10g to 55g learning curves and issues sprung up..

[SaltyBish]

Issue: Green algae (very light), ammonia and nitrates elevated.

Transplanted my 10g to a new 55gal on 9/28. This consisted of live rock, clown, fire blenny, and bubble tip anen. and gsp. The new tank cycled with Tims. All params were perfect so i began adding more life to my tank. Went well. no issues until now. I added more live rock and dry rock at that time as well.

Brown algae about two weeks ago and my research took me to high phosphates (test kit on the way) but i added PhosGuard which took my brown away and gave me green algae but it is light and only really on the glass.

Stats via API test kit

pH: 8.0:
Ammonia: .5ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
Salinity: .023
Temp: 78 degrees F

Livestock (everyone seems happy.. looks happy.. eats.. no signs of stress):
1 Clown w/anenome
1 coral beauty angel
1 yellow tang
2 chromies
1 fire blenny
1 8 stripe wrass
1 purple dottyback
1 misc fish (some type of blenny i think)
1 sand sifting star
1 red brittle star
CUC (recently renewed bc i only had 3-4 snails and few crabs left from 10g).
GSP
mushrooms

Equip:
octo 100 hob skimmer. I empty the cup about once per day.
fluval c4 filter. bio media and phosguard in there as well.
small surface skimmer with a carbon block
wavemaker (a 2nd on order because I need more flow surely due to green algae)
heater
2 kessil A160 using a kessil spectral controller. 11am-8pm lights are active.

- Due to the ammonia and nitrates I added PRIME.
- Added whole bottle of Tims thinking my good bacteria was not mature enough.
- Due to the brown algae, i added PhosGuard. Brown gone but now green on the glass.

I supplied pics as well since this is usually a good gauge.

Thoughts on what to do with the ammonia and nitrates?

 

[WIReefer]

I would start with a water change and keep measuring ammonia, did you cure the dry rock first? Also how fast did you add them fish? Your ammonia is probably 0 api test kits are know for bad readings.

 

[SaltyBish]

I would start with a water change and keep measuridid you cure the dry rock first? Also how fast did you add them fish? Your ammonia is probably 0 api test kits are know for bad readings.

I largely added fish too quickly like a dummy. Over confidence got the best of me. I had no idea that i needed to do anything to dry rock. Maybe thats another area that i messed up on. I was going to do a large water change but thought it may complicate things. The ammonia has kept steady so i think you could be onto something about the API test; i read that a true ammonia spike would go really high.