ammonia is shown on test kits, after digging sand out.

[zheka757]

5 years old reef tank, yesterday took 1/3 of my sand out of my 400 gallon tank, after i was done, i couldn't see 6 inches into tank, it was that cloudy from stirring sand up. also took some rocks out of the tank, (will no use those rocks any more) also just incase i doses carbon to the tank just incase, 24 hours latter, today cloudiness was all cleared up, measured my tank with expired ammonia test kit (exp 06/21) and im reading .2 on red sea test kit.
i got some acropora in the tank and polys are opened up, fish eating, don't see anything stress out at this point. dont know what to expect next day. I ordered seachem AMguard, just incase it will get out of control.
im kind of freaked out a little, looking for comments, advice, criticize, everything welcome.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

5 years old reef tank, yesterday took 1/3 of my sand out of my 400 gallon tank, after i was done, i couldn't see 6 inches into tank, it was that cloudy from stirring sand up. also took some rocks out of the tank, (will no use those rocks any more) also just incase i doses carbon to the tank just incase, 24 hours latter, today cloudiness was all cleared up, measured my tank with expired ammonia test kit (exp 06/21) and im reading .2 on red sea test kit.
i got some acropora in the tank and polys are opened up, fish eating, don't see anything stress out at this point. dont know what to expect next day. I ordered seachem AMguard, just incase it will get out of control.
im kind of freaked out a little, looking for comments, advice, criticize, everything welcome.

Several things stand out:
1. You said your ammonia test kit expired a year ago? The results are worthless.
2. Corals are fine with ammonia - it's food for them.
3. Some fish with ammonia poisoning may not show symptoms for several days. It damages (burns) the gills, skin, and fins. Some fish will die in the first 12 hours
4. Amquel and similar products TEMPORARILY detoxify ammonia, but within 24 hours, it will revert back to the poisonous kind.
5. (Maybe should be 1.) Do a large water change if you think there is ammonia in your tank. Carbon can help remove some pollutants but it DOES NOT remove ammonia.

Good luck.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Stirring up a sand bed especially an established one and removing sand is going to raise everything especially nitrates and ammonia this is a given. The sand bed is essentially a tank’s litter box. Get a better test kit and if you are concerned about ammonia adding some bottled bacteria or something like AmGuard will help keep it down/at safe levels.

 

[zheka757]

For a week I have being adding seachem stability, for this exact reason, incase of amonia spike. Year ago I added seachem matrix bio media I added way over the recommend amount, I got enough for 2000galon tank. Last week I added same amount again into my sump. Thinking that once I will remove sand, seachem metrix will serve as a replacement biomedia.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

AmGuard will help keep it down/at safe levels.

This is not accurate. See my post above. These products only change ammonia to its nontoxic form for 24 hours or less. Without another form of removal, the ammonia will become toxic again.

 

[AydenLincoln]

This is not accurate. See my post above. These products only change ammonia to its nontoxic form for 24 hours or less. Without another form of removal, the ammonia will become toxic again.

Right I should’ve mentioned for emergency use. It does say that on the bottle too lol. And of course large water changes is typically the solution to almost any waste issue.

 

[zheka757]

I will test and monitor tomorrow in evening, and will update the results, hopefully my biomedia in a sump will take care of it. Also I guess Ill purchase new amonnia test kit tomorrow as well.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

For a week I have being adding seachem stability, for this exact reason, incase of amonia spike. Year ago I added seachem matrix bio media I added way over the recommend amount, I got enough for 2000galon tank. Last week I added same amount again into my sump. Thinking that once I will remove sand, seachem metrix will serve as a replacement biomedia.

You should probably do as large a water change as you can. Regardless of how much media you have, the bacteria will only grow to the level sufficient to handle the bioload of your tank. Adding Stability might have helped some, but when bioload (i.e. ammonia stirred up from your sand removal) massively rises all at once, there's no way the existing nitrifying bacteria will be able to process it all. You've basically put your tank back into a cycle and need to treat it accordingly. Manual removal of the ammonia via water change is your best bet for mitigating the damage.

 

[Garf]

5 years old reef tank, yesterday took 1/3 of my sand out of my 400 gallon tank, after i was done, i couldn't see 6 inches into tank, it was that cloudy from stirring sand up. also took some rocks out of the tank, (will no use those rocks any more) also just incase i doses carbon to the tank just incase, 24 hours latter, today cloudiness was all cleared up, measured my tank with expired ammonia test kit (exp 06/21) and im reading .2 on red sea test kit.
i got some acropora in the tank and polys are opened up, fish eating, don't see anything stress out at this point. dont know what to expect next day. I ordered seachem AMguard, just incase it will get out of control.
im kind of freaked out a little, looking for comments, advice, criticize, everything welcome.

0.2 total ammonia (I’m assuming that the test is NH3 + NH4) at normal reeftank pH is next to nothing with regards to free ammonia. You’ll be fine, with regard to ammonia anyway.

 

[zheka757]

happy days... ammonia is gone naturally in 24 hours. i guess 10 pounds of seachem matrix took good care of it. 10 pounds is good for 8000 gallon system, mines is under 500 total.
I guess it raises new question for me, i need to remove the other 2/3 of the sand, and the rest of the rocks from display, as i intend to put all new sand and new rocks while tank is running. need to manage that somehow while managing my ammonia in safe levels.
reasons im doing new scape is
1 looks
2 get rid of the unwanted pests. 1 of them is sympodium coral/pest that is overgrowing alot of my sand and rocks.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

happy days... ammonia is gone naturally in 24 hours. i guess 10 pounds of seachem matrix took good care of it. 10 pounds is good for 8000 gallon system, mines is under 500 total.
I guess it raises new question for me, i need to remove the other 2/3 of the sand, and the rest of the rocks from display, as i intend to put all new sand and new rocks while tank is running. need to manage that somehow while managing my ammonia in safe levels.
reasons im doing new scape is
1 looks
2 get rid of the unwanted pests. 1 of them is sympodium coral/pest that is overgrowing alot of my sand and rocks.

Glad it worked out! I recommend removing it in multiple small sections to avoid another possible spike. Ammonia isn't the only thing you can stir up... Hydrogen sulfide is also a worry.
Depending on how much extra room you now have, you could try spreading some of the remaining sand out , a little every day, to release some of the trapped gunk more slowly... Then when you scoop it out, it won't cause another low visibility situation.
If you avoid letting the water get that cloudy again, you'll be better off.

 

[zheka757]

Glad it worked out! I recommend removing it in multiple small sections to avoid another possible spike. Ammonia isn't the only thing you can stir up... Hydrogen sulfide is also a worry.
Depending on how much extra room you now have, you could try spreading some of the remaining sand out , a little every day, to release some of the trapped gunk more slowly... Then when you scoop it out, it won't cause another low visibility situation.
If you avoid letting the water get that cloudy again, you'll be better off.

i agree, I fully convinced it was me stirring the sand up, i was actually trying to siphon sand out , but it was a fail.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

i agree, I fully convinced it was me stirring the sand up, i was actually trying to siphon sand out , but it was a fail.

Yeah, the sand is too heavy without a pump, and you'll destroy a pump if you try it, so...
Maybe a reverse of the "bottle method" of adding sand to prevent dust storms would work?

Or, just prepare some fresh saltwater and be prepared to siphon out dirty water right after each "scoop" you remove?

 

[zheka757]

Maybe a reverse of the "bottle method" of adding sand to prevent dust storms would work?

can you please explain this one in more details?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

can you please explain this one in more details?

Well, I googled it, and I doubt it would work in reverse, but here's one explanation with pics...
Post in thread 'Adding sand to established tank' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/adding-sand-to-established-tank.268838/post-3217945