Never seen this Cycle

[El Toro]

Repurposed from freshwater, cleaned tank and canister but kept old bio materials. Added Live Sand, Live Rock, .3 ml ammonium hydroxide to start cycle. Then dosed Fritz TS 1 oz per day. So far on Day 14.

Salinity 1.024
pH 7.9
API test results
Ammonia 8+ppm
Nitrite 5+ppm
Nitrate 80ppm

It's obvious the Bacteria are working but it's not obvious why all 3 are off the charts.

Maybe I should take the dead cat out of the tank?

 

[piranhaman00]

100% water change and you are golden

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Removing the dead cat may remove important bio filtration. Maybe move it into a media bag in a high flow area or a reactor.

A reactor would be the best bet as getting the cat to tumble just a little helps it work faster.


Also its probably caused by die off from the live rock and old media. There might be a lot of bacteria and microbes on it if it was from FW that just melt imidiately in marine conditions.

Whats the total volume of the system, how much live rock and sand? Was it shipped to you?

 

[twentyleagues]

Its possible you over did ammonia with old media. I see its added in a post above.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Oh, depending on the tests you are using. Nitrate can really mess up the results for ammonia. Which tests are you using?

 

[El Toro]

Thanks for advice on the Cat. Tumble you say? Got it!

37g with canister. All live rock and sand was trusted LFS

Yes I considered the Nitrate masking. I use both API and a pro-Aquaculture lab set. Both results concur.

I planned on a 50% water change. I've never had to do 100% before but if leaving the old biofilter caused this then yes, that's the right strategy. I guess I should clean the bio filtration at this point if it's still creating ammonia.