Ammonia spike from siphoning sandbed! Help!

[reeferehab]

I've made a newbie mistake by vacuuming the sandbed which i believe caused an ammonia spike as indicated by labored breathing and some sideways swimming in my two clownfish. My tank is a 10 gallon AIO nuvo fusion and has been running for almost two months since i first started the cycle. After the cycle (took about 3 weeks) I added one clownfish a clean up crew and slowly started introducing some tester corals. The corals have been doing well. All was going well until i noticed some cyano growing all over my sandbed (probably due to an accidental heavy feeding of frozen mysis shrimp two weeks ago). During my weekly 2 gallon water change today, I decided to siphon the sandbed to eliminate some of the cyano which probably caused an ammonia spike as there was a lot of settled detritus in one area of tank. 

I didn't notice the ammonia spike until about 8 hours after my water change when my clowns started acting different. I tested all my other parameters about an hour after the water change, and everything was fine. Nitrates were around 10 ppm, phosphates a little high at 0.09ppm via my hanna checker (ive been working on trying to lower this), cal 450, alk 8.3 dkH, mag 1330, pH 7.8, salinity 1.026. I used RODI water that reads 0 tds and ESV salt mix. 

My main concern right now is the ammonia spike. I understand this can be an urgent issue so I added some of my leftover Biospira that I had from when I cycled my tank (to reestablish any lost beneficial bacteria population). I also added a small dose (0.75 ml) of seachem prime (which i read can be helpful in situations when an ammonia spike occurs as it detoxifies ammonia and nitrite). 

Is there anything else I can do? I'm worried i'll lose my clownfish and corals, more specifically the new flurry ocellaris that I just got two days ago... Please leave your suggestions! Thanks!

[Garf]

Do you have a test to indicate it is amonia or nitrite? Food would have decayed since the two weeks you say you over fed the tank.  And if you vacuumed the sand bed, most of the detrius and bad stuff would have been siphoned off.  How is your flow? Is it possible they need oxygen? What about temp? Do another water change if you are worried about a spike, it can't hurt. 

 

You have a very small volume of water, so stable params are key. Always test params of new saltwater mix, and after a water change. If you havn't been monitoring them (a notebook will do, or use a simple spreadsheet), then it is a good thing to test prior to a change,  your new salt mix, and after a change so you establish a baseline.  Then testing new mix and after a water change can show any trends or deviations in your target params.  At a minimum, monitor temp, salinity and alk always at each water change. Remember, alk.ca.mg are tied together, and alk, being the larger part of the equation can stand in for mg and ca. The point is don't assume, with the data, you have all you need to find answers to the problems that can arise.

 

Your tank is barely established, it could still need some more time to handle the bio load you are tossing at it. Slow down, let the cyano come and go, check your light cycle and keep up the maintenance. 

[reeferehab]

8 minutes ago, Garf said:

Do you have a test to indicate it is amonia or nitrite? Food would have decayed since the two weeks you say you over fed the tank.  And if you vacuumed the sand bed, most of the detrius and bad stuff would have been siphoned off.  How is your flow? Is it possible they need oxygen? What about temp? Do another water change if you are worried about a spike, it can't hurt. 

 

You have a very small volume of water, so stable params are key. Always test params of new saltwater mix, and after a water change. If you havn't been monitoring them (a notebook will do, or use a simple spreadsheet), then it is a good thing to test prior to a change,  your new salt mix, and after a change so you establish a baseline.  Then testing new mix and after a water change can show any trends or deviations in your target params.  At a minimum, monitor temp, salinity and alk always at each water change. Remember, alk.ca.mg are tied together, and alk, being the larger part of the equation can stand in for mg and ca. The point is don't assume, with the data, you have all you need to find answers to the problems that can arise.

 

Your tank is barely established, it could still need some more time to handle the bio load you are tossing at it. Slow down, let the cyano come and go, check your light cycle and keep up the maintenance. 

I used an API test kit to test the ammonia which came out to be .25 ppm. I know the api test kit is innaccurate so I have a seachem ammonia badge as a backup. The badge also showed a slight raise in ammonia. 
 

I’ve been keeping my parameters pretty stable since I’ve started my cycle and have actually run tests as you suggested before and after each water change and whenever I mix up a new batch of saltwater. Calcium stays consistent between 440-460, alk is always 8.3 or 8.6 when I test it, magnesium stays between 1330-1380. Salinity is maintained with a duetto ATO. Temperature actually stays consistent as I keep the room cool with an AC and have a 75W heater in the rear chamber. I havent seen the temp fluctuate past 78-79 degrees. 
 

Flow in the tank is good at 30x turnover via the return pump and a random flow generator, I’m really trying to stay away from adding an additional powerhead to a tank so small. The flow is good but there is one spot of really low flow in a small cave in the middle of the tank where some of the detritus settles which I siphon weekly. 
 

My belief is that by stirring up the sandbed (I thoroughly siphoned about 80% during that water change) I may have disturbed the beneficial bacteria that was colonizing on the substrate thus causing a spike? I’ve read through other posts that this could happen. 

 

[Tamberav]

The bacteria in the sand bed are fine... If ammonia is an issue it is because you did not touch the sand bed since set up which is basically sweeping the nasty stuff under rug.

 

A sand bed should be siphoned or stirred with weekly water changes.

 

Remember people run bare bottoms and your tank is not a deep sand bed. Shallow sand beds need to be cleaned regularly. If left unattended for long periods... they should be cleaned in sections depending how gross it is.

 

It sounds like you perhaps did too much at once with an icky sand bed so enough probably escaped into the water column.

 

Be careful to not cause a bacteria bloom... Dosing bacteria + extra organics can lead to a bloom in which case you want to be sure the water is well oxygenated if that happens.