Acceptable levels?

[sdboogie]

My tank has been up for a month now and finished its cycle about 2 weeks ago. I tested the water today and everything looked the same except ammonia and phosphates. I am missing an emerald crab and did see a nassi snail take something into the sand. I think I'm also missing one hermit. I fished out a carcus today. So that's probably where my ammonia spike (.2) came from, right? I also got the bright idea to use a toothbrush to clean some of the older algae off of the live rock. Could all that algae debris be responsible for my phosphates being above 5ppm? If I can confirm that possibility than maybe someone can confirm that the practice is a bad idea. As for the ammonia spike. Is that something I should just wait out or take action with a water change. I also blow the live rock off regularly with a turkey baster. Does this affect any of the ammonia and nitrite neutralizing bacteria? I'm thinking of picking up a phosphate sponge at the LFS tomorrow. How do you use? Will just putting a bag of sponge in the HOB be sufficient?

 

A lot of questions I know. Any help is appreciated.

[seabass]

I run a phosphate remover all of the time; it goes in a media bag inside my HOB.

 

Brushing the algae off of the rock is not a bad thought, but it can release the nutrients (like phosphates) back into your tank. When you brush off LR, take the rock out of your tank and brush it off in a separate bucket of saltwater; otherwise, you should siphon out the as much debris as you can with a water change immediately after brushing off the algae.

 

Remove anything dead as soon as you can to lessen the ammonia spike. After the tank has cycled (like yours), you can either wait it out, or use Prime (if necessary) to take care of the ammonia.