i have recently purchased a few marble motoro's they have come in with ammonia levels that have been off the chart. once i have acclimated the rays the ammonia gets high in the tank i would do water changes and the ammonia seems to go down then just spike right back up. this is going on in all tanks the new rays are in witch have sufficient filtration and have been set up for a good while now. do you suppose sting rays can produce a significant amount of ammonia in just a 24 hour period of time that the filtration cant brake down. i don't have this problem with my rays that i have had for a while. what is going on i don't understand these spikes.
ammonia
- Thread starter john C
- Start date
you are still having these spikes??? you did tell me before that the test is new and good right???
hi, depending on size of tank and filtration?
there is no way the fish can release that amount of amonia to over ride an established filtration unless the complete bio-load of the tank is significantly higher than the capability of the filter. did u put the water from the bags into the tank?
there is no way the fish can release that amount of amonia to over ride an established filtration unless the complete bio-load of the tank is significantly higher than the capability of the filter. did u put the water from the bags into the tank?
test kit is good. i have marbles in three different tanks and two of them are with levels of ammonia right now one is low only 0.25 that one is a 300 gal on a drip with two rays. the other is 1.0 ppm this is reading after a 75% change last night and is also my newest ray and it is by its self in a 110. i am wondering if shipping stress is so high on these rays that they have this high amount ammonia to produce. it seems that the oldest rays tanks are at better levels but they have all produced these spikes. i have been testing water and doing water changes like crazy.
penman;1899321; said:
no water from the bags when acclimating fish. i checked all filters and they are fine not too clean not too dirty. filtration is a over kill on all of these tanks. in theory this is not making any sense at all. i have even used some sea chem stability awhile back when this had started and i did not find it effective. i would dose when i put new ray in tank and after water changes, did not dose for the recommendation for new tanks. ammonia levels would go down then within 48 hours right back up. i am feeding a ton of blk worms too but this is not staying in the tank long because they consume it. however it is making them have some messy stools.
???????
john
hi, black worms? is that blood worm? lol different over here! live or frozen? as with some of the frozen stuff can not be good as far as the content of the frozen matter as some times the degrading process has started and will when defrosted and enter the tank can foul the water. just a thought, have some times had spikes on my larger systems but is gone within a day or night.
Stingrays produce an incredible amount of ammonia..
How much water volume are you working with? What kind of filtration, primarily biological media are you using? How many rays? How much are you feeding?
Nitrifying bacteria only establishes as much as it needs to consume a constant amount of ammonia to the tank. When you suddenly and drastically increase the 'constant' amount of ammonia in the system, it will take 2-4 weeks for the nitrifying bacteria to re-establish itself. If you are doing LARGE frequent water changes to combat this issue, you are removing the ammonia which is the food source for the nitrifying bacteria.. By removing the ammonia so often, it is disallowing the bacteria to re-establish self at density you need in your biological media..
vicious cycle, or, pun intended, vicious not cycled..
The smaller the water volume, the more rays and food you have, and lack of surface area in the biological media, the worse the problem will be..
Pre-cycle the tanks prior to importation with raw seafood or ammonia. This will establish a larger than needed amount of nitrifying bacteria, and rather then re-establishing itself upwards to a larger amount, it will simply die off until it reaches it's designated amount. The other method is not feeding the fish upon arrival, and allowing the ammonia they produce just from osmosis to feed the nitrifying bacteria.. Use chemicals like Prime and Stability to neutralize ammonia/nitrite and speed up the bacterial process, but try to not do water changes so that the bacteria can easily and quickly establish itself. Thereafter, Slowly increase feeding schedule so that the nitrifying bacteria can steadily grow along side the new constant intake of ammonia.
Hope that helps!
How much water volume are you working with? What kind of filtration, primarily biological media are you using? How many rays? How much are you feeding?
Nitrifying bacteria only establishes as much as it needs to consume a constant amount of ammonia to the tank. When you suddenly and drastically increase the 'constant' amount of ammonia in the system, it will take 2-4 weeks for the nitrifying bacteria to re-establish itself. If you are doing LARGE frequent water changes to combat this issue, you are removing the ammonia which is the food source for the nitrifying bacteria.. By removing the ammonia so often, it is disallowing the bacteria to re-establish self at density you need in your biological media..
vicious cycle, or, pun intended, vicious not cycled..
The smaller the water volume, the more rays and food you have, and lack of surface area in the biological media, the worse the problem will be..
Pre-cycle the tanks prior to importation with raw seafood or ammonia. This will establish a larger than needed amount of nitrifying bacteria, and rather then re-establishing itself upwards to a larger amount, it will simply die off until it reaches it's designated amount. The other method is not feeding the fish upon arrival, and allowing the ammonia they produce just from osmosis to feed the nitrifying bacteria.. Use chemicals like Prime and Stability to neutralize ammonia/nitrite and speed up the bacterial process, but try to not do water changes so that the bacteria can easily and quickly establish itself. Thereafter, Slowly increase feeding schedule so that the nitrifying bacteria can steadily grow along side the new constant intake of ammonia.
Hope that helps!