need to lower ammonia fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[erikharrison]

if that sand got stirred, that could be the source of your problems. Keep doing major water changes until you get some stabilization.

[Texreefer]

Someone took notes!

yes I took good mental notes ,, but also knew this because I used it to keep amonia to build up in my larvae tank

[copperband]

also i have an api test kit

[erikharrison]

Is it showing blood red? like over 180? If so and your fish are not dead, I would say bad test kit for sure.

[chapel210]

I had the exact same problem! I'm just gonna toss it out there... API test kit from Tropical? I think there was a bad batch of the trate kits.

Yea! Texas Tropical is where I got mine.

[erikharrison]

Yea! Texas Tropical is where I got mine.

I figured as much! I was FREAKING out doing 50% changes daily and yet wondering how everything wasn't dead, lol. I spent more money on the changes than I did on the darn kit, haha.

[caferacermike]

Here is a fact given to me directly from SeaChem about using Prime to control ammonia.

It doesn't.


If you come home late or for whatever reason and your levels have gone wonky, you can add Prime (or Amquel or whatever) to the water to "lock" in ammonia. It won't change it, get rid of it, or change it into gold. It binds it into ammonium for about 30-48 hours, after that it changes right back into ammonia and is just as deadly as before. They did recommend in the event of an outbreak to add some Prime to the water and then begin doing frequent water changes to remove the ammonium before it can change back to the deadly ammonia.

I was reading some people debating bad test kits. I've never had an ammonia problem in a tank but I've heard that you can generally smell ammonia at the top of the tank at even the slightest levels. Maybe you could catch a whiff of of ammonia at your tank if the levels are as high as your kit says.

[Texreefer]

Good info Mike

[copperband]

ok the corals are opening up again im going to test my water and then probably do a 4 gallon water change

[erikharrison]

good deal.