My ammonia levels seem to be around .5ppm in my tank. I am not sure why it is not 0, my nitrates and nitrites are exactly 0ppm.
What can be causing my ammonia to be so high, and how can I lower it?
I recently did add some live sand in my new sump,
some calupera algae, 3 sea anemones and 2 clown fish in the display
The calupera algae looks a little diff then I would think. There is usually small green vines with bubbles on them, now it seems that some of those bubbles opened to flat pancakes and it looks like a small tint of brown in spots.
Water parameters are perf except the .5ppm ammonia level.
How old is the tank? How old is the kit? Can your LFS verify this reading before you do anything? How does the livestock look?
If it is in fact elevated, a product like Seachem's Prime can lock up the ammonia to prevent your livestock from being affected adversely. Still, you need to find the source if it exists. Did you remove any LR (live rock) and leave it exposed to air for a while?
My LFS verified the ammonia level. The tank is 3months old. The livestock looks good but my toadstool seemed to get shorter. It is very large and it seems like he shurnk about .5" in height. I am not sure if it matters but the toadstool is giving off like a skin, it looks like it is sheding. Everything else looks good. I did add the calupera and a non living rock to hold the calupera down. No idea why my calupera looks funny either.
Perhaps something in that new rock was decaying, and is adding to the ammonia level.
Leather corals shed, that is normal. You can siphon it out with a turkey baster or some tubing.
Caulerpa, depending on the type, can die off in your tank. If it releases the green liquid within its stems and turns clear, it has died and will dissolve away in the system within 48 to 72 hours. I would remove it as soon as I noted it was clear. Certain types don't do this if they are under a light 24 hours a day, such as in a refugium.
Your tank is suffering through a mini-cycle for now. Adding a detoxifier to the tank for now will help, and don't add any more livestock for at least 4 weeks. Water changes will help keep the level down, but remember ammonia is toxic to fish and inverts, as is nitrite.
It could be something in the new rock, i also had a foam pad in my sump that was new, i used it between the baffles to keep some of the culupera from getting into the pump, i have removed that. My culupera is under light 24hrs a day. It is in my sump that is made from a 20G tank in the basement. The water temp is 80deg, salinity is 1.024, and it is lit by my old hood which is just 1 18W bulb. I have no idea what type of bulb this is, all it says is eclipse preheat. The lady at the fish store said culupera does not need special light, anything will work. So i figure i would just use one of the fixtures i had from my 55G. I would say that the refuge area is 12w"x9h"x"12L" and maybe holds 5G of water. Should i go buy a new bulb for the colupera, for some reason these bulbs are like $40 for 18w. Should i be triming the small brown parts off and the parts where the bubbles have opened to flat leaves?
Here's a bulb that will cost you $20, including shipping to your door. I don't sell it; there is a link to where you can buy it on the page. It is NOT at Home Depot - read the details:
Once a month, you should cull 25% of the macro algae to encourage more growth. Use scissors to cut the plant rather than ripping it apart, because the scissors pinch the vines shut as they cut through, where a ripped strand will leak that fluid into the water unfortunately.
The only trimming I would do is dead stuff. I like a clean system.