Weird ammonia spike.

[Macdaddynick1]

So I cycled some rock in a bucket using my tank water, the rock stayed in a bucket with a powerhead for 2 + months, sometimes I would throw in a shrimp just to keep the cycle going , yesterday i put the rock into a tank with fresh SW, today i tested for ammonia it reads .50 . Does anyone have an idea what can be causing this?

 

[Diesel]

Somehow you still have some die-off but not enough bacteria to take care of it.
Do a 25% water change and dose some bacteria in your tank.

 

[twilliard]

Also what are you using to test amonia?

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Somehow you still have some die-off but not enough bacteria to take care of it.
Do a 25% water change and dose some bacteria in your tank.

I took out the rock from the bucket two days ago and put it into 50 gallons of fresh- SW then i added in 5ml of microbacter, Im not sure if I should just go and pick up some Dr. Tims,

Also what are you using to test amonia?

Im using an api test kit , i tested one of my current tanks at the same time and it showed 0 ammonia.

I think I figured out why my rock was not cycled properly, I kept the lid on the bucket while it was cycling and there was not enough oxygen for the bacteria to proliferate. =/

 

[Diesel]

Restart the cycle.
Leave rock in the tank and dose bacteria.
Turn skimmer off for three days but leave circulation pumps on.
Test everyday for Ammonia and Nitrite.
If after three days the ammonia is close to 0.0 dose a few drops of ammonia again and test again for two days to see if ammonia drops.
Don't worry about Nitrate as that will drop slowly when you add livestock.