New seahorse tank. Day 4 Ammonia & Nitrite spike! 50L tank. What should I do?

[vienna]

Hi.
I’ve converted my QT never had medication in it to a seahorse tank. She’s only 50L & cycled fallow 3 mths before adding new livestock.
Weds, 4 days ago roughly I’ve added 2 very young long snout seahorses. 2 tiny baby spotted mandarin fish & 1 Ruby red also tiny baby size.
Tonight my water has spiked hard in Ammonia and nitrite already.
Ammonia from Aqua 1 test kit 0.5 - 1
Ammonia master test kit. 1
Nitrite Aqua 1 2-5
Nitrite Master test kit 0.5 -1
I’m guesting I’ll water change now 1st thing but I’m using the frozen mysis cubes & silly put the whole cube in last 2 days and marine mix. I’m guessing that’s what has helped spike it. I should’ve cut the cubes in half or quarter even I’m thinking.
Best way to re control the parameters anyone?!

 

[brandon429]

Your kits aren't assumed correct so don't do anything yet

Post a tank pic so we can see degree and placement of surface area

For example

You're reporting nh4 levels that's not what reef tanks measure

They measure nh3 form ammonia, after running that conversion per the test directions you can see the ammonia concern drops substantially

Any surface area seasoned for three months is cycled, so let's see if you're running far to low of surface area for your bioload and daily feeding, a pic gives that detail

If you have plenty of surface area and no unused feed rotting in the tank then you don't have an ammonia issue and what non digital test kits read won't factor given that known cycling timeline already stated. 3 months is cycled, always.

You didn't mention animal harm, you mentioned a non digital test kit nh4 reading reaction. If the horses look normal during the pics and not in distress that'll factor too

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

That is a very small tank for a pair of seahorses, should be at least 30 gallons, and with 3 other fish in there, its a very overstocked tank. You should return some of them, or else get a bigger tank.

These types of animals need to eat constantly, with your spike I would guess you don't have enough filtration for the amount of livestock and the amount of feeding they require.

 

[vienna]

That is a very small tank for a pair of seahorses, should be at least 30 gallons, and with 3 other fish in there, its a very overstocked tank. You should return some of them, or else get a bigger tank.

These types of animals need to eat constantly, with your spike I would guess you don't have enough filtration for the amount of livestock and the amount of feeding they require.

I’m in the process now of buying them either the Fluval Evo & upgrading everything or the Red Sea Nano. Cade has a mini nano also that’s very nice. It’ll be this week I’ll purchase I just need to keep these guys going the next 2-4 wks.

 

[vienna]

Your kits aren't assumed correct so don't do anything yet

Post a tank pic so we can see degree and placement of surface area

For example

You're reporting nh4 levels that's not what reef tanks measure

They measure nh3 form ammonia, after running that conversion per the test directions you can see the ammonia concern drops substantially

Any surface area seasoned for three months is cycled, so let's see if you're running far to low of surface area for your bioload and daily feeding, a pic gives that detail

If you have plenty of surface area and no unused feed rotting in the tank then you don't have an ammonia issue and what non digital test kits read won't factor given that known cycling timeline already stated. 3 months is cycled, always.

You didn't mention animal harm, you mentioned a non digital test kit nh4 reading reaction. If the horses look normal during the pics and not in distress that'll factor too

I’ve just done a 20% water change. Woken them up at 4 am. I got lots of leftover food syphoned off the bottom everywhere. I’ve also added some extra media from my DT. In case it could help. I could swap the bio balls for more rock from the DT. I’m about to try another reading. The only digital tests I have are Hanna. Phosphate. Calcium. Kh & ph & nitrate. I think I’ll buy an ammonia Hanna kit tomorrow.

 

[vienna]

I’ve just done a 20% water change. Woken them up at 4 am. I got lots of leftover food syphoned off the bottom everywhere. I’ve also added some extra media from my DT. In case it could help. I could swap the bio balls for more rock from the DT. I’m about to try another reading. The only digital tests I have are Hanna. Phosphate. Calcium. Kh & ph & nitrate. I think I’ll buy an ammonia Hanna kit tomorrow.

 

[vienna]

I’m in the process now of buying them either the Fluval Evo & upgrading everything or the Red Sea Nano. Cade has a mini nano also that’s very nice. It’ll be this week I’ll purchase I just need to keep these guys going the next 2-4 wks.

Ohh I also have a humbug in there to which I’ll move to DT.

 

[vienna]

I’ve just done a 20% water change. Woken them up at 4 am. I got lots of leftover food syphoned off the bottom everywhere. I’ve also added some extra media from my DT. In case it could help. I could swap the bio balls for more rock from the DT. I’m about to try another reading. The only digital tests I have are Hanna. Phosphate. Calcium. Kh & ph & nitrate. I think I’ll buy an ammonia Hanna kit tomorrow.

The ammonia test kit says NH3/NH4. It’s ppm.Nitrite NO2 ppm . Aqua 1 test kit. The master test kit says the same. Hanna tests came back Phosphate 0.90 PH 7.7 KH 8.0 I haven’t checked Hanna calcium or nitrate. I’m still getting used to the difficulties of those tests.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Removing uneaten food about 30 minutes after each feeding is essential, especially if you don't have a robust detritus cuc. You have a lot of places for food to "hide" so moving all the ceramic balls around will be necessary. With any seahorse tank, be prepared to do frequent water changes to maintain water quality.

Nitrates and phosphates are not the only things that affect water quality and seahorses are very sensitive to dissolved organics.

Thread 'Testing for dissolved organics in a seahorse tank.' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/testing-for-dissolved-organics-in-a-seahorse-tank.937642/

 

[brandon429]

we don't need the kits to help you control ammonia

analysis coming up

 

[brandon429]

having any rotting food can affect kit accuracy. it doesn't mean your surface area was overcome it's just not clean, so the steps taken will be fine for that variable.

having surface area on the floor is not efficient, it's designed to be placed in the path of channeled flow and cleaned regularly. positioned where it is, less waste water contacts it than if it were in the correct zone, although that doesn't mean that system isn't getting at least some benefit from it being in the water at all with such low live rock use.

you should do a nice big water change matching temp and salinity, run it cleaner now vs any sinking allowed and it'll be fine. if you were going to increase the loading beyond a couple fish then I'd reposition the surface area correctly. that big arch of live rock will help tremendously due to its position midwater column.

the test kits are known to misread, people expect them to read zero at all times and they rarely do. tanks that are designed similarly to one another dont perform wildly different in terms of biofiltration for nh3, so once we copy a known working system and keep the food waste low the surface area amounts here will be fine.

 

[vienna]

having any rotting food can affect kit accuracy. it doesn't mean your surface area was overcome it's just not clean, so the steps taken will be fine for that variable.

having surface area on the floor is not efficient, it's designed to be placed in the path of channeled flow and cleaned regularly. positioned where it is, less waste water contacts it than if it were in the correct zone, although that doesn't mean that system isn't getting at least some benefit from it being in the water at all with such low live rock use.

you should do a nice big water change matching temp and salinity, run it cleaner now vs any sinking allowed and it'll be fine. if you were going to increase the loading beyond a couple fish then I'd reposition the surface area correctly. that big arch of live rock will help tremendously due to its position midwater column.

the test kits are known to misread, people expect them to read zero at all times and they rarely do. tanks that are designed similarly to one another dont perform wildly different in terms of biofiltration for nh3, so once we copy a known working system and keep the food waste low the surface area amounts here will be fine.

Thanks

 

[vienna]

Thanks

 

[brandon429]

wow those are tiny guys very neat looking / happily poking about for pods

after a cleanup and a water change there's no concern for ammonia with that low of a loading. if you wanted to have an alert system I'd recommend the seachem alert badges, those can misread too but not as often as the reagent-based nondigital test kits

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Thanks

You understood that?? Lol

 

[vienna]

wow those are tiny guys very neat looking / happily poking about for podsI’.

 

[vienna]

You understood that?? Lol

Pods. Of course. They are buzzing around for them most likely lol. Yes they are tiny little guys. I should’ve got the Ruby red a mate too. Next time. I’ll be sure to research how I can tell what sex it is.