HELP Ammonia :(

[Brett S]

yes

Oh goodness. This was almost certainly your problem then. The old used dry rock would have had a lot of dead algae and other things on it, which would start to decompose and create ammonia, which would then quickly overwhelm the low level of bacteria that you had in your lightly stocked tank.

At this point I think the answer is to ride it out with water changes and prime or amquil and bottled bacteria like we talked about, but I feel pretty good that this is the root cause.

 

[eric.20]

I agree with @Brett S theres something more at work here.

Bacteria needs a food source as well. I’ve always done the table shrimp cycle but heard that bottle bacteria needs food as well, not sure if there’s something in the bottle for the bacteria to feed on or not. I ghost feed live rock for almost a year while it “cooked” to remove bound up nutrients.

My experience with prime is it doesn’t remove the ammonia but makes it safe for the live stock yet the ammonia is still present for the cycle to continue and not stall. So keep using the prime

Good luck and keep up posted
Matt

but if it makes it safe why are the corals still closed up? or are they dead already?

 

[eric.20]

Oh goodness. This was almost certainly your problem then. The old used dry rock would have had a lot of dead algae and other things on it, which would start to decompose and create ammonia, which would then quickly overwhelm the low level of bacteria that you had in your lightly stocked tank.

At this point I think the answer is to ride it out with water changes and prime or amquil and bottled bacteria like we talked about, but I feel pretty good that this is the root cause.

but we used cured live rock from the old tank and then dried new rock. but we put it in the new tank from day one. the dried rock and the cured rock.

 

[Brett S]

but if it makes it safe why are the corals still closed up? or are they dead already?

It’s hard to say. If ammonia really got up to 8.0ppm then that’s enough to kill corals in only a few minutes. And who knows how long they were at that level before you discovered the problem and used something to neutralize it. At the very least the corals would have been seriously injured. And their natural response to injury and stress is to stay closed to try to protect themselves.

At this point it’s really hard to say what shape they’re in. Given what you’ve described and the state your tank is in now, I would give them maybe a 33% change of recovering, but it’s going to take time. All you can do now is keep the water as good as you can and give them time to see which ones, if any of them recover. But it may be days or even a week or two before you see them starting to open again.

 

[eric.20]

It’s hard to say. If ammonia really got up to 8.0ppm then that’s enough to kill corals in only a few minutes. And who knows how long they were at that level before you discovered the problem and used something to neutralize it. At the very least the corals would have been seriously injured. And their natural response to injury and stress is to stay closed to try to protect themselves.

At this point it’s really hard to say what shape they’re in. Given what you’ve described and the state your tank is in now, I would give them maybe a 33% change of recovering, but it’s going to take time. All you can do now is keep the water as good as you can and give them time to see which ones, if any of them recover. But it may be days or even a week or two before you see them starting to open again.

they started to close two days ago when ammonia was at 2.0

 

[Brett S]

but we used cured live rock from the old tank and then dried new rock. but we put it in the new tank from day one. the dried rock and the cured rock.

The question he asked was if you used old used dry rock and you said yes. Is that not the case?

 

[eric.20]

so should we do daily water changes now ?

 

[eric.20]

The question he asked was if you used old used dry rock and you said yes. Is that not the case?

sorry I probably didn't read it right. We used the rocks from our old tank and just new dried rock from the store (white)

 

[Brett S]

sorry I probably didn't read it right. We used the rocks from our old tank and just new dried rock from the store (white)

OK, well, then maybe we don’t have a root cause New dried rock should definitely not have any die off or cause a new cycle.

 

[Brett S]

so should we do daily water changes now ?

I would say yes, and fairly big water changes too. If your ammonia is at 2.0 and you change 50% of the water that should bring it down to 1.0, which is still not good, but better than 2.0

 

[eric.20]

we dont know why to do anymore. its vey frustrating..

 

[eric.20]

I would say yes, and fairly big water changes too. If your ammonia is at 2.0 and you change 50% of the water that should bring it down to 1.0, which is still not good, but better than 2.0

ok thank you so much.. we will try it

 

[eric.20]

should we vacuum the sand or just leave it and do a water change

 

[Brett S]

we dont know why to do anymore. its vey frustrating..

At this point, whether we know what caused it or not it would appear that your tank is in the middle of a new cycle, which is producing a lot of ammonia. Since ammonia is toxic for your animals we definitely know what you need to do.

You need to get the cycle to complete as quickly as possible. Adding bottled bacteria will definitely help with that

And while you are waiting for the cycle to complete you need to manage the ammonia. This will be done by doing large frequent water changes and dosing prime or amquel every 24 to 36 hours.

Hopefully it will only be a matter of days before the cycle completes and the ammonia drops back to 0.

 

[Brett S]

should we vacuum the sand or just leave it and do a water change

I would leave it as is. Stirring up the sand could cause more problems. But now that you mention the sand, I’m wondering about that... where did the sand come from? Was that new dry sand or did that get moved from the other tank? If it was moved from the other tank then it’s possible that stuff in the sand got stirred up as it was moved and that caused your problems.

 

[eric.20]

I would leave it as is. Stirring up the sand could cause more problems. But now that you mention the sand, I’m wondering about that... where did the sand come from? Was that new dry sand or did that get moved from the other tank? If it was moved from the other tank then it’s possible that stuff in the sand got stirred up as it was moved and that caused your problems.

we didnt transfer the old sand. we bought new CaribSea Fiji pink Arag-alive! live reef sand

 

[Brett S]

we didnt transfer the old sand. we bought new CaribSea Fiji pink Arag-alive! live reef sand

Well, that’s good and definitely shouldn’t have caused any problems. Although it still leaves us with out a good explanation of exactly why this happened. :: sigh:: unanswered questions bother me.

 

[MnFish1]

If you add Prime - it binds the ammonia - it doesnt remove it. So - depending on the test kit you're using - you can still see measurable ammonia after using Prime. Sorry if this was mentioned already.

 

[eric.20]

Well, that’s good and definitely shouldn’t have caused any problems. Although it still leaves us with out a good explanation of exactly why this happened. :: sigh:: unanswered questions bother me.

maybe it was really the sock and we removed to many bacteria with washing it..

 

[eric.20]

If you add Prime - it binds the ammonia - it doesnt remove it. So - depending on the test kit you're using - you can still see measurable ammonia after using Prime. Sorry if this was mentioned already.

yes but I'm just wondering why the corals are not doing well if with using prime ammonia should be "safe"