Cycle wasn't ready

[Scottie]

I cycled the my new tank for about 4 weeks with dr tims and a couple pinches of fish food. I tested my paremeters and watched the ammonia increase and then go to 0 and my nitrates to raise to 1 ppm. I thought mh cycle was complete and instead of adding ammonia chloride and waiting again my lfs guy convinced me to add a fish - I was told when getting clownfish get a pair so I purchased two tiny clowns. After one day the ammonia spiked up to 0.5 ppm and I rushed to get more dr tims. I have carbon running in the tank also. I just added the bottle. Should I do a 50 % water change today right after adding the bottle and continue every other day or should I wait a day to do the wc? How toxic is 0.5 ppm to clowns? Will the wc add to their stress and or remove some of the recxently added bacteria?

45 gallon tank
8 gallons in sump
78 f
1.026 salinity
Rodi water reading 0tds

 

[Kudos]

I would not do a water change personally. You want bacteria and by doing a water change you'll get rid of bacteria.

How much rock do you have? Live or dry or cured?

 

[Filthybum]

What test kit are you using? You said you added dr Tim’s after the spike. What bottle is it? Ammonia? Or bacteria bottle?

 

[ChiSox Rabbitfish]

I would’ve added some prime in instead to detoxify

 

[Scottie]

What test kit are you using? You said you added dr Tim’s after the spike. What bottle is it? Ammonia? Or bacteria bottle?

It was bacteria -4 oz bottle

 

[Scottie]

It was bacteria -4 oz bottle

I used red sea test
I also tested my rodi water and it was 0

 

[Scottie]

I would not do a water change personally. You want bacteria and by doing a water change you'll get rid of bacteria.

How much rock do you have? Live or dry or cured?

40 # of dry rock - it was manmade so I only cured it for a week

 

[Scottie]

I would’ve added some prime in instead to detoxify

Can I still add it after the dr tim's?

 

[Filthybum]

You can add prime but it will give you a false positive when you test ammonia again. Agree with kudos no water change you will remove bacteria that you need. Best situation is to return fish to lfs and wait til cycle is done. Your only other option is to closely monitor ammonia and add more bacteria it will take awhile for bacteria to handle your bio load. Hope this helps

 

[Dom]

In my opinion, water changes have minimal impact on the nitrifying bacteria colony, as it lives on the surface of things (live rock, sponges, glass, sand) and not in the water column.

 

[Cell]

Add Seachem Prime to neutralize the ammonia and you should be fine. Just give it a week or two before adding more livestock for your bacteria to catch up.

 

[Brittany Marie]