Help with ammonia

[Aquarist20]

I am having an ammonia problem in my tank. I am not really sure where its coming from. The tank has been running for about 6 months now. There are no fish in the system so I am a bit confused. There are only snails and crabs in the tank. Any ideas as to what could possibly be wrong. I dont know what to do as there is lots of $$$ in the tank I would HATE to lose. I am thingking maybe a watewr change. Any ideas or thoughts?

 

[das75]

Water change would help bring the NH3 down but missing any snails?

 

[Anonymous]

Did you check your nitrate? Most of the time, ammonia is very low in reef tank with all the live rock and sand, unless, as das75 said, something is dead recently..

 

[Aquarist20]

All paramaters were checked and Nitrate is about 5 mg/l. I tried to count the snails last night, I think all are accounted for. I dont really know how many are in there so.....Oh-well.

 

[Anonymous]

A dead crab can jack up the ammonia and nitrate quite a bit too....

 

[Anonymous]

I think that really depends on the sizes of the tank and crab in question, to be quite honest.

Here's another idea, too common that most folks don't consider; if you're using a test kit that uses Nessler's reagent, and you recently did a water change using certain dechlorinators, guess what. You can get false ammonia readings.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, that's a good point. So what is the ammonia reading of a freshly mixed saltwater?

 

[jason9jay]

could also be dead sponge in the rock. usually happens in fresh live rock though and it and is accompanied by a really bad smell.

 

[Aquarist20]

I havent thought about the dechlor. I am using Prime and I think it does not effect the ammonia test but I will give it a shot. There is no smell coming from the tank. But it is only a 20g and I suppose if a crab, snail or both have died recently it could be effected since it is so small. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Quigonsean]

Prime will give a false+ at least the fine print says it will.

Sean