Ammonia, Nitrate levels?

[slicavoli]

I have a 35 gal Nano tank,

The levels have been fine untill this week.

I have a small clam that I feed phytoplankton, and iodine a zoo, brain coral, long tenacle anemome and a mushroom.

I have a pair of mated true perc clowns, a royal gramma, and a small yellow tang.

Mh lights, heater, 15 lbs live rock and 40 lbs live sand

My ammonia level has went up to 1.0
My Nitrate level has went up to about 25 on the chart
Nitrite level 0
Ph at 8.3

What is happening, everything looks ok but I am a little worried.

I did a water change this past Sunday about 10% using RO water I buy!

This is the first time I have ever checked the levels a few hours after adding the Iodine and phytoplankton.

Any help would be appreciated. How do I get the levels down?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[trido]

IT sounds to me as if you have something that has died recently or the phyto you added to the tank was dead . You probably should do another water change immediately and check things from there.

 

[ChrisRD]

How old is the tank? Do you have a skimmer on the tank?

I agree with Trido that generally an increase in ammonia coincides with a sudden increase in bioload (ie. overdose of phyto or something dying).

Before you panic, first confirm the ammonia test kit reading. With levels that high I would expect to see visible negative responses from corals/fish/inverts. Try a different kit or have your water checked at your LFS.

Same goes for nitrates - confirm the reading before jumping to any conclusions. Nitrates are not all that toxic so it's much less of an issue. If they really are high or climbing you need to start increasing nutrient export and/or decreasing nutrient import to get things back into balance.

Also, it may be unrelated to your problem, but personally I have never bothered dosing iodine and don't feel it's necessary. It can be toxic in high enough doses.

 

[slicavoli]

The tank has been up and running for about 4 months now.

I bought a nano fission skimmer but have not installed it yet because I never had a problem before.

Nothing is dead in the tank, I will stop the phyto dosing and iodine.

what do you mean by "start increasing nutrient export and/or decreasing nutrient import"

Should I do a major water change?
Is there a chemical I can get to decrease these levels?
Should I just wait and stop the dosing of iodine and photo and see what happens?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[slicavoli]

I am feeding frozen shrimp to the fish!
That is what they live to eat.

That is the only thing that might be dead if they don't eat it all.

 

[SnowManSnow]

install your skimmer. its a no b rainer for me. i think it will REALLY help with your problem.

B

 

[ChrisRD]

If you do in fact have an ammonia problem (which you should confirm), I would agree - doing several large water changes and getting your skimmer running will get you back on track.

When adding food for your fish, make sure they can consume whatever you put in the tank in a few minutes. If there's a lot of extra food floating around after a few minutes you're adding too much and this can definitely create water quality issues.

 

[slicavoli]

I did not feed the fish at all today, and I did not add and photo or iodine.

I did a 10% water change and then checked the levels!

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Ph 8.1
Nitrates at 20

It looks like I am going in the right direction but the nitrates are still higher then I think they should be.

I did not hook up the nano fission skimmer yet.

Any ideas? Should I just wait another day before I feed the fish and check again?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[ChrisRD]

A 10% water change won't make that kind of difference so I suspect the initial ammonia reading wasn't very accurate. If everything looks normal and you're not getting a reading anymore I wouldn't sweat it.

I highly recommend getting the skimmer on there - it will help with the nitrate issues. If you have to withhold food from your fish to keep water quality in check, IMO you don't have enough nutrient export (which the skimmer will help provide).

 

[slicavoli]

I also added the fission nano-skimmer!

 

[ChrisRD]

Sounds like you're on the right track.

A few large water changes should get your nitrate levels down and the skimmer should help to keep them there.