My Ammonia Issue...

[SaltwaterNoob17]

As some of you know, my ammonia level in my 50 gallon rose to .50 the other day killing much of my livestock. I suspect the culprit was a plastic fish breeder that had been sitting on the sandbed of my tank for about 2 weeks that I removed that day. However, I did an 8 gallon water change after removing the breeder (and before noticing any ammonia issues), and now I was wondering if maybe the WC could have been the issue. I use SeaChem Reef Salt for my water changes, and I was at the bottom of the bucket for this last WC. Could the salt be the culprit? Does salt get old/bad? I buy my salt from Drs. Foster and Smith and noticed that the bucket had a sticker on it with a date from a year ago which got me questioning things...

Thanks
~Samantha

 

[Cathic]

Let me Change that, The salt was not the culrpit, the breeder tank was at the bottom of the tank? If so then when you moved it it released ammonia that had been trapped beneath it in the sand bed when the stand was stirred a bit.

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

Let me Change that, The salt was not the culrpit, the breeder tank was at the bottom of the tank? If so then when you moved it it released ammonia that had been trapped beneath it in the sand bed when the stand was stirred a bit.

Yes, it was resting on the sandbed, and I believe it to be the culprit. I just want to make sure to rule "bad/old" salt out of the question...

 

[Bifferwine]

I really don't think salt was responsible for this. I don't think salt "expires", and I really don't think it would cause an ammonia spike. I think your original instincts were correct -- trapped detritus under the container.

 

[Ogaawd]

salt mix is an hygroscopic material, it absorbs moisture, the date for expiry is a guide to clumping from atmospheric moisture, sorry about your losses that really isn't fun, ammonia is a common contaminant in salt mixes so sometimes you can add more than you remove with a water change, I keep a bottle of Prime just for the tank in case something happens, Prime will "bind" ammonia and removes its toxicity till things recover.