Amonia/Nitrite/Nitrate spike after cleaning filter?

[bfazio1030]

Prior to cleaning my filter sponges and changing out the poly pad my nitrite and nitrates were at 0. Had very little amonia. Stupidly i cleaned out my filter sponges and replaced the poly pad and carbon. Testing after i found that all of my parameters have risen! Amonia at .50ppm Nitrites at .50ppm and Nitrates at 10ppm. Did i wash away too much Beneficial Bacteria? I just dosed some Prime and Stability as a safe guard. My question is did i just restart the cycle? Will this pass quickly? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[brandon429]

no, no harm. what you dosed will now mask future tests for all three, its ok to proceed as is, no concern, dont have to add bottle bac. unless this is a quarantine tank, lacking surface area except for those rinsed items, the rocks and sand handle all waste always, even if those filter pads are removed instantly and never put back

why you got some readings as spikes: your testers can't differentiate between passive detritus clouding/rotten proteins briefly in suspension from the work done, vs a real crash, you have no crash

if this was a quarantine tank with no rocks and sand, let me know

 

[bfazio1030]

no, no harm. what you dosed will now mask future tests for all three, its ok to proceed as is, no concern, dont have to add bottle bac. unless this is a quarantine tank, lacking surface area except for those rinsed items, the rocks and sand handle all waste always, even if those filter pads are removed instantly and never put back

why you got some readings as spikes: your testers can't differentiate between passive detritus clouding/rotten proteins briefly in suspension from the work done, vs a real crash, you have no crash

if this was a quarantine tank with no rocks and sand, let me know

 

[bfazio1030]

Thanks! This tank is about 1 month old and had already cycled. I have sand and rock. So you are saying i should let the tank be and not dose anything? Maybe wait a week and test again once the prime runs out?

 

[bfazio1030]

no, no harm. what you dosed will now mask future tests for all three, its ok to proceed as is, no concern, dont have to add bottle bac. unless this is a quarantine tank, lacking surface area except for those rinsed items, the rocks and sand handle all waste always, even if those filter pads are removed instantly and never put back

why you got some readings as spikes: your testers can't differentiate between passive detritus clouding/rotten proteins briefly in suspension from the work done, vs a real crash, you have no crash

if this was a quarantine tank with no rocks and sand, let me know

no, no harm. what you dosed will now mask future tests for all three, its ok to proceed as is, no concern, dont have to add bottle bac. unless this is a quarantine tank, lacking surface area except for those rinsed items, the rocks and sand handle all waste always, even if those filter pads are removed instantly and never put back

why you got some readings as spikes: your testers can't differentiate between passive detritus clouding/rotten proteins briefly in suspension from the work done, vs a real crash, you have no crash

if this was a quarantine tank with no rocks and sand, let me know

Thanks! This tank is about 1 month old and had already cycled. I have sand and rock. So you are saying i should let the tank be and not dose anything? Maybe wait a week and test again once the prime runs out?

 

[Alenya]

Prior to cleaning my filter sponges and changing out the poly pad my nitrite and nitrates were at 0. Had very little amonia. Stupidly i cleaned out my filter sponges and replaced the poly pad and carbon. Testing after i found that all of my parameters have risen! Amonia at .50ppm Nitrites at .50ppm and Nitrates at 10ppm. Did i wash away too much Beneficial Bacteria? I just dosed some Prime and Stability as a safe guard. My question is did i just restart the cycle? Will this pass quickly? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Did you wash the sponges in sea water or tap?
If there are livestock in the tank did they show any behavioural changes - this is my go to.

Bacteria will hold onto surfaces pretty strongly. Doing a change can disturb the tank but since you are going to do this pretty regularly you should find that over time the bacterial population on other surfaces will compensate.

If you are concerned you can stagger filter changes and media replacement.

 

[brandon429]

Excellent. It means there’s nothing left to do whatsoever, no form of bad ammonia can result as the rocks and sand are the primary surface area and anything to the side of that is extra, not needed.
your testers can not reasonably discern anything low level, they‘ll indicate a problem just for having disturbed things, you have to learn to doubt them properly unfortunately.

*the entire sandbed you have qualifies as extra, and can be removed instantly without compromising your biofilter I’ll link a large thread that uses this biology to remove people’s sandbeds, all at once, and we never have cycles for 35 pages.
The live rocks are your gold, thats the required bacteria.
all else is extra.

so, as crazy as this all sounds, thankfully i have a thread where we apply this science everyday, and you can track it for accuracy.

your tank right now could remove all filters, all sand, leaving only the rocks, same fish load you have, done instantly like below half a million bucks of reefs, and nothing would go wrong. Your tests might show transient ammonia, but it’s a false read of concern, there is no concern.


you are free to clean the pads, and when the time comes, so so much more beyond that can be done.


Since you’re just cleaning pads and putting em back, yours is the easiest job of all, we could be stripping that tank to the bone and it still wouldnt need testing, prime or stability or any other additive, check this proof out:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

That should make you wonder if you need the filters at all
handy for water current output, never needed as a breakpoint in ammonia control.


with that detail, look how it can be applied to get jobs done above...highly reliable surface area control is a key reefing skill.

we can upgrade downgrade disassembly clean, remove sandbed blend sandbed or replace sandbeds, and you won’t find an ammonia reading or bottle bac use... solely because live rocks are enough in each reef tank as the base filter. For pages. Theres nothing you could do to the filter media to make it matter, reef rocks are enough. All grades, not just pukani, we don’t ask what kind of rocks they use above. We ask if there’s rock at all.


we don’t use ammonia testing there because only the $300 kits give you a correct reading, have links for that too if handy. We just calibrated api and Red Sea vs seneye, so the data is strong.

 

[bfazio1030]

no, no harm. what you dosed will now mask future tests for all three, its ok to proceed as is, no concern, dont have to add bottle bac. unless this is a quarantine tank, lacking surface area except for those rinsed items, the rocks and sand handle all waste always, even if those filter pads are removed instantly and never put back

why you got some readings as spikes: your testers can't differentiate between passive detritus clouding/rotten proteins briefly in suspension from the work done, vs a real crash, you have no crash

if this was a quarantine tank with no rocks and sand, let me know

How long do you think dosing the prime/stability will mask those tests?

 

[brandon429]

Not sure, but there never was a need to add prime
it’s fine either way, not harmful. I just rinsed my whole sandbed all at once/much larger filter zone all set and my reef looks great. Plus I rinsed in tap water, not careful water.