HELP!

[ReefCheif]

So I recently just somewhat did a re-build on my 180. I removed all live stock and corals and pretty much re did all my plumbing and added about 200lbs of live rock, and re did lights as well as adding dosing pumps and a BRS dual reactor (running GFO and carbon) Ive yet to add anything back to the tank other than some clean up crew and Im showing a huge spike in Nitrates

Heres what I did

Bought 200lbs of dry rock, cleaned it, rinsed it, cleaned it, rinsed and cured it for 4 1/2 weeks. Tested water in the curing tank and no signs of amonia, nitrites or nitrates. This told me the rock was ready to add.

I removed all fish, inverts and corals, drained tank 50%, removed rock. The only thing left in the tank was sand bed and 50% water. Tank sat for 12 hours like this with powerheads running to keep current on the sand.

The following morning we proceeded to re do the rock stack. I made a huge mistake last time and put my rocks on the sand, so this time we pulled all the sand forward in the tank, stacked rock on the glass bottom and pushed the sand back into place, needless to say the water got real murky.

I immediatly drained out 50% (remember the tank is only 50% full at this point) and added fresh saltwater back to the 50% full level. We then cleaned all pumps, powerheads and a full cleaning on the fuge / sump. Tank was re-filled and pumps / filters were re started.

2 weeks later and Im checking my levels, everyhting is on point, except for when I get to nitrates. It spiked so high I could barley get a reading, somehwere in the 40- 50 ppm range. I did a 50% water change and re tested, it brought it down a bit but not much. With 250 gal total water volume 50% water changes are expensive and time consuming, im hoping there a better way.

Ive added filter media to help control nitrates, its a media Seachem makes specifically to help reduce nitrates. I refuse to add any chemicals as I know those tend to only mask the problem. All and all I cannot figure out what the hell is going on. The good news is all my live stock is very happy in their temporary homes so Im not in too much of a hurry to get things back into the tank.

What is going on? Is my tank cycling again? Is this becuase I disturbed the sand bed? From what Ive listed above does any one have any insight or possible solutions other than what Im doing? Or do I just play the waiting game again?

I recently added a giant brittle star to the fuge to help with dibris as well as some red leg hermits, but in all honesty I cleaned the sump / fuge so good I highly doubt this is the issue. Any insight / advice would be great. My trigger wants her swim space back

 

[jahmic]

It sounds like your tank is cycling again...swapping out rocks and disturbing the sand bed would definitely cause that. Your nitrates should start to come down naturally once you get some anaerobic bacteria to sufficiently recolonize the tank.

Since you reused the sand, it shouldn't take too long for things to get stable again. FWIW, your nitrates can creep up to about 100ppm before you risk stressing your fish. If you desperately need to get the trigger in a bigger tank, he should be fine as long as the nitrates don't continue to rise. Probably better off waiting for the tank to stabilize again...but adding a fish to a tank that size probably wouldn't hurt the process too much.

Just curious...what did you use to clean the rock? Sounds like you did a good job if there were no detectable nitrates...as long as you actually saw it cycle through ammonia and nitrites while curing for 4.5 weeks. If that's the case you can eliminate the possibility of the rock leaching and just wait things out as your tank matures.

 

[ReefCheif]

Rock was rinsed clean with RO, then soaked in RO with a bit of bleach, risned again, dried, rinsed again with RO, scrubbed and rinsed again.

I did weekly water changes on the cycling rock and did watch the amonia and nitrates fall over time until they were not detecable.

 

[jahmic]

In that case it sounds like disturbing the sand bed was the culprit. IMO, one of 2 things (or a combination of both) may have happened: a) The rock you removed had areas where anaerobic bacteria had colonized deep inside some of the "pores" in the rock. Disturbing the sand bed killed off some bacteria, which your tank quickly processed into nitrates...but the anaerobic bacteria, having been removed, is not there anymore to knock down your nitrates...or b) disturbing the sand bed decimated the anaerobic bacteria colonizing the bed, which caused a nitrate spike. This would likely only apply if your sand bed is deeper than 3"-4"; aerobic bacteria typically colonizes the first 2 inches and handles converting ammonia -> nitrites -> nitrates, then not much happens in sand at a depth of 2-3 inches as the conditions aren't ideal for either aerboic or anaerobic bacteria to colonize...but if your tank has a bed deeper than that and you disturbed it, it could definitely put a dent in the anaerobic bacteria population.

 

[Smiley]

+1 to the sand bed.... looks like your gonna have to play the waiting game again.

 

[ReefCheif]

Anything I can do to speed it up? Bacteria additives?

Really dont want to wait 2 months, UuuGHHHHH, why do they call this a hobby, its more a pain in the ***! LOL

 

[jahmic]

That may help. I've looked into those additives and they do indicate that they contain both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. I question how effective dumping anaerobic bacteria into an oxygen rich tank would be though, as many of them may die off before ever making it to an oxygen deprived area of the tank. That all depends on the "type" of bacteria that's typically present in our tanks (as well as in those additives) though, and I don't know enough about those strains to know whether they would survive or not.

FWIW...there are 3 types of anaerobic bacteria: Obligate - absolutely needs an oxygen free environment to survive, or they will likely die. Aerotolerant - Don't consume oxygen, but are capable of surviving in its presence. Facultative - Capable of living in both oxygen rich and anoxic environments. If whoever makes those bacteria supplements did not use an obligate strain, then it'd likely be effective since the bacteria could survive in our tank before colonizing in an appropriate area. I would assume our hobby has progressed enough that they'd know that and created the product accordingly...but you never know.

 

[ReefCheif]

Thanks jahmic, youve been very helpful. Im gonna go look for some aerotolerant or faculative additives in hopes of helping speed this up. Looks like its back to the waiting game.

 

[jahmic]

No problem, glad I could help. Keep us posted on any information you find, if you don't mind. I'm in the process of starting a new tank and will likely be picking up an additive here soon; it'd be nice to know if any of them list specific strains that may be more effective than others.

 

[ReefCheif]

I will do that for sure.

 

[jahmic]

Re: HELP!

Did some looking around and found this:

Stability® is formulated specifically for the aquarium and contains a synergistic blend of aerobic, anaerobic, and facultative bacteria which facilitate the breakdown of waste organics, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Stability.html

 

[ReefCheif]

LOL, I actually picked up a couple bottles of this last night and started adding it. I will wait a few days and test again, then water change, add more and test again. I will keep you posted as to its effectiveness.

 

[Munch]

I used Stabliity to start my tank cycle, no complaints!

 

[aztecdreams]

HELP!

I have used it quite a few times with great success

 

[ReefCheif]

Well Ive been adding the stability as directed for the past 4 days and Im not seeing much of a change. Nitrates dropped slightly, but nothing special, still not low enough to add live stock. Im going to do another 50% water change tomorrow and see if that helps.

As of now Ive started losing fish in the temp tanks. Ive lost all 4 tangs, a pair of picassos, a pair of dottie backs and my trigger has devoped some weird fungus. Ive beefed up filtration and skimming on the temp tanks as well as running carbon and things seem to be stabalizing. No corals lost though , pulling my damn hair out trying to get the DT going again. ARGHHHHH. I cant believe trying to make the tank better is causing so many problems and head aches, very discouraging.

 

[Haulin Oates]

HELP!

Have you checked with a different test kit? I've had test kits go bad and lead me astray so many time that I really don't trust them anymore.

 

[ReefCheif]

Thats the next step, heading to LFS tomorrow to grab a new nitrate test kit. Although with having 5 tanks running right now and being able to get different readings off each tank as well as getting no readings from my RO/DI Im almost certain its not the kit. Its not even 6 months old, but Im all out of ideas.

I did drop a small colony of pink and golds as well as some NH pallys into the DT to see how they did becuase if they died I wanst going to be upset and they seem to be doing just fine, both actually look great under the new light and have been in the tank for about 5 days and open every day and are not melting away or disappearing, which is another reason why Im stumped. CUC is doing fine, including a giant brittle star, 2 sifter stars and a coral banded shrimp all living and thriving with the nitrate spike, so maybe it is the test kit. Sometimes its more of a chore than a hobby!

 

[ReefCheif]

Well I feel like a complete idiot and am really ****ed off at myself right now.

I looked around and found a brand new never opened API Nitrate test and tested. Its reading 10ppm. Before I jump to any solid conclusions Im still going out tomorrow to buy aother brand new kit and double check again just to be sure.

All and all I think my red sea test kit is bad and Im pretty disgruntled about it, I just bought them like 4 months ago and am now scared to use any of them. Ive lost over $300 in fish becuase of a god damn defective test kit! ARRRRGGGHHHHH

 

[ReefCheif]

BTW, thanks Jack for getting me thinking about the possibility of e defective kit.