small slice of cyclopeze and a cube of mysis shrimp. My tank top is not open and we don not use air freshener in the house. I will try a new test kit.

 

[Boomer]

Freshly made salt mix has ammonia often ~ 0.25 ppm. In an established tank this is not an issue. Some kits like the Salifert give a false reading as a precip is formed from the high pH of the reagent which produces Magnesium hydroxide, which you may mistake as Ammonia. Check your kit in somebody else's tank to see what you get.