ammonia prob at 1 ppm?

This is my first tank, it's been setup and doing well since the end of February. I have very poor lighting at the moment, that's next on the budget list. Right now I only have one 35W 6500K light and its about a 35 gallon tank. (I know, I know).

All params have stayed in check pretty well.

Today I tested and everything seems ok:
1.023 salinity
80 Deg F
pH 8.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
but..

Ammonia reads at or just above 1 ppm.

Is this enough concern me?
Also, just this week I found a gorilla crab hitch hiker so I pulled the rock out he was hiding in and sent him to the reef in the great beyond. Because I pulled the rock out and really stirred stuff up getting everything back in place - would that make the ammonia jump?

As always, thanks a bunch - everybody here is SOOO awesome

 

that could make the ammonia jump. How long has your ammonia been up there?? If everything else is doing ok, I would think it would just be a quick spike and will fall really soon. this happened to me about a year and a half ago and it only took a couple of days for it to drop. You could use an ammonia remover but that could be bad for your nitrifying bacteria, so I say just ride it out. You could also have a bad test kit. Try taking some water to your lfs and have them check it there to compare.

 

It can. I know when you stir up your sand your move rocks around you are spiking the NO3's. I'm not real sure if having your ammonia at 1ppm is a very big concern or not. Depending on how large of a livestock you have going for you, it can vary O.O


I think your fine personally, just wait it out, should take a day or so to drop back down. I don't see any harm here.

 

Cool, thx for the info. I was hoping it was just a phase from stirring everything up. Only been two days. I'll ride it out and check in again in a few days. The two fish, hermits and snails all seem as happy as ever so I figure its ok.

Thx again!

 

Any reading in NH3/4 is not a good one. NH3/4 should be 0. Luna

 

the toxic state of NH3 is 1 ppm, NH4 is non-toxic

 

Do you have a skimmer or maybe an airpump and airstone? Those will help lower your ammonia. I would have thought tho that your tank would have a sufficient ammount of bacteria by now to deal with ammonia.

 

When you toss rock around in your tank, you throw up the sand bed, tossing up a large amount of undissolved detritus and other waste, which is probably now dissolving in abundance and to a higher level than your system's own biological conversion can handle. Thus you have ammonia, but should be converted quickly since you already have the bacteria present to convert it through the cycle. And yes, 1ppm of ammonia is terrible and can kill things. Keep a daily check on that ammonia level; I would suggest possibly doing some small water changes to see if you can bring it down a bit as well.

Good luck