could my tank be cycleing again

[machine646]

I have a 20g long with 27lbs of lr a hob fluval c5 filter 2 aqueon oh 500gph with a inch deep sand bed ,I was advised to remove the sponge and biomedia I first removed the sponge a few days later took out the biomedia everything seemed fine,the next morning I tested the water again and my ammonia nitrites and nitrates were off the charts so I did a wc still a week later there still sky high ,what should I do I have a clown a few hermits and snails and don't wanna loose them one hermit died. Please I need help!!!

 

[Krish]

It's possible you are experiencing a mini cycle. This was why I mentioned moving things slowly on your old thread. It all depends on how much your tank was relying on the bio media and sponge for aerobic bacteria and how much bio media you were using would determine how quickly you can remove things. Remember I gave the analogy of a tank running a wet/dry with bio-balls. Most people will only remove so many bio-balls at a time allowing the tank sufficient time to adjust to the change and then move a bit more and continue this process until all bio-balls were removed. Well it can go the same for bio-media as well depending on how much you have. Some people are lucky enough to remove in your case a sponge and bio media shortly thereafter without much issues but really only testing can confirm if you can do this. You remove the sponge, give it a while and test your water and see if you are reading any ammonia and nitrites. If not, then continue on to the bio media. If you were reading either of the two then you would wait it out a bit until things balanced again and the necessary bacteria re populated the tank (I should have mentioned that). At this point, your tank will need to balance out again which shouldn't take long as your liverock and sand has aerobic bacteria already in it. They do have some bacteria in a bottle you could possibly add to increase the aerobic bacteria populations but personally I never used any in a saltwater tank whereas others here have.


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[BigAl07]

Any updates on the status of this tank?

If you're still reading high NH3/NH4 and NO2 then you need to do water changes and add some Ammonia absorbing material to the tank. Also monitor your PH closely because Ammonia becomes significantly more toxic as the PH climbs higher. You'll want to maintain your PH at or below 7.0 as long as you're getting Ammonia readings on your tests.

If you are still seeing NH3/NH4 and NO2 on your tests then you need to start preparing another water change as soon as the first one is over. By this I mean getting water ready for another one later that day or the next. As long as I have ANY Nh3/NH4 or NO2 readings on a tank with livestock I will always have water change ready to go just in case.

 

[machine646]

I clean the sand as good as I could lastnite and a wc,gonna form the sand again tommarow when my water is ready and the sand again,I wish I would've went bare bottom,the readings were a little better,also been picking off all the alge I can

 

[Krish]

Any updates on the status of this tank?

If you're still reading high NH3/NH4 and NO2 then you need to do water changes and add some Ammonia absorbing material to the tank. Also monitor your PH closely because Ammonia becomes significantly more toxic as the PH climbs higher. You'll want to maintain your PH at or below 7.0 as long as you're getting Ammonia readings on your tests.

If you are still seeing NH3/NH4 and NO2 on your tests then you need to start preparing another water change as soon as the first one is over. By this I mean getting water ready for another one later that day or the next. As long as I have ANY Nh3/NH4 or NO2 readings on a tank with livestock I will always have water change ready to go just in case.

Here's where we have been tackling the issue for the most part and where he's at.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f204/not-sure-whats-going-water-parm-62554/

 

[kpiotrowski]

I have a 20g long with 27lbs of lr a hob fluval c5 filter 2 aqueon oh 500gph with a inch deep sand bed ,I was advised to remove the sponge and biomedia I first removed the sponge a few days later took out the biomedia everything seemed fine,the next morning I tested the water again and my ammonia nitrites and nitrates were off the charts so I did a wc still a week later there still sky high ,what should I do I have a clown a few hermits and snails and don't wanna loose them one hermit died. Please I need help!!!

Goes to show how much bioactivity there is in a simple sponge filter! and should also show how making large changes is one of the biggest things most warn about. I have had success with some bacteria in a bottle ( turbo start 900) in starting a new tank and if I was responding the day of your post I would suiggest a 75% water change and a bottle of the stuff, but don't know where you are at now. There is tons of bacteria on live sand and bare bottom is great in one aspect in keeping decaying waste down...but its a trade of in your bio-filter stability too. the more areas you have for your biological filter the more of it you can remove at one time and get away with it.

you also mentioned you "cleaned the sand agian last night". I suspect you are over cleaning and taking too much good bacteria out with it. in most cases you should worry about whats in the water column and not look at the sand bed as the bad guy. change water, not overclean! takes a long time for waste to break down in a sand bed and left undisturbed will only show up as nitrates in the end and not ammonia and nitrite spikes. in other words the bacteria in the sand bed will keep up with detoxifying the waste as it breaks down, but if you mess with it then you take the good out with the bad.

 

[machine646]

I cleaned the sand for one of the first times ever,I took a small sipon over the sand to get the dead alge and poop off the sand,also found a dead hermit under the rock ,over all I just try to leave the sand bed be,I figured the snails and hermits turned it enough,I did a wc and still have high readings by the next morning,I'm just getting really frustrated and trying to find the source of the problem,I used seachem stability for two weeks also dident help at all,my water was fine untill I removed the biomedia,any ideas,normaly I just cleanM the glass and do a wc,any other ideas,I wanna get thing fixed it drives me crazy.

 

[kpiotrowski]

how long has the tank been set up total, when did you add the last addition of live rock and did you cure it first? you have a small tank and hence less stable, but you have a small bioload so this is perplexing. if you are still having problems after weeks y shot in the dark would be live rock die off.

 

[machine646]

The tank has been set up 3 months and close to a week,I added all my liverock at once,when I set up the tank,it cycled.the liverock was bought from a person on Craigslist,brought it home and put it in the tank ,waited till it cycled did a big waterchange,then waited two more weeks for the cuc a month later added my clown,I've been keeping up on waterchanges,I confused

 

[kpiotrowski]

with so many variables many people will stay away from this post cuz its just too difficult to speculate. how fast are you making nitrate? if you are showing high nitrates with large water changes then the good news is you have a good biofilter as far as aerobic is concerned and that would point to something is making large amounts of waste like to heavy of a bio-load ( not your case) overfeeding ( assuming is not the case) ....which leads back to live rock die off.

if you are not making nitrates quickly...or non at all then something killed your biofilter more than just removing the biologicaly active stuff you did.

what to do?

make as large and as frequent water changes as needed to keep ammonia and nitrite below about .25 to .5ppm max and wait it out. keep mechanical filters clean at least every 3 days ( daily is best)so they don't become your biofilter and after you are more stable you can slack off on the mechanical filter cleaning.

if you find you are not making much nitrate then you could add some bacteria in a bottle, I can attest to turbo start 900, but if yo are making good nitrates then its prob a waste of money you would be better off putting into water changes.