Emergency! Need Help! Nitrite spike!

[JohnnyTsunami213]

Hey guys so i have a Fluval 13.5 g tank with probably about 10g due to the amount of rock in the tank. Tank is about 4 months old and has been very stable I’ve been keeping everything alive and well until this morning. I woke up and seen my Acro completely bleached white... my heart dropped and I noticed that none of my other coral is opening(Elegance, Hammer, Torch, some Zoas) my Blasto and candy canes seem ok and my two frostbite clownfish seem ok as well. I immediately tested my parameters and found that there is ammonia and nitrite present in tank at about 0.2 using the Red Sea test kit.

I believe I know what my mistake was. I normally do a 50% water change every Sunday and my tank has been thriving.I got a bit lazy and did a water changea couple of days late on Wednesday. After doing the water change and cleaning thesubstrate I decided to add a bit of Fritz Zyme Bacteria in a bottle. I think this is what caused my ammonia and nitrite levels to rise. Not too sure.
I read online that bacteria needs to be replenished every once in a while and so after 4 months I felt it might’ve been a good time to add some but I think I really screwed up here. I really need some help trying to fix this. I immediately did a 50% water change and now some corals are slowly starting to open back up. What else can I do to save my coral


Ammonia: 0-0.2
Nitrite: 0.2
Nitrates: 5
PH: 8.2
Salinity 1.025

Thanks in advance

 

[andrewey]

I'll start with what steps I would take in this situation.

First, the water change you did was fantastic!
Second, I would add a bit of prime if you have that on hand to neutralize some of the ammonia.
Lastly, I would aim some of your power heads towards the surface of the water to increase aeration.

 

[andrewey]

I'll start by saying you shouldn't need to "replenish" your bacteria, so in the future, you need not add bacterial additives routinely.

As for what happened, that's a hard one. There are a couple of culprits. It is possible that your water change was done "improperly" (e.g. the temperature, salinity, or another parameter was vastly different than the water you were replacing), causing shock and the die off is what you are picking up with your ammonia/nitrite results (your tank was not able to keep up with the sudden ammonia spike).

Similarly, there is the possibility that a large concentration of bacteria could rapidly deplete the oxygen levels in the tank causing that same die off. This is why I suggested steps to try and neutralize any residual ammonia and incraese aeration to combat the possibility of decreased oxygenation in the water until the levels return to normal and the ammonia is processed by your live rock.

In either event, you should continue to monitor your ammonia levels to see that they are trending down- if they continue to rise, you will absolutely need to use some prime or perform additional water changes to keep the ammonia under control.

I would make sure the device you use to measure your salinity is calibrated and ensure that the results of your refractomer did not wander since your last calibration.

Sorry about the loss of your acro and I hope the rest of your coral make a full recovery in time!

 

[JohnnyTsunami213]

Ok thank you for the advice. I will try to make sure my water changes are more accurate from now on. And will continue to monitor the Ammonia levels.

I don’t have any Prime and am working from home right now so I don’t have the time to drive to my LFS. I am planning on doing another water change later on today. Do you think that will help or should I wait until tomorrow to do the water change?

 

[andrewey]

So long as the parameters match, there's nothing wrong with doing the water change today and "detoxifying" the ammonia by simply removing/diluting it! Obviously, the priority is not to do more damage, so just make sure you're not rushing the step of matching the parameters, otherwise it sounds like you've got a great plan!

 

[Nano sapiens]

I read online that bacteria needs to be replenished every once in a while and so after 4 months I felt it might’ve been a good time to add some but I think I really screwed up here. I really need some help trying to fix this. I immediately did a 50% water change and now some corals are slowly starting to open back up. What else can I do to save my coral


Ammonia: 0-0.2
Nitrite: 0.2
Nitrates: 5
PH: 8.2
Salinity 1.025

Thanks in advance

This 'replenishment of bacteria every once in a while' internet myth needs to die out. Bacteria and Archaea are some of the most resilient organisms on our planet and once they have been added to a system, that's all you need to do (unless you have a very major catastrophe, which means you'd be starting over anyway).

What kits are you using for testing Ammonia and Nitrite? If API, then that's very likely your 'assumed problem' as they often give a false-positive for very low readings. In a cycled aquarium that's 4 months old, the only time you'd see an ammonia spike is due something like adding too many fish all at once, heavy excess feeding or something perished and is decomposing. An addition of extra bacteria (per the manufacturer's instructions), while not needed, shouldn't cause any issues.

 

[JohnnyTsunami213]

This 'replenishment of bacteria every once in a while' internet myth needs to die out. Bacteria and Archaea are some of the most resilient organisms on our planet and once they have been added to a system, that's all you need to do (unless you have a very major catastrophe, which means you'd be starting over anyway).

What kits are you using for testing Ammonia and Nitrite? If API, then that's very likely your 'assumed problem' as they often give a false-positive for very low readings. In a cycled aquarium that's 4 months old, the only time you'd see an ammonia spike is due something like adding too many fish all at once, heavy excess feeding or something perished and is decomposing.

Red Sea Marine Care Multi Test Kit. I did have a Nassarius Snail disappear would that cause a large spike in ammonia?

 

[Nano sapiens]

Red Sea Marine Care Multi Test Kit. I did have a Nassarius Snail disappear would that cause a large spike in ammonia?

Should be fine with that kit as long as the reagents are expired.

Snails are known for making a mess when decomposing and in a small system can definitely cause an ammonia spike and cloudy water from the increased bacteria load (that's why I don't use any larger snails in my 12g). Next time, make sure that you immediately remove any that you find that aren't healthy or alive.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hey guys so i have a Fluval 13.5 g tank with probably about 10g due to the amount of rock in the tank. Tank is about 4 months old and has been very stable I’ve been keeping everything alive and well until this morning. I woke up and seen my Acro completely bleached white... my heart dropped and I noticed that none of my other coral is opening(Elegance, Hammer, Torch, some Zoas) my Blasto and candy canes seem ok and my two frostbite clownfish seem ok as well. I immediately tested my parameters and found that there is ammonia and nitrite present in tank at about 0.2 using the Red Sea test kit.

I believe I know what my mistake was. I normally do a 50% water change every Sunday and my tank has been thriving.I got a bit lazy and did a water changea couple of days late on Wednesday. After doing the water change and cleaning thesubstrate I decided to add a bit of Fritz Zyme Bacteria in a bottle. I think this is what caused my ammonia and nitrite levels to rise. Not too sure.
I read online that bacteria needs to be replenished every once in a while and so after 4 months I felt it might’ve been a good time to add some but I think I really screwed up here. I really need some help trying to fix this. I immediately did a 50% water change and now some corals are slowly starting to open back up. What else can I do to save my coral


Ammonia: 0-0.2
Nitrite: 0.2
Nitrates: 5
PH: 8.2
Salinity 1.025

Thanks in advance

Nitrite is NEVER an emergency ion a marine system, and yours is quite low. Maybe even test error. Unlike freshwater, nitrite is not important.

Relax and monitor it.