Stuck cycle or decaying organics?

[reefscrub_]

Hello. I have a 1 month old tank which I’m scratching my head over.

It’s a 12 gallon tank. Started with live rock from my friends sump.

A week in ammonia started to climb peaking at 4ppm per api.

I noticed some snails weren’t moving so I took them out. At this time ammonia spiked to 8ppm api.

I did a large 50% water change and it came down to 2-3 ppm ammonia. At this point nitrite shot up to 1 ppm and nitrate started showing up.

A week after the water change ammonia has been stuck at 2-3 ppm and my nitrate has climbed to close to 100 on salifert.

This means the cycle is processing, but I don’t understand how there could still be 2ppm ammonia despite so much of it being processed already.

I’m not feeding the tank at all, there’s no fish or corals just 7 astreas who are still moving around grazing.

Could there be another source of ammonia like trapped detritus? Or is this a simple wait for the nitrifying bacteria to catch up?

I also have a seachem ammonia alert badge that’s reading close to safe .02 it’s like barely gray. I’m dosing prime every other day. Thanks in advance!

 

[LiLinka]

Wait it out, dose microbacter 7. Thank me later!

 

[Fish Fan]

Let me ask a few questions that I think may help Randy and others better help you

You started this tank using 100% real, wet, mature live rock from your friend's tank? Was it covered in a lot of organics?

And you're not adding any form of ammonia, like fish food? If so, I've never seen a live rock start result in such a huge ammonia spike, except back in the day when we bought rock from Indonesia that came wrapped in wet newspaper and sat on a boat for weeks to months, and had significant die off.

Stop adding Prime, it does not lower ammonia as indicated on the bottle

Does Prime actually "Detoxify" free ammonia, NH3?

This started when @Dan_P was looking at measuring NH3 with seneye and was curious about performance near zero NH3. I suggested trying Prime to artificially zero out the NH3 sensor, and the results were weird... so I checked with my seachem kit. Prime by Seachem is commonly used to treat tap...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Fish Fan]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

I have asked you about this before, and you said no, but this is exactly the kind of situation I've seen before where someone is using Prime, and seeing very high ammonia; ammonia that shouldn't be there, unless I'm missing something

Is there no mechanism where Prime would cause an artificially high result for ammonia testing?

Thanks, Randy!

 

[reefscrub_]

It was 2 month old rock from his sump. Or so he claimed.

I did have a clown which I was feeding twice daily frozen but I moved him once the ammonia peaked at 8ppm.

 

[Fish Fan]

Something is amiss here. Can you post a pic of your tank and rock?

 

[Fish Fan]

It was 2 month old rock from his sump. Or so he claimed.

I did have a clown which I was feeding twice daily frozen but I moved him once the ammonia peaked at 8ppm.

Hold on! Did your friend take dry rock, add it to their sump for some time, and then you used that rock, and had fish that were eating from the start? It's possible that this rock was not as well established as I had originally thought, and that's why your ammonia climbed so high

 

[reefscrub_]

Something is amiss here. Can you post a pic of your tank and rock?

 

[reefscrub_]

Hold on! Did your friend take dry rock, add it to their sump for some time, and then you used that rock, and had fish that were eating from the start? It's possible that this rock was not as well established as I had originally thought, and that's why your ammonia climbed so high

Yeah I think he might’ve inflated the numbers and I’m basically starting with almost a dry rock start… if it were truly mature rock I doubt there would’ve even been a cycle in such a small tank.

 

[Fish Fan]

I'm genuinely puzzled as your pics look like you have organic growth (mature rock).

I don't typically talk over @Randy Holmes-Farley in his chem sub-forum unless I feel quite confident, but I'm not sure what's going on here

I would give Randy a chance to reply in the morning, he will likely see something that my pea-brain is missing

Best of luck going forward!

 

[reefscrub_]

Update, found another dead astrea snail stuck in a crevice. Smelled terrible. Will test ammonia in 48 hours and large water change once ammonia drops.

 

[Fish Fan]

Dead snails happen all the time, and do not result in 8.0 ppm+ ammonia

 

[fish_collector]

Be careful what one calls "live rock", it's not the same as just some dry rock that's been in a sump for a while. Your rock is likely fresh and not seasoned. I can add 2 fist sized pieces of aged rock from the sump of my tank to a 10g QT and add a fish or two the same day with no issues, ever. It's all about the rock.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The nitrate is likely a false high value as some nitrite can read as a huge amount of nitrate.

I suspect as Fish Fan noted that the tank isn’t cycled.

I’d add Fritz Turbo start right away, if you can easily get it. It is the fastest cycling bacteria product that I know of.

 

[reefscrub_]

The nitrate is likely a false high value as some nitrite can read as a huge amount of nitrate.

I suspect as Fish Fan noted that the tank isn’t cycled.

I’d add Fritz Turbo start right away, if you can easily get it. It is the fastest cycling bacteria product that I know of.

Thank you this worked added 4oz turbo start 900 to 12 gallon tank and it cycled in 5 days exactly. I wasted 30 days cycling without bottled bacteria. I will from now on cycle every tank with turbo start.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Glad it is working out!