STILL have ammonia!

My ammonia reading has been at 0.6 since I started cycling my tank. That has been probably 10 weeks ago. My nitrites and nitrates have been at 0 for some time,but can't figure out the ammonia. I started with all live rock and live sand. I have a fluval 406 on it that I just cleaned out yesterday along with another wet change. I started running lights a few weeks go and algae was starting to get out of hand so I got 15 crabs to clean it up. All the crabs are still doing fine, it's been over a week.
Any idea what could be amusing this ammonia? Or do you think 0.6 is not too bad?

 

Pour some bacteria in a bottle like microbacter or waste away...that should take care of it. I would also take your water to be tested, could have a bad ammonia test kit

 

I think you may be getting a bad reading. Get another test kit or take a water sample to your LFS for testing. I'd be hard-pressed to believe your ammonia could hold a steady level for so long, especially when everything else has peaked and dropped.

 

I did have it checked at the Lfs but that was about 2 weeks ago, I guess I can get them to check it again. Do you think I should do another water change?

 

I wouldn't do a water change with an ammonia reading around .5. This means the tank is still cycling. However since you have inverts in there, you should add some kind of nitrifying bacteria to speed the process up if you truly do have this high of ammonia. Get it retested. What did you add for a source of ammonia in the first place?

 

I started with a shrimp

 

Are you cleaning your test vials with RO/DI water in between tests?

 

Sounds like the typical ammonia test kit issue. Mine always shows 0.25

 

I have read some things about ammonia test kits especially the API test kit. It reads both nh3 and nh4 which are both ammonia. The way it was explained to me is the NH3 is the harmful ammonia and the NH4 is the not harmful ammonia. This can cause some false readings.

I read that you can get a Seachem Ammonia Alert tester and it will keep a constant reading of your ammonia. It does have some delay times though. Might be a good idea to look into that.

 

no i am not. i will try this today. i am using a nutratest test kit( i think thats how its spelled). but i have heard of the api test kits with the false reading