Nitrates still high?

[iamurri33]

So I reasently moved my 125g tank that's been set up for 2 years.. doing so I took all live rock water and bucked sand out. Set tank up in different location put sand and water back in then live rock. No die offs rock and sand were in buckets of water. Let tank run about a week and tested high nitrates. Did 25gal water change, still high water 2 days did another 25g water change still high.. waited 2 days and did another 25g water change. Still dame reading.. I also am running cato and algone.... could the sand of stirred up so bad that I need to just keep doing changes till it lowers? Ammonia and nitrite are 0.....

 

[Sabellafella]

Yup you shoulda ditched half the sand and added new dry ,there deff 100 percent is die off thats prob whats keeping it the same level youll b fine, give some time go about your normal routine with an extra couple waterchanges, beef up the flow and skim it out

 

[iamurri33]

Yup you shoulda ditched half the sand and added new dry ,there deff 100 percent is die off thats prob whats keeping it the same level youll b fine, give some time go about your normal routine with an extra couple waterchanges, beef up the flow and skim it out

OK thanks. Now I don't want to harm my fish, should I do water change ever 3 days till it drops down or 1 large water change?

 

[Dtackett]

you disturbed your sand bed releasing all the buildup. only thing you could have done to save the sand is to flush it with a ton of water. would have been best to replace it with new sand.

 

[Dtackett]

at this point water changes aren't going to help much. not saying don't do them, it will keep your nitrates down but youre just gonna have to let it do its thing, or drain it completely, pull out the sand and replace with new.

 

[iamurri33]

Thanks. Don't want to take the sand out and put new.. how long does something like this usually take? It's been about 2 weeks

 

[Dtackett]

days... weeks... months... it may never be stable again or it may be good tomorrow. depends on how much gunk was built up. if you don't want to replace the sand, you may be able to put a cap of new sand on top of it to cap off the nutrients. but its going to be a ticking time bomb.

 

[iamurri33]

Will getting alot of nassarius snails help?

 

[Dtackett]

not sure on that one, but I can imagine it might make it worse by continually stirring your sand bed. I say your best bet would be to replace it or take it all out and rinse it until nothing but clean water comes out. you can do with this freshwater instead of saltwater. it could take a lot of rinsing depending on how much crud there is built up. once the water runs through clean, dump it back in your tank and let it do its thing.

 

[Sabellafella]

Ur fish are fine how deep is ur sand bed? If its over 2 inches u should immediately cut it down under 2 because of hydrogen sulfide, no need to remove, shouldve took half nd exchanged half with new tho . Your tanks not going to show signs of cycling but there is mass die off from moving a mature sandbed so its going to take a while a month atleast