Adding shipped live rock? Ammonia present?

Chikpeas · Jul 8, 2024

Hey! So I have two questions… first with adding live rocks to a newly cycled/established tank… and the second being ammonia reacting to some dinking around.

Question 1:
So on the 16th- I’m expecting to get live rock from TBS to add to the tank.
Should I stick it in a bucket with a powerhead and watch it for die off to make sure I’m not crashing my tank with another full cycle?

Question 2:
If I removed a bio media filter/balls for a bit and it stirred up a Bunch of gunk that dirtied the Entire tank- should I have expected a small ammonia spike?

More info:
Clouded the crap out of the water with particles so I did about a 25% water change, stuck in a piece of filter fiber- cleaned right up. Did I accidentally remove a bunch of loose bacteria by adding the filter media? If it starts to get too toxic with suspected bacteria loss- should I add TurboStart 900? A second fish is supposed to be added tomorrow, currently only a wrasse.

OR should I just do like, a 20% water change each day until it drops back down.

Anyway it went from 0 before the incident to .05, retested 15 mins later and it’s just below .2 (sure my test is being dumb but I’ll try again shortly.)

((Incident being a wrasse that decided to dive bomb into back chamber and hide under media… it took 3-4 hours to remove the fish… But I’m also getting suspicious of a snail that has Yet to move today… hermit is showing interest in it. ))

Thank you guys :face-blowing-a-kiss:

WalkerLovesTheOcean · Jul 8, 2024

1) Don't put the rock in a bucket to watch for die off. Just put it right in your tank.

2) Technically, no. Those particles are still in your tank breaking down, whether it was in the media or not. But, now those particles are in the water column so possibly yes, it could cause a small spike.

3) Nitrifying bacteria does not live in the water column, so you did not knock any off of the media. The bacteria is still on the media.

Chikpeas · Jul 8, 2024

WalkerLovesTheOcean said:
1) Don't put the rock in a bucket to watch for die off. Just put it right in your tank.

2) Technically, no. Those particles are still in your tank breaking down, whether it was in the media or not. But, now those particles are in the water column so possibly yes, it could cause a small spike.

3) Nitrifying bacteria does not live in the water column, so you did not knock any off of the media. The bacteria is still on the media.

Oh man that makes me nervous but will do! :smiling-face-with-tear:

I’ll just keep an eye on things and make sure no one’s stressed.