Why can I not kick Ammonia?

[digital-audiophile]

Well guys, it seems that I may indeed have mud on my face

I tested the tank again tonight ... 0.5 ammonia, I tested my existing cube... 0.5 ammonia, I tested a rubbermaid bucket I have had mixing new salt water in for the past week .. guess what 0.5 Ammonia. I did test my fresh water source and it was 0.0 .. I did this with two seperate test kits and came up with the same results so I agree that I am getting a false positive and that the SW is throwing off the tests. I used to read zero on my old tank with the same kits but that was a long time ago that I tested it. The kits are ~1 year old so that could be why.

Oh, they are Aquarium Pharmaceutical test kits.

I tested the params on the rest of the tank and found the following :

Nitrite : 0.0
Nitrate 20
PH 8.2
KH 179
Calcium 280
Iron 0.0
Phosphate 0.0
Salinity 1.022

I need to try to bring my phosphates down and calcium up. This is going to be FOWL and maybe add some zoos or shrooms thats about it, I want to eventually ad some non reef safe fish (copperband, flame angel, coral beauty) so I don't want to risk and coral that may get nipped at. Now I guess I can bring my fishies over and close down the cube. Three in total - Perc Clown, Sixline Wrasse and a small Purple Tang. I have my skimmer/sump running full time now so I wouldn't imagine this should be too much of a bioload to add at once.