New Reefer, Anyone have Insight on these Parameters??

[Didgeridoo]

Hey everyone! So I bought this Fluval Evo 13.5 secondhand on Saturday. The tank had been up and running for 2 years prior to my purchasing of it, so it has been properly cycled before. I just did some testing on my water and got some alarming results.

Ammonia: 1.2-2 ppm
Nitrate: ~50 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Alkalinity: 8.5 dKH
pH: 7.8

Obviously these results are incredibly alarming, and I fear that the results have been wonky for a day or two, but I had some fish, coral and clean up crew that came with the tank and they are alive and I haven't seen any crazy odd behaviors out of them, but I am a beginner to reefing, so I may be overlooking something. Any possibility that I did the test wrong? I used a Red Sea Marine Care Multi test kit.

 

[EgotisticObeseChihuahua]

Everything is adapting to the move. 1st: Get some bottled bacteria and dump the whole bottle in your system. 2nd: keep your lights off for a couple days as your livestock is likely stressed. 3rd: You are probably going to want to do water changes more often until those nitrates settle down. 4th: Don't use the API test kits. (Witch I am assuming you are using) because of the massive amount of nitrates and ammonia. When i used API to test my tank it showed faulty nitrate results because my ammonia was high.

 

[fishyjoes]

What's in the tank?
Can you list livestock and add a picture maybe?

If the readings are true, I'd say there are too many fish or a bunch of snails that recently died or something

 

[Didgeridoo]

Of course! Here’s an image of the tank. It came with two hermit crabs, an emerald crab, a pistol shrimp and a watchman goby. It also has what looks to be a mushroom and some mystery coral that came with the rock. Ill also add some pictures of the mystery coral

 

[EgotisticObeseChihuahua]

Of course! Here’s an image of the tank. It came with two hermit crabs, an emerald crab, a pistol shrimp and a watchman goby. It also has what looks to be a mushroom and some mystery coral that came with the rock. Ill also add some pictures of the mystery coral

That s some nice old rock, but that "Mystery coral" might just be a coral skeleton though i'm not sure.
You should just let time encompass the tank for the time being, but don't forget your normal tank maintenance. Also one last note is you still have invertebrates, so one would think they would all be dead if your ammonia was like that.

 

[FUNGI]

unless you didn't clean the tank and used the same sand and didn't stir it, and used same water......IMO, you are cycling....are youi sure about these:
Nitrate: ~50 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm

 

[Uncle99]

The system can be “damaged” in transit and decrease the systems ability to process, but that, is a temporary situation which can be settled out with water changes and some time.

You can easily half the nitrate and ammonia with a 50% water change to speed recovery.

 

[FUNGI]

The system can be “damaged” in transit and decrease the systems ability to process, but that, is a temporary situation which can be settled out with water changes and some time.

agree....but once that sand is disturbed.....anyway, op got some good advise on kickstarting and the API test's....

 

[Uncle99]

agree....but once that sand is disturbed.....anyway, op got some good advise on kickstarting and the API test's....

Fish didn’t die is the most accurate test of all.

 

[Spare time]

What test kits are you using?

 

[Didgeridoo]

So I just retested. Here’s the parameters now. I’m using a Red Sea Marine Care Multi.

 

[Spare time]

So I just retested. Here’s the parameters now. I’m using a Red Sea Marine Care Multi.

I'm thinking 0 ammonia because nitrite would be present too