Ammonia in new tank with nothing in it?

[Anonymous]

I'm curious where my ammonia is coming from, I'm reading 1.0 ppm in a new 135 gallon tank. I used the RO system (minus the thin film membrane) so that should of gotten rid of the chloramine (or maybe breaks it down only?). Well anyways the only things in the tank are sand and rock (both are NOT live in any way, quite sterile). It was suggested that my carbon in my filter might be taking our chlorine but leaving the ammonia.

So my question is (other than where might it be coming from) is do I need to give my tank a jump start of bacteria to try to start to cycle? Or should I chemically treat it or try to filter it out?

 

[hdtran]

Have you run a zero test, e.g. using your test kit on tap water?

 

[Anonymous]

Have you run a zero test, e.g. using your test kit on tap water?

I tested the tap water today & the RO water. RO water came back with zero levels, tap water, came up a strange color that did not really corrispond to any colors on my chart to see how much ammonia was in, I assume it was a strange reaction with the chloramine.

 

[hdtran]

OK, I'm clueless as to why you're getting 1ppm ammonia, then. My hypothesis was a bad test kit, but since your test of RO water shows zero, the test kit is not obviously bad.

 

[Anonymous]

OK, I'm clueless as to why you're getting 1ppm ammonia, then. My hypothesis was a bad test kit, but since your test of RO water shows zero, the test kit is not obviously bad.

The only other reason I think there might of gotten some in, was from washing the sand using the garden hose, some water was still in with the sand, but it still seems like an awfully high amount compared to the 100 gallons of water still in there.

 

[Rainman]

It's probably worth trying a different test kit to the one that you've been using. They (esp. the cheap ones) seem to be highly variable. It would be better to spend the little extra now and get good data than to spend more money correcting problems (or basing tank management decisions on erroneous info) later.

 

[Mihai]

I thought that ammonia goes through the RO membrane (and is caught in the DI filter if it exists). I don't have an RO/DI, so I'm not sure, but I was reading about them to be able to buy a good one.

Regards,
Mihai

 

[kim]

I know that you say rock/sand were not live and quite sterile - but there may be a chance that something dead and organic was tucked away in there.

But I agree, check with another kit.

kim