Newbie here and I need help. New ish (2month old) 30 gallon aquatop aio tank with live rock and live sand. Tank fully cycled before adding livestock. Water peramaters were all stable so I added two clownfish, a cleaner shrimp and two snails. Two weeks later added a Dotty back. Tank was doing great up until today. Two days ago I added a red hawk fish. He ate my cleaner shrimp the first night and today my water has gone crazy. The fish all seem fine so I am losing my mind. I attached a picture of my test results. I will do a water change tomorrow but don't know what else to do. Please help a newbie out.
Help! Tank going crazy!
- Thread starter Mtrask
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Hitman
Reefing One Day @ A Time!!!
Welcome to R2R!!!
Looks like you added your fish faster then your tank could handle the bio load. Start doing water changes ASAP as those levels of Ammonia and Nitrites are deadly to your livestock.
Looks like you added your fish faster then your tank could handle the bio load. Start doing water changes ASAP as those levels of Ammonia and Nitrites are deadly to your livestock.
Oscaror
Back In It
Welcome to R2R! The bacteria in a cycling aquarium can only grow in relation to how much food it's provided. Too many fish too fast adds more bioload before the bacteria can catch up and as a result your tank is cycling all over again.Newbie here and I need help. New ish (2month old) 30 gallon aquatop aio tank with live rock and live sand. Tank fully cycled before adding livestock. Water peramaters were all stable so I added two clownfish, a cleaner shrimp and two snails. Two weeks later added a Dotty back. Tank was doing great up until today. Two days ago I added a red hawk fish. He ate my cleaner shrimp the first night and today my water has gone crazy. The fish all seem fine so I am losing my mind. I attached a picture of my test results. I will do a water change tomorrow but don't know what else to do. Please help a newbie out.
Oscaror
Back In It
Because the cycle isn't just a one time process, when your tank cycles it's establishing nitrifying bacteria. That bacteria feeds on ammonia and converts it to harmless (to fish) nitrates. The bacteria population can only grow so big in the early cycle because it only has so much ammonia to feed on. When you add more fish you're creating more ammonia sources, and the bacteria has more food and has to grow in abundance more until it maxes out again. When you add fish faster than this process can occur your tank will go through another major cycle as you now have more ammonia being produced than your current bacteria population can convert into nitrate.
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Welcome to reef2reef.
WVNed
The fish are staring at me with hungry eyes.
The Bio Spira mentioned would be a good idea. There are other biologicals that do the same thing.
If the ammonia is from the shrimp the water change will knock it down and the Prime will detoxify it. It should go down.
If it keeps going back up you have overloaded your bio filter and will have to keep doing larger water changes until it catches up.
If the ammonia is from the shrimp the water change will knock it down and the Prime will detoxify it. It should go down.
If it keeps going back up you have overloaded your bio filter and will have to keep doing larger water changes until it catches up.
Oscaror
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Yes, adding this bacteria could help combat the cycle you're experiencing as it's adding more nitifying bacteria, the lack of which is causing this to happen. I agree you should do a water change as ammonia and nitrite getting too high will harm your fish.
Oscaror
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Since the spike in ammonia is an immediate issue yes do both as the prime will neutralize the current ammonia. There will be more ammonia to feed new bacteria where that came from so the removal of the current ammonia will keep it to non toxic levels so your fish can go unharmed
Oscaror
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Well your fish do look perfectly fine as you stated (And btw nice aquascape) so this isn't really that much of an emergency, but should be acted on quickly.Pic of tank for reference
WVNed
The fish are staring at me with hungry eyes.
Prime is a water conditioner that detoxifies ammonia.
Biospira is a bacterial culture that populates the tank with more bacteria for the biofilter.
Both of which would be good for you right now.
They do different things.
Biospira is a bacterial culture that populates the tank with more bacteria for the biofilter.
Both of which would be good for you right now.
They do different things.
Oscaror
Back In It
That'll be fine. As I said it's no huge emergency, just do what you can to lower the current ammonia and nitrite levels and I'm sure you'll be fine.
