Help-spike In Ammonia On An Established Tank

[salt&cich4l]

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Above is a link to a video of my tank. (I think you need facebook to view it) It is a 120 w/ a 20 gallon sump. It has been established for about 5 years. Today I tested my parameters and there was an ammonia spike. I did a quick 5 gallon water change, and tested again, no spike. My protein skimmer's pump stopped working 2 days ago. Could this be the cause? Based on the video, someone on facebook commented that my tank looks like it is re-cycling. Please have a look on the video above. Is this possible on an established tank? I did deep clean the live rock about 2 months ago (took it out of the tank and cleaned each rock with saltwater to get off cyano bacteria). I am at a loss and not sure what to do. I do a 10-30% water change every week as well as test my parameters. With the exception of my nitrates reaching 40ppm, there have not been any issues (no ammonia or nitrites detectable). I have been testing for about 2 months weekly. My other thought is that my snowflake eel died. I cannot find him anywhere. It has been 2 weeks and he does not come out for feedings. Do you think that his death could have caused the spike? Thank you!

 

[Tony_097]

I'm betting on the death of the eel if it is dead being the reason why

 

[ryanr]

Hi,
Dead/rotting matter in the tank can cause a spike in ammonia. Especially an eel, as there is a lot of decaying matter.

Loss of the skimmer could also cause an ammonia spike depending on load in the tank as you don't have anything removing DOCs.

I wouldn't say the tank is re-cycling, more that there's been an increase in bio-load that the current bacteria population can't process.

I'd be getting the skimmer back in action, try to find and remove the eel (if it is dead), and dose with Prime daily to detox ammonia and allow the bacteria population to grow.

Incidentally, when you say ammonia spike, what is the reading?

 

[Jesterrace]

A dead eel in the tank is definitely the issue. You would have to have a massive tank (ie around 1000 gallons or more) and a really big cleanup crew not to have a spike. That's just too much rotted mass for your average size tank. You need to find the eel and remove it and it should fix the problem.

 

[salt&cich4l]

A dead eel in the tank is definitely the issue. You would have to have a massive tank (ie around 1000 gallons or more) and a really big cleanup crew not to have a spike. That's just too much-rotted mass for your average size tank. You need to find the eel and remove it and it should fix the problem.

Thank you....unfortunately. there is 4 feet of pvc pipe under my live rock...I cannot get in there (at least I do not know how to do this) without taking out and breaking apart all of the rock that I epoxied together. I have done a 50% water change. (It is a 120 tank). THe ammonia issue is gone, but the nitrates are still high 40ppm. I will get that protein skimmer running once the pump arrives...thank you! I added new clean up crew and dropped them into the pcv pipe in hopes that the clean out the ded eel. I am assuming it is dead, since it has been MIA for not 2 1/2/ weeks.

 

[salt&cich4l]

Hi,
Dead/rotting matter in the tank can cause a spike in ammonia. Especially an eel, as there is a lot of decaying matter.

Loss of the skimmer could also cause an ammonia spike depending on load in the tank as you don't have anything removing DOCs.

I wouldn't say the tank is re-cycling, more that there's been an increase in bio-load that the current bacteria population can't process.

I'd be getting the skimmer back in action, try to find and remove the eel (if it is dead), and dose with Prime daily to detox ammonia and allow the bacteria population to grow.

Incidentally, when you say ammonia spike, what is the reading?

It was a light green with my API test. I think it was 1ppm. However, I did a water change after that (5 gallons). and the ammonia was gone. The next day I tested and the ammonia was not present with my API test. However, nitrates were at 80ppm. I did another water change (30 gallons) to bring them down to 40ppm.

 

[Jesterrace]

I would get a more reliable test kit. API is well known for giving false positives for ammonia. I would look into Salifert or Red Sea.