Back after 20 years

[Brian Treadwell]

Hey everyone , it has been about 20 years since I have had a Saltwater Aquarium , I am about Three weeks into a 90 gallon reef , bought the tank already established with some I thing Flower leather corals , mushroom corals , a toadstool , a little candy cane and 6 fish. Moved the tank about 80 miles from Clear Lake to Conroe , saved about 85% percent of the water , all of the rocks and substrate. Did replace the trickle wet/dry with a sump with refugium. Everything seems to look good but I have had a little Nitrate spike up to 20 ppm and tonight my ammonia is up to 1.0 , planning on a 10% water change in the morning. My questions is the tank going thru a little cycle are what can I do about the ammonia and Nitrate. Thanks

 

[bobman]

Yes sounds like a mini cycle very common when reusing sand. I always recommend tossing the sand and getting new sand. 10% is not going to help the ammonia much you will need larger or get some microbacter 7 or other type of bacteria in a bottle to help with the ammonia. Keep up on the water changes and dose the bacteria to keep ammonia as low as possible

 

[pugcrush]

Welcome back to the awesome hobby! Did you reuse any sand? That would be the biggest concern (causing a cycle). You probably would experience a small cycle since it was taken down, but nothing that water changes can take care of.

 

[Brian Treadwell]

Thanks , I am assuming I can get the bacteria your talking about at a LFS

 

[Brian Treadwell]

Ya I reused all of the sand that was already in the tank.

 

[Brian Treadwell]

Hey Guys , one more question for the night , me and my wife have to get back to learning how to be patient with the tank , but a week ago we bought an Condy anemome from Petco bad time bad place , but it has been in just a little ball No extension at all for the last two nights has moved but now behind a rock , is this possible dieing and could that be causing my ammonia spike.

 

[jsker]

Mine is all balled up also. The are not happy with change. They like perfect water. In my situation my Po4's and No3's have been climbing and it is not happy. I will start fixing that tomorrow

 

[Brian Treadwell]

Thanks for the replys , hope she will be fine

 

[Flipside]

Hey, welcome back to the hobby, Brian!

Plenty of help around the Houston area, sir. Be sure to check out our local forum here, and at www.marsh-reef.org to meet up with more of us. I live in Sugar Land and The Woodlands (actually south Conroe... off Rayford Rd.) too. More than happy to help where I can. Also, Mark (our club Pres) lives close to you, too.

Hope you can get some pics up, soon!

 

[Brian Treadwell]

Here are a few pics of the tank after move and a few of the inhatiants