Added too much ammonia to new Tank.

[Clown Fish Harem Tank]

New to reefing.

Bought a new 32 galon Marine tank. Filled it with live rock, live sand & salt water. Running with pump, two filters & heater. Have a skimmer but its off. Added Stability (1 cap full) for 12 days to build beneficial bacteria. 4 weeks go buy, ammonia, nitrite & nitrate at 0. Forgot to add ammonia to jump start nitrogen cycle. Added too much ammoina and now my ammonia, nitrite & nitrate levels are HIGH. Happy I have benfical bacteria cause nitrite & nitrate levels are HIGH. Ive done 10% water changes daily for 5 days. All levels still HIGH. I've added seachem dechlorinator to help with emergency high levels. Nothing has changed. Worried that I dont have enough benefical bacteria I bought bacteria in a bottle & poured it into the tank. Ammonia is currently lower at 2.0 ppm but Nitrite & Nitrates are still HIGH. I suppose I'll have to do a large volume water change. Like 50+ %. No live stock yet as Im learning the nitrogen cycle. Any tips to improve?
Thanks, having fun.

 

[P-Dub]

Keep doing what you are doing. The bacteria populations will build to a level to deal with it. Give it another 4 weeks and you should be good. At the end of 4 more weeks do a large water change and do a final test. You might consider cutting the water changes in a week to just weekly for 3 weeks. My 2c.

 

[ThePurple12]

Yeah, as long as there's no livestock, you're fine. The bacteria will multiply and get your levels back to normal quickly.

 

[lapin]

....... Added too much ammonia and now my ammonia, nitrite & nitrate levels are HIGH. .

Depending oh what high is it should not be a problem

I've added seachem dechlorinator to help with emergency high levels. Nothing has changed..

This will do nothing to change anything except your wallet, as you noticed.

Worried that I dont have enough benefical bacteria I bought bacteria in a bottle & poured it into the tank. Ammonia is currently lower at 2.0 ppm but Nitrite & Nitrates are still HIGH. I suppose I'll have to do a large volume water change. Like 50+ %.

When your ammonia is 0 change out 75% or more water. Your nitrite will be the last thing to drop but its not as important as ammonia. The reason we let nitrite drop before the big water change, is so it does not get converted to nitrate and we dont start off with a lot of nutrients.

 

[Terri Caton]

When you add a product to neutralize ammonia it will do only that. Not get rid of it. Your test kit will still show high ammonia.

 

[brandon429]

this tank above shouldn’t have any ammonia added if the description of the rock is correct.

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

Just in case the description above wasn’t correct, on page one the thread shows how to identify live vs not live rocks using no test kits and proceed accurately with ammonia and bottle bac use

If the original rocks here are live, neither bottle bac nor ammonia should have been added.

We might can use this thread as a works example after the type of rock being used is discerned. Honeycomb I’d be curious to know which grouping of rock from our cycling thread your tank fits in

The most important update to cycling science is that there are times bacteria don’t need our help, or feed, they just need water

I’ve never read a cycling article that states which kinds of rock need cycling and which don’t. This has worked out very well for those who sell bottle bac. $ wasted

 

[brandon429]

Actions: if used live rock as stated, we’d do a 100% water change to stop burning the animals paid extra for vs dry rock. If live rock was used, the system was ready right when you set it up.

 

[Jeeperz]

I'd try biospira, personally. Should help kick start the ammonia reduction. I'm not really sold on stability.

 

[Clown Fish Harem Tank]

Keep doing what you are doing. The bacteria populations will build to a level to deal with it. Give it another 4 weeks and you should be good. At the end of 4 more weeks do a large water change and do a final test. You might consider cutting the water changes in a week to just weekly for 3 weeks. My 2c.

Keep doing what you are doing. The bacteria populations will build to a level to deal with it. Give it another 4 weeks and you should be good. At the end of 4 more weeks do a large water change and do a final test. You might consider cutting the water changes in a week to just weekly for 3 weeks. My 2c.

Thank you ! Ill take that advice. Appreciate it. I think I got impatient, should have had the live rock stew a little more before setting it off with overdose of ammonia.

 

[Clown Fish Harem Tank]

I'd try biospira, personally. Should help kick start the ammonia reduction. I'm not really sold on stability.

I started the tank on Stability for the first 12 days. Then panicked when overdosed tank with too much store bought ammonia & countered it with biospira.

 

[Clown Fish Harem Tank]

this tank above shouldn’t have any ammonia added if the description of the rock is correct.

The microbiology of reef tank cycling.

You can skip your cycle. Ive been reefing online for twenty years and have never waited one second for a tank to cycle, because I buy rocks that are already cycled and move them home. Here's two: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/octo-high-end-sps-skip-cycle-build.713256/...

www.reef2reef.com

Just in case the description above wasn’t correct, on page one the thread shows how to identify live vs not live rocks using no test kits and proceed accurately with ammonia and bottle bac use

If the original rocks here are live, neither bottle bac nor ammonia should have been added.

We might can use this thread as a works example after the type of rock being used is discerned. Honeycomb I’d be curious to know which grouping of rock from our cycling thread your tank fits in

The most important update to cycling science is that there are times bacteria don’t need our help, or feed, they just need water

I’ve never read a cycling article that states which kinds of rock need cycling and which don’t. This has worked out very well for those who sell bottle bac. $ wasted

Hey thx for the help!
Purchased live rock from local aquarium store. It was crazy expensive. My 32 galon holds 35lbs of live rock. Few crushed lbs in the back near filter.

I'm new to the hobbie and am learning the nitrogen cycle. I might have got impatient & it cost me yes.

Trying to maintain the course. Lessons learned. Thanks for your reply. It helps me. Cheers.

 

[brandon429]

It didn’t hurt it for sure, the rock is tough!

I have a video of me draining my nano reef to the sand for 33 mins in air, rock of that same quality, it always rebounds. The animals hide up inside it for sure

If you water change it’s ready for some starter corals and frankly this rock you selected is the best possible rock of all choices

You are least likely to get dinoflagellate invasions with this kind of rock, we spend pages reviewing the power of coralline algae. You show plenty above. You bought amazing tough rock how cool is that.