Ammonia spike after moving tank

[Letterkenny]

I just moved my tank (JBJ 45) from my living room downstairs to my office upstairs. With that, I took out some live rock to rescape it, cleaned the back chambers, siphoned the sand, etc. changed about 50 % of the water. I did a water test and noticed that my ammonia is about 0.75. Am I going through a mini cycle? I just have snails and nems in the tank at the moment.

What are the best next steps? I can add a bottle of Biospira bac but I already have the live rock that was in the tank for a year in there plus ceramic rings and a bag of matrix. Should I just get some Seachem prime to bring it down for the inhabitants?

 

[brandon429]

you dont need to do or add anything, post a pic of the tank we will show why.

its true relocating tanks after partial cleaning can upwell wastes, but if it was consequential all would already be lost. the fact you arent posting about losses / death means its already self corrected, and api is going to take eighteen days to report that to you.

we prevent all mini cycles by 100% sandbed cleaning vs vacuum, but even a light disturbance making a brief ammonia spike is quickly, within the hour, handled by live rock active surface area.

the extended ammonia condition does not occur in reefing where there are live rocks, or seneye

but it occurs usually always with api or red sea

if your water is clear, the anemones are open, the cuc is moving around, and it doesnt smell, your current ammonia levels are .00x thousandths ppm and it will take a $300 device to see that. or we can just predict it and see what the pics look like

api/red sea drives constant bottle bac purchases, uneeded ones. Im determined to lessen that event for reefing in general by relaying what seneye says from the several hundred people owning them.

 

[brandon429]

the neatest aspect of new cycling science is that we know ammonia never ever ever sticks or hovers in the tenths ppm, not once will it happen when live rocks and living animals are in play. even if you upwelled it once during the move.

fixed, within the hour, after resettlement.

in order for nh3 to be above thousandths ppm, there will be obvious death going on that no tester is required to measure. nh3 is 100% consequential in reefing, Im angry that api and red sea makes it look like a mere irritant. its biological napalm to fail to control ammonia and any time the tank pic looks normal and the test says there's a problem, the tester is wrong.

the time you can add bacteria is when the tank looks bad, dying after a move if things were that disturbed.

if you are dealing with a normal-looking reef its already too late to add bac and make any difference. that would be adding ammonia-controlling bacteria to a system with no attachment points for new bacteria and no current problem controlling it.

 

[Letterkenny]

Thanks - I will post photos soon. This reading was about 12 hours after the move. Nem isn’t fully open but it is open (was moved around so likely finding its new space). Snails seemed fine. The only thing was that upon cleaning the tank there were a couple dead turbos hidden behind rock work. I siphoned all the crap out with them during the move but assume that would cause some spike. How long does that take to cycle through?

 

[brandon429]

I claim its already fixed or your tank would be crashing and dying

its so hard to imagine api taking days to report the return back to normal, but it does. On a totally different thread our friend does a 100% water change and api still shows .5 even with new water, it never stops.

we think api overreports the real ammonia levels.

if you have removed all dead items, then its fixed.

 

[Letterkenny]

I claim its already fixed or your tank would be crashing and dying

its so hard to imagine api taking days to report the return back to normal, but it does. On a totally different thread our friend does a 100% water change and api still shows .5 even with new water, it never stops.

we think api overreports the real ammonia levels.

if you have removed all dead items, then its fixed.

Roger that, thank you!

 

[Letterkenny]

Here is a photo. Anemone is a bit more ticked than this morning.

 

[Cell]

I always keep a bottle of Prime on hand just in case. Seems like you are good to go though.

 

[brandon429]

We should still rip clean the tank where it sits.
the reason, if we twist a rock roughly mid water, a casting cloud of detritus comes off


same for sand, it will cloud, this is invasion feed right when you are trying to pack with coral. It only seems like a better idea to delicately leave the clouding in place but that’s not the case, the tank should be rip cleaned for best start and coming months. There isn’t any benefit to keeping that cloud, there’s liability

two options

first one is best, do a disassembly cleaning of rocks and sand and put back with all new water. Skip cycle, it wont recycle. Only use the method from the sand rinse thread so your outcome will be like theirs in the thread

second option is 70% as good: drain off and catch 3/4 of your water in a bucket for re use

toss out the rest, clean sand per our rip clean rules, and rocks, reassemble with 3/4 old water and 1/4 new


what nearly everyone will choose is fear of upset, keep the cloud. Many of those are posting in the nuisance algae forum as we speak

it could run weeks and or months w no problem, but any way sliced a clean reef is better in every way and never recycles and lasts the longest before headaches, a move is an intercept point we want the cleanest restart possible.