Normal ammonia rise in new live rock

[FlyingPotato]

I know curing live rock will be different for every person but I am concerned that something large might have died in my live rock. 9 days ago I set up a 10 gallon tank with 8.5lbs of dry rock and 1.5lbs of live rock. The live rock turned out to be painted and I was unhappy with my aquascape so I ordered 10 more pounds of live rock from KP aquatics. In preparation to receive the rock, I tested my tank parameters with the Red Sea test kit I got yesterday. I was supposed to have test kits at setup but shipping was delayed. It took some trial and error to figure out some of the kits and I did the nitrites and alkalinity wrong. Ammonia was at 0.2ppm nitrates at 8ppm salinity at 1.023 and ph at 8. Today was:
1ppm ammonia
7ppm nitrates
0.6ppm nitrites
alkalinity 9dkh
8 ph
salinity was corrected to 1.026 before rock was put into tank.
I received the rock at around 10 this morning and tested it at 9:00. An ammonia jump of 0.8ppm seems like a lot in 11 hours. I tested twice just to be sure and ammonia really is that high. Should I wait until morning to see how much it climbs before doing anything? I am worried a crab or other hitchhiker died in the rocks. When I was checking for dead creatures I didn’t poke around in the holes or anything. I did find a small crab, sponges, a large snail, tiny clam, and pencil urchin (All but clam and sponges have been isolated) just by checking it over so who knows what is inside.

 

[Jason Truong]

Did you wash the rock very very well before throwing it in the tank? Where did the rock come from? Rocks can seep out nutrients and yucky stuff overtime if not cleaned well. Gotta remember that these rocks are giant homes for microfauna so there tons and tons of stuff inside.

 

[FlyingPotato]

Did you wash the rock very very well before throwing it in the tank? Where did the rock come from? Rocks can seep out nutrients and yucky stuff overtime if not cleaned well. Gotta remember that these rocks are giant homes for microfauna so there tons and tons of stuff inside.

I got it overnight shipping from KP aquatics. I didn’t clean it at all just inspected it and put it in the tank. Should I take it all out and wash it then rescape the tank? It might be hard since I have a very limited supply of salt water.

 

[Jason Truong]

Wash it with freshwater. Is it like LIVE LIVE rock? Did it come in dry, semi wet? or covered in wet news paper?

 

[Jason Truong]

If there's no live stock you can just leave it to cycle.

 

[FlyingPotato]

It is live live rock. Covered in a very thick layer of soaked paper with about an inch of water sitting at the bottom so a lot survived. They were smaller pieces of rock so not as many large hitchhikers (That I know if). I have no stock so I will probably just let it run it’s course.

 

[TriggerFinger]

Don’t wash the rock in freshwater! There is some die off and you will get ammonia for a bit. You can do water changes, add bottled bacteria or prime to help it along or just let it ride.

 

[FlyingPotato]

Don’t wash the rock in freshwater! There is some die off and you will get ammonia for a bit. You can do water changes, add bottled bacteria or prime to help it along or just let it ride.

good to hear. Switching from freshwater to saltwater and am learning everything all over again. Guess I now have perspective on how fast parameters can change in 10 gallon tank. When should I do water changes to make sure I keep as much alive as possible? I was planning on changing 2 gallons when it reaches 2ppm ammonia. I also have prime but wasn’t sure if that was really good for saltwater tanks. Read somewhere that acclimating fish with prime caused a higher mortality.

 

[Jason Truong]

It is live live rock. Covered in a very thick layer of soaked paper with about an inch of water sitting at the bottom so a lot survived. They were smaller pieces of rock so not as many large hitchhikers (That I know if). I have no stock so I will probably just let it run it’s course.

Let it be bro! The ammonia will feed additional bacteria and since the rock was soaked, i'm sure a fair bit survived! Patience is key brother!

 

[Jason Truong]

good to hear. Switching from freshwater to saltwater and am learning everything all over again. Guess I now have perspective on how fast parameters can change in 10 gallon tank. When should I do water changes to make sure I keep as much alive as possible? I was planning on changing 2 gallons when it reaches 2ppm ammonia. I also have prime but wasn’t sure if that was really good for saltwater tanks. Read somewhere that acclimating fish with prime caused a higher mortality.

Don't do a water change because it'll slow down the cycle

 

[FlyingPotato]

Don't do a water change because it'll slow down the cycle

Should I just do prime if the ammonia gets too high then?

 

[Tigahboy]

There will be a good amount of die off and ammonia spike. Pretty normal for live live rock. I’ve ordered live rock from KPA twice now and had crazy high ammonia and die off. I did do a couple 50% water changes at the very beginning bc it was pretty bad (ammonia was at like 4 right before I did the water changes) and I hoped to have at least some of the critters survive.

 

[TriggerFinger]

Kp recommends water changes so the ammonia doesn’t get too high and kill off the live stuff. Here’s what they recommend from their site:

Water changes:
Perform 30% water changes daily in the first 3 days. You may have to continue to do 30% water changes on a daily basis if the ammonia is increasing rapidly. Keep a close eye on your tank levels (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH), perform bigger water changes if they the levels go much higher. You can also use an ammonia detoxifier like prime to possibly reduce the amount of water changes. Afterwards perform biweekly water changes of 50% until your levels read zero. When the levels read zero for a couple of days, your tank has cycled and is ready to be used. Typically, you are trying to keep the ammonia under 1 ppm in the beginning.

The curing process can take from 1 to 3 weeks.

We have had customers not performing any water changes which led to high levels of ammonia which ultimately killed all the life on the live rock.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Time is on your side... Seriously, I would do nothing but regular water changes... when things level off, add half of your desired cleanup crew. If they do okay, add the other half a week later.

No worries... I think it’s normal. Don’t take that rock out now, it’s too late... let the cycle happen.

 

[Jason Truong]

Should I just do prime if the ammonia gets too high then?

Follow the recommendations I guess. I've never ordered actual live rock online like that :/ . Sorry!

 

[TriggerFinger]

Follow the recommendations I guess. I've never ordered actual live rock online like that :/ . Sorry!

It’s great stuff. If you ever get the chance you should get some. They have small amounts and ship overnight directly to your door in wet newspaper. I’m placing a second order from them when it cools down a bit

 

[FlyingPotato]

Thanks for all the help. I think I will just leave it for tonight and check the ammonia again in the morning to see how it has progressed. I’m in no rush so as long as nature can do it’s thing and eventually balance out I’ll leave it to do it’s thing. My only worry is I will be gone Monday to Wednesday night. Didn’t know this until after I ordered the rock though. Happens every time . If the worst happens and ammonia doesn’t come down to safe levels by then I’ll resort to using prime for the three days.

 

[FlyingPotato]

It’s great stuff. If you ever get the chance you should get some. They have small amounts and ship overnight directly to your door in wet newspaper. I’m placing a second order from them when it cools down a bit

I agree it is amazing rock. It’s covered in beautiful orange and red algae. I think I also just found a little sea fan. Not a big fan of all the grey sponges though. I’ll probably remove them so they don’t overgrow any corals I want to get in the future. Maybe some more colorful sponges will pop up once everything is settled.

 

[Tigahboy]

Yeah, love the rock from KPA! So natural looking. You may lose some of that color in the beginning but it’ll come back.

 

[Jason Truong]

It’s great stuff. If you ever get the chance you should get some. They have small amounts and ship overnight directly to your door in wet newspaper. I’m placing a second order from them when it cools down a bit

I'm just afraid of getting some unwanted hitchhiker! I LOVE 95% of my hitchhikers and welcome them into my tank with open arms but I also have a lot of high end corals that I don't need to have eaten. I debated getting live live rock like that at the start because I wanted a bunch of cool random critters