Help high ammonia and nitrite

[kenziejlooft]

Ammonia and nitrite spike I have a 32gallon bio cube it has been cycling for over 2 months I had prefect parameters but I used a reef buffer and my hkd was high so I did a 95% water change big mistake my nitrite is now .25 ammonia .50 and nitrates are 0-5 what should I do I have a baby lion fish coming tomorrow and couldn’t stop shipment

 

[Reefer5640]

what water source did you use for mixing the new saltwater? Distilled, tap, RO, RODI?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Water change and addition of chemipure elite will reduce while elite will keep it in check

 

[Brandon3152134]

Did you disturb your media or rocks?

 

[r20crazy]

seachem prime or Kordon amquel plus will neutralize them until its back in check. any activated carbon product will help

 

[brandon429]

false reading Ill bet

even if tap water tests zero, its a false read for having any nitrogen from any species in the real display, common test kits overreport or are making false reading due to additives.


Ive never seen a cycle undo in reefing, not ever, in fifty thousand cycles. Yours can't just be the first.

post a pic of the tank for decoding if possible

if your tank is uncycled, then all cycling charts online will need to be rewritten allowing for ammonia to rise back up after day eight.

 

[kenziejlooft]

false reading Ill bet

even if tap water tests zero, its a false read for having any nitrogen from any species in the real display, common test kits overreport or are making false reading due to additives.


Ive never seen a cycle undo in reefing, not ever, in fifty thousand cycles. Yours can't just be the first.

post a pic of the tank for decoding if possible

if your tank is uncycled, then all cycling charts online will need to be rewritten allowing for ammonia to rise back up after day eight.

I honestly don’t know what happened The only thing I did was I changed out 95% of the water and add a new water because my alkalinity was high for the lionfish changing out 95% of the water didn’t even help in the only thing I really did different with the rocks was put super glue gel on them to try to get them to stick that didn’t work and then I put the rocks back in the fish tank I got my lionfish this morning did a water changed I have been worried about him he has been nose down staying by rocks but when I took the picture he was swimming around maybe because it was pitch dark my parameters now are nitrite .25 ammonia .25-.50 nitrate .20-40 ph 80 did add ph up haven’t tested after temp 78 SG 1.24 I just added stability and api stress zyme

 

[kenziejlooft]

Did you disturb your media or rocks?

I did take out my rocks and try to glue them and let them dry out and it didn’t even work

 

[Garf]

I did take out my rocks and try to glue them and let them dry out and it didn’t even work

So they totally dried out?

 

[kenziejlooft]

So they totally dried out?

I think they may have been a little damp but I don’t remember that was a couple days ago

 

[Garf]

I think they may have been a little damp but I don’t remember that was a couple days ago

I would get a Seachem ammonia badge and put it in tank to verify ammonia levels and treat it as a quarantine tank. Ie, lots of water changes if the badge detects ammonia. Make sure your water change water is good though (test everything before you use it). The bacterial load should increase fast if the tank has already cycled. I imagine the bacteria in your sand alone should have processed any die off on the rocks by now. All is not lost, good luck.

 

[Cole.mormon]

u screwed up the rocks

 

[brandon429]

in no way is your reef harmed at all

notice now only tests are causing the alarm and literally nothing else? False misreads. Take no action, watch how your reef works fine every day as it has been.

work day by day with me and as soon as you think there’s a real problem, not from just a test kit, we can take different action.


coming tomorrow, Friday, test nothing and just reef. Add nothing. No testing tomorrow for anything.

lets see Saturday how one single day of not worrying goes.
of course it will be ok, how many 24 hour evaluation periods have we already been through here


we are doing one thing different though, no testing.

 

[Brew12]

I honestly don’t know what happened The only thing I did was I changed out 95% of the water and add a new water because my alkalinity was high for the lionfish changing out 95% of the water didn’t even help in the only thing I really did different with the rocks was put super glue gel on them to try to get them to stick that didn’t work and then I put the rocks back in the fish tank I got my lionfish this morning did a water changed I have been worried about him he has been nose down staying by rocks but when I took the picture he was swimming around maybe because it was pitch dark my parameters now are nitrite .25 ammonia .25-.50 nitrate .20-40 ph 80 did add ph up haven’t tested after temp 78 SG 1.24 I just added stability and api stress zyme

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I would add the Stability every 3 days for a week or two until your biological filter gets stronger in case it wasn't mature enough.
One thing I can't stress enough is to STOP using pH buffers. Those work by raising alkalinity. The pH in a salt water tank is a result of 2 parameters. Alkalinity and CO2. We want to have a constant alkalinity so the only safe way to change pH is to reduce CO2. As long as your pH is over 7.6 I wouldn't worry about trying to change it. Otherwise, you need to get fresh outdoor air to your tank if you really want to have a positive impact on pH.

 

[brandon429]

the uncycled reef can’t carry the initial lionfish



The anemones are now dead but not due to a bad cycle...it was power head chopping per updated posts. makes a good case for not testing for nitrite at any phase in display tank reefing

we were going to make more retail purchases here for a situation already covered, just by factoring nitrite

an approach for fish disease control is needed here, to prevent upcoming fish loss to non qt/ fallow design.