Well the title says it all and I should have and did know better but here I am.
I have had a reef for 20 years. Over the last year my tank declined and I lost one coral after another.
I saw my tank was full of dirty and decided to clean EVERYTHiNG except the sponge filter in my sump.
this occurred after a heater failure that sent my temp to 90f. So since I lost everything but the fish I decide to wash the live rock
….and wash it in tap water ( been fine if I used tank water) plus pull the heavy layer of hair algae off. I got a 1.5lbs bag of crap out of the tank.
predicatable ammonia spiked so I did a 50% change and added doses of cycle everyday to get the cycle back on track. Skimmers went nuts of course but here we come to why I posted. Oh ammonia hit 4ppm and fish were breathing hard so I added a d dose of prime. Fish are now happy but I’ve got a chemistry nightmare.
ammonia hangs around 1ppm as more algae is still dying and the tank is cycling. My nitrates were around 10pm when I started and after adding the bacteria dropped to zero. You’ll see where I’m going. Alkalinity is at 20. Thank you prime. Nitrites zero always. Phosphate first dropped as the nitrate dropped so the bacteria is doing something. Phosphate now has risen to 0.7 from 0.15. I assume this because the nitrate is gone now.
so I keep adding bacteria daily and my skim is good and dark. I added some gfo and carbon to get the phosphate back down.
thinking of another 50% water change and keeping up the bacteria addition.
so question is why would the nitrate drop to zero and phosphate initially drop but now it’s rising and the ammonia is constant. I figured the ammonia was converted to nitrate and that would keep going since I have phosphate and plenty of organic. Did prime kill the bacteria I added. I mean I added 500 ml of 15x bacteria in four days.
I am assuming I had some bacteria that eat the nitrate and now that it is gone that’s that. I assume the bacteria to convert the ammonia is still working back into the 50 lbs of rockwork. Ahh it’s a 65gal tank sorry forgot.
so other than the ammonia and high alk the fish seem happy. Just ride out the cycle or is something more going on. Should I keep up prime or dump it? Ph is low at around 8.1.
signed the idiot.never ever wash all your rock!
I have had a reef for 20 years. Over the last year my tank declined and I lost one coral after another.
I saw my tank was full of dirty and decided to clean EVERYTHiNG except the sponge filter in my sump.
this occurred after a heater failure that sent my temp to 90f. So since I lost everything but the fish I decide to wash the live rock
….and wash it in tap water ( been fine if I used tank water) plus pull the heavy layer of hair algae off. I got a 1.5lbs bag of crap out of the tank.
predicatable ammonia spiked so I did a 50% change and added doses of cycle everyday to get the cycle back on track. Skimmers went nuts of course but here we come to why I posted. Oh ammonia hit 4ppm and fish were breathing hard so I added a d dose of prime. Fish are now happy but I’ve got a chemistry nightmare.
ammonia hangs around 1ppm as more algae is still dying and the tank is cycling. My nitrates were around 10pm when I started and after adding the bacteria dropped to zero. You’ll see where I’m going. Alkalinity is at 20. Thank you prime. Nitrites zero always. Phosphate first dropped as the nitrate dropped so the bacteria is doing something. Phosphate now has risen to 0.7 from 0.15. I assume this because the nitrate is gone now.
so I keep adding bacteria daily and my skim is good and dark. I added some gfo and carbon to get the phosphate back down.
thinking of another 50% water change and keeping up the bacteria addition.
so question is why would the nitrate drop to zero and phosphate initially drop but now it’s rising and the ammonia is constant. I figured the ammonia was converted to nitrate and that would keep going since I have phosphate and plenty of organic. Did prime kill the bacteria I added. I mean I added 500 ml of 15x bacteria in four days.
I am assuming I had some bacteria that eat the nitrate and now that it is gone that’s that. I assume the bacteria to convert the ammonia is still working back into the 50 lbs of rockwork. Ahh it’s a 65gal tank sorry forgot.
so other than the ammonia and high alk the fish seem happy. Just ride out the cycle or is something more going on. Should I keep up prime or dump it? Ph is low at around 8.1.
signed the idiot.never ever wash all your rock!
