curing and ammonia- how high is too high

[Brighteyes_13]

i tested my rock yesterday and found my ammonia levels really spiked over the last week. The test only shows up to 8ppm and its at least that if not higher. I tried reading as much as i could about curing and water changes ect... gotta love it when the advice is "Water changes will help you keep the ammonia level from getting too high" but never once says what too high is. To be safe i did a 50% change today (still maxing out test).

My question is, what is too high? and what will higher sustained ammonia levels do to curing liverock? can it kill all the beneficial bacteria that cycle the rock?

im going to mix up a new batch of water to do 100% change this weekend but im worried its all for nothing at this point, and ive killed my rock.

[Default]

The beneficial bacteria feeds off NH3 and n02.
You wont kill your rock its the dead stuff on your rocks that is spiking your NH3. It will soon turn NH3 and N02 into N03.
Just give it time and your tank with cycle do water changes and soon enough the bacteria will colonize again.
Cycling can take time but it will happen

[Brighteyes_13]

I do understand its ammonia and nitrites that feed the bacteria, its just the large quantities of ammonia im concerned with. Also, after 2 weeks of sitting in the bins, i thought i would see more nitrites than i am... my test is reading 0. it just all seems off.

im not worried about it taking a long time, my tank isn't even ready to be picked up yet. I just want to be sure I haven't destroyed 100 lbs of previously cured liverock.

[Myka]

1 ppm ammonia is too much. That will start killing off all the microfauna that is on the rocks and add to the cycle. Do waterchanges or you can add an Ammonia detoxifier which changes NH3 to NH4 which is much less toxic. The nitrifying bacteria don't care. Keep in mind that many ammonia test kits read Nh3 and NH4 as total ammonia and will give you a "false positive". Seachem ammonia Alerts are compatible with detoxifiers.

Here's a great read that's pretty accurate (first page anyway): http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/forum/general-discussion/1803-prime-questions

[MitchM]

You only need about 3 - 4 ppm for nitrifying bacteria to establish itself in a timely fashion.
Anything higher will retard the cycle process and kill off most other organisms.
Ammonia detoxifiers will only last for about 48 hours and with our hobby test kits, you can't tell the difference between NH3 and NH4.

[Brighteyes_13]

Thank you! That was very helpful

[ramasule]

I'm just starting my cycle too :D

I dosed ammonia in both my qt tanks and shot for around 3ppm.

You can look for fishless cycle dosing

Or something of that sort.

[Myka]

API is the best kit I've found NH3 only. I write the date i open it on the box and replace it every year - it doesn't last very long, but at $8 it's not a bank breaker. Lol