Is my aquarium cycling after going from bare bottom to live sand?

[sawdavis]

My 75 gallon tank is about three years old. Last year it went through a terrible outbreak of GHA and so I took out all the sand (because it contained globs of it) and went with a bear bottom. I dosed Vibrant weekly but it did not do much for the GHA. I have many clean-up critters (urchin, bennie, crabs, snails) but they also were unable to do much. I finally got rid of most of it using Flux RX and then I got an outbreak of that red cyano and had to use chemiclean to get rid of it. I thought I was finally getting a handle on everything and decided to go back to a sand bottom so I added about an inch of live sand. I wanted to make sure the algae did not come back so I brought my Phosphates down to zero and I thought my Nitrates were also zero until I found out that I was not doing the API test correctly (I was not shaking the test tube). Anyway, I also detected that my ammonia was up and began dosing Prime. When I finally correctly tested for the Nitrates, they were really high( 80ppm). . I don't know what is causing the ammonia spike (API 2.5ppm) and if my nitrates spiked or if they have been high all along. I have done lots of water changes in the past month and a half. I tried to add cheato to my refugium and it disintegrated within a week. Was adding the live sand causing my tank to cycle? Help!!

I have corals and fish and so far they seem fine.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

My 75 gallon tank is about three years old. Last year it went through a terrible outbreak of GHA and so I took out all the sand (because it contained globs of it) and went with a bear bottom. I dosed Vibrant weekly but it did not do much for the GHA. I have many clean-up critters (urchin, bennie, crabs, snails) but they also were unable to do much. I finally got rid of most of it using Flux RX and then I got an outbreak of that red cyano and had to use chemiclean to get rid of it. I thought I was finally getting a handle on everything and decided to go back to a sand bottom so I added about an inch of live sand. I wanted to make sure the algae did not come back so I brought my Phosphates down to zero and I thought my Nitrates were also zero until I found out that I was not doing the API test correctly (I was not shaking the test tube). Anyway, I also detected that my ammonia was up and began dosing Prime. When I finally correctly tested for the Nitrates, they were really high( 80ppm). . I don't know what is causing the ammonia spike (API 2.5ppm) and if my nitrates spiked or if they have been high all along. I have done lots of water changes in the past month and a half. I tried to add cheato to my refugium and it disintegrated within a week. Was adding the live sand causing my tank to cycle? Help!!

I have corals and fish and so far they seem fine.

Suspect this is just another case of the ammonia test being false... You don't mention date of last water change, but that would be my go-to solution for reducing nitrates, esp if cycle suspected. Phosphates at zero can cause you other problems, so you do want a tiny bit. Monitor the nitrates and determine if they spiked high (solvable with water change) or trending high and if trending high determine why to determine best resolution

 

[brandon429]

well done. its false, and now addition of prime skews test results.

adding sand doesn't bring in ammonia or any notable bac loading to cause a rise. dead material from dosing plant killing meds can create chemical stews unrelated to free ammonia/bet

all you need to do is clean up the tank and do a water change dont dose anything. remove stored up waste, dead plant mass etc. if adding unrinsed sand didnt cloud your tank for nine days consider that lucky and awesome. that cloud wouldnt be a recycle though, it'd be a chalk cloud.

 

[sawdavis]

Suspect this is just another case of the ammonia test being false... You don't mention date of last water change, but that would be my go-to solution for reducing nitrates, esp if cycle suspected. Phosphates at zero can cause you other problems, so you do want a tiny bit. Monitor the nitrates and determine if they spiked high (solvable with water change) or trending high and if trending high determine why to determine best resolution

Thank you for your quick reply. I have been doing weekly 20% water changes and had just done one a few days before testing. The API test kit said that Nitrates are difficult to reduce because they are often in tap water but I run tap water through my RO filters so not sure that would be the case. Has anybody reported a tank cycling after adding live sand? I also did just dose a new coral food product (AB+ by Red Sea). Would this cause a Nitrate spike?

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Thank you for your quick reply. I have been doing weekly 20% water changes and had just done one a few days before testing. The API test kit said that Nitrates are difficult to reduce because they are often in tap water but I run tap water through my RO filters so not sure that would be the case. Has anybody reported a tank cycling after adding live sand? I also did just dose a new coral food product (AB+ by Red Sea). Would this cause a Nitrate spike?

Overfeeding in general can increase nitrates (and phosphates)

Did you test your RODI and/or freshly made saltwater to see if you have elevated nitrates before adding water to tank?

Anything added to tank will cause an increase in bioload and potential for mini-cycle (ex: new fish). If your fish aren't freaking out, then don't worry about that ammonia number.

Continue monitoring, track your numbers (I use a notebook) and determine your trends. Then you'll have data to base any changes, but no change should ever be fast in this hobby - only bad things happen fast.

... if my nitrates spiked or if they have been high all along.

Originally you wrote unknown if "high all along." Start tracking and don't assume there was a spike until you have data over time.