Hello all, I just moved everything from my 55gal reef to my new 125. I used new sand and the 70 lbs of rock from the 55 as well as 40 lbs of base rock. The fish and inverts and corals are all looking fine however I have some ammonia with a litttle nitrite. Ammonia is between .5 and 1 and the nitrite is about .25. what should I do? Do I need to do a major water change or should I leave it be for a day?
Yeah I didn't know if I should rush to the LFS and get some more water or just let it be for a while. My wife will shoot me if I let any of the fish die.
I would start doing some water changes. personally I'm a fan of PRIME in situations like these. also look around for and large die off, and remove as much or any that you can.
Yes I did use new live sand, I thaught using the sand from the 55 would jsut stir up to much bad stuff. What is prime? on a 125 what do you suggest for a water change? I still have the 55 with water and sand in it so I could put some if there if you think it would help
and this is where they get you with the live sand, you think its better because its live, but really there is a lot of die off in it, just as in uncured rocks, IMO its always better to use dry sand, or not even use sand.
that sand is probably the most likely cause for the spike, and it should go down soon hopefully. PRIME is a water conditioner, and it will make the ammonia and nitrite not as harmful for your tank mates, but could delay your little cycle. I don't recommend adding chemicals to your tank, but in this situation, you have to decide what is worse?
I would not recommend a HUGE water change, but maybe 40-30%? I don't really measure my water changes, just kinda go by the feel of it.
Hi Jason ... you can never go wrong with water changes! I agree with Nate_Bro... I tend to stay away from live sand and just use Aragonite or crushed coral. You can also add a ammonia blocker in your sump.
If there is livestock in the tank doing small water changes to keep it under control is advisable. This is probably just a cycle. Even though you used rock from the old tank the size difference and the addition of new rock was probably great enough to cause the tank to cycle. It will probably be shorter than a regular cycle but if you have livestock you need to keep amonia down so it doesn't harm them.
Thank you all for your replys, I jsut got back from te LFS. I will do a 25 gal water change and I baught some prime. It says to add that to the new water and then add the water to the tank. They also had a sale on chemipure elite so I baught 3 more bags. I will replace the 2 that I had from the 55. I will let you all know how things are going in a bit.
Well this morning all is well. All the inhabitants lived through the night and still look as spunky as ever. Last night I did the 25 gal water change adding 10 drops of prime in each bucket. I also added a 8 oz bottle of bacteria. NH3 /NH4 @ .50 probably ammonium now after adding the prime right? No2 looks like 0 might have a little bit but not a definate 0.25 like yesterday. Nitrate at 5 and PH 7.8. Dont have my fudge plumed in yet so there was no lights during the night. Water is still a little bit cloudy.
Yeah I will add more a little later, I would like to get it up a little closer to the water line for the sps corals. But I thaught if I could get away with it I would hold off for a bit and spend my money on other things. Need a RODI this tank needs a lot more water than the 55 and was getting tired of lugging around buckets with the 55!
This is a little off topic, but I wanted some advice on my lighting.when I purchaced this 125 it came with a coralife 72" 6x 96W PC fixture. In the 55 I had 2 175W Metal Halides retrofitted into the canopy. do you think I should keep the PC's for now or put the 2 halides one on either side and maby get a 250 for the middle? Softies and LPS look great under the pc's I have a birdsnest Fuzzy yellow marshall as well as anotehr acro frag in there as well. their pollyps are out but not looking quite as happy as they did under the halides, are they jsut adjsuting?
I would upgrade to the MH's including the one in the middle. It's just a way to make sure everything stays healthy and that you can get the corals that strike your eye.
All is well this morning, still have between .25 and .5 ppm ammonia Nitrite is below .25 but not 0 and the nitrates are at about 10 now.
Here are a couple pictures, I took off the PC fixture and put my 2 175W 14k's on either side of the tank. I found a 250 with balast and reflector on craigslist and I will be picking it up after 5 tonight. So I will put the 250 in the middle of the 175's. That should be plenty right? I will just need to get some t5's for actinic's and maby some moonlights. I also put my little make shift fudge that I had under the 55 above the 125. figured the Mangroves and cheato would help with the water. Eventualy I will be setting up a larger refugium but this is what I have for now. Let me know what you all think.
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