Quick Nitrates question

[Taxman20]

So I bought a running 75 reef system this last Sunday. Has about 70lbs of LR, about 2" minimum of sand bed. A few soft coral colonies and 1 easy SPS colony. Has some green and brown hair algae. 4 small fish and a shrimp. So not much in it. 30 gallon sump with a nice skimmer. Skimmer is working good, needs more return pump. The return pump is crap. Its not flowing near enough so I bought a new pump thats in the mail now. I think thats part of my problem as well.

Of course the move drug up all the mess from the sand bed. I knew it would be nasty and might give me a Nitrite or Nitrate spike.

I set it up, bought 1 20lb bag of black live " ready to go, pre cycled " sand in an attempt to help the good bacteria battle the mess stirred up. I also had to add almost 10 gallons of new saltwater.

I tested it Monday and the Nitrate was maxed at 160 . So Tuesday I did a quick 5 gallon water change. I know, not enough but Im only making RO water so fast. LOL It brought it down to 140. I know water changes should help get it back down, Im just curious if the move can cause this or maybe it was already high. Everything looks healthy. Except for the hair algae on the sps thats killed it off a little in the center.

Ive ordered a clean crew, some macro algae for the refugium, light for the macro, return pump. All will be in it this week.

TIA for the advice. And I will keep this thread posted on the results of what I am able to do with it.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea. The move caused a mini cycle.
A sudden release of ammoina that became no3.

Keep water changing weekly. Add good bottled bacteria afterwards.
It’ll stabilize itself.

 

[acro-ed]

I am a little unclear from your post. Did you "add" the 20lb bag to the "old" sand, or did you remove the old sand and "just" add the new 20lb bag?

 

[Taxman20]

Salty, thats what I figured. Ive been out of this for 10 years, plus never bought a running setup. It will be under control soon.

Acro, I reused the sand it had in it because it was cycled and live. BUT, We left the absolute nastiest bit of the sand and debris in the bottom of the tank, then tossed it. I didnt want all that dirty water going back into the tank. I then purchased a new 20lb bag of live sand to top it back off, to replace what we tossed from the existing sand.

Thanks guys.