Nitrate spike after water change.

[JMC1]

I've had my biocube 29 for 5 weeks now it was seeded with live rock and live sand. I've been watching my levels and finally got an ammonia spike Sunday. I did a 4 gallon water change (the first one) and now today for the first time I have a Nitrate spike, not bad just a 10 but its the first time its ever been above 5.0. I've got two clowns and they seem to be fine but for the first time my green torch is closed up and looking sad. I added a Kessil 360 Saturday but I've kept the power down very low trying to let it adjust. Could the Nitrate spike be doing this to the torch or do you think it's the light?

[seabass]

Could the Nitrate spike be doing this to the torch or do you think it's the light?

I imagine it's the ammonia level.

[ReeferBoo]

wait, you had an ammonia spike with a torch and 2 clowns already in there?

[JMC1]

it wasn't an ammonia spike. I was waiting for ammonia levels to slightly rise before I did a water change. It went from 0 to 0.25. after the water change it looks to be a little under .25 but not quite 0

[Lynaea]

Could you be more detailed about how you are cycling your tank? When did you add the livestock?

[Mariaface]

You definitely want to do a water change before things get bad enough to register ammonia. I'm assuming you're not still cycling this tank, since you've got fish and coral in there. If you are still cycling, proceed with lots and lots of caution. Try rehoming your livestock until the tank is cycled, or use some mixture of daily water changes and a product like Seachem Prime to detoxify the ammonia that's present until the nitrosomnas bacteria are well established. Ammonia is highly toxic. Don't play with it. D:

 

If you seeded with live rock and sand, and didn't see ammonia spikes until now, what that means it that waste has built up enough that the nitrifying bacteria can't keep up.

 

And what test kits are you using? It doesn't matter for ammonia and nitrite -- anything above 0 is too much. But if this is a problem you're running into, what are you using to test pH, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, and phosphate?

[JMC1]

a neighbor of mine was moving and couldn't take his aquarium with him. he sold the tank and I took most everything else including his livestock. I bought a biocube 29, took his live rock his sand and and filter media. added it to my 29 and had it running for 2 weeks before I took some of his corals and his clowns. I basically took his aquarium and put it in new glass. I thought I had gotten away without having to cycle it but I guess I was wrong. it's been running since July 10th, and the clowns were put in 2 weeks after that.

 

I'm using an API reef kit. I can tell you my full test results tomorrow. I don't have it in front of me just now.

[Mariaface]

Try to measure all three (ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate) daily, and chart their progress. The way the cycle works is that ammonia will spike first, nitrite will follow, and nitrate is the last. If, after this water change, ammonia doesn't rise, then take note that your water change schedule needs to be sped up so that ammonia never gets to that rising point. If you do see ammonia spiking and/or nitrite spiking, your cycle isn't finished yet. Try to feed less (don't starve the the tank inhabitants, but don't overfeed because any extra food will put extra load on ammonia-eating bacteria), keep up with water changes, and regularly clean any filter floss you have running so that the organics trapped in there don't get a chance to decompose. If you have a skimmer, it'll help keep organics out of the tank. That being said, having ammonia in the tank when there are fish or corals is really bad for the livestock. See if you can't get a bacterial supplement to help out the nitrifying bacteria you have (and do research, because a lot of those are snake oil and only a few seem to do their job; it might be a matter of storage and whatnot). I've had success with Seachem Stability, but there are lots of other products out there.