[Coral-List] Re: NH4 conc. in aquarium water

TDWYATT at aol.com TDWYATT at aol.com
Wed Dec 28 20:43:15 EST 2005


 
In a message dated 12/26/2005 11:02:20 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
ctwiliams at yahoo.com writes:

Could  you provide some of the "lot" references for
ammonia NH4 being 20ppm for  coral propagation as these
levels far exceed the levels accepted for  discharge of
treated sewage effluent to marine waters.  

Are  these levels acceptable for aquaria only ?? - I
believe they would  stimulate alot of alga in the tank
or real water. 

Dr. Tom  Williams


 
In the reef aquaria hobby, ammonia concentrations are only accepted at ZERO  
detectable ammonia using standard hobbyists kits.  These kits detect levels  
down to around 0.1 PPM NH3/NH4+.  Levels greater than 3 PPM are deadly to  most 
fish and inverts.  
 
I suspect that the reference of 20PPM as a upper level is to  nitrATES, which 
is the upper limit for nitrates in reef biotopic  emulations.  This most 
often resulting in browning of stony coral specimens  and stunted calcification 
rates (usually with elevated phosphates as well) as a  result of poor husbandry 
habits for closed aquarium systems.
 
 
HTH,
 
Tom Wyatt
_tdwyatt at aol.com_ (mailto:tdwyatt at aol.com) 
 




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