Help, restarted my nitrogen cycle?!!! Lethargic fish.

[Saltwaternoobie]

I cleaned my canister filter for the first time last week and immediately experienced an ammonia spike after this of .25ppm ,  I didn’t know cleaning the filter and tank should be done at separate times… when I cleaned the tank I took out a good amount of sand, some artificial plants and I did take out rock work to capture the wrasse. should’ve done more research I believe I removed too much beneficial bacteria and restarted my cycle smh. I’ve managed to get the spike under control and parameters have been good for 2 days now, I’ve been dosing prime and stability. But one of my clowns hasn’t been eating and is muttering rapidly(opening and closing mouth they’ve always done this but it is fast paced now) he also seems lethargic and not as active as usual. I recently also removed my 6line wrasse  and reorganized the landscape. Is this just stress or could he be sick? 

[Tired]

The bulk of your beneficial bacteria should be living on your rock. Unless you scrubbed or otherwise cleaned your rocks, I'd guess that the ammonia spike is from something nasty being released somewhere, not from damage to the bio-filter. Especially if you haven't seen it spike since. 

 

A clownfish that's muttering rapidly is probably not a clownfish. If you meant "fluttering", that, the lethargic behavior, and the not eating do sound like something is wrong. Could be damage from the ammonia, could be stress. 

[Saltwaternoobie]

I did pull the rocks out to capture the wrasse I consigned, could that have killed some bacteria? I meant muttering because clownfish move their mouths like they are talking but he’s doing it a faster pace now. 

[Tamberav]

How did you clean the canister?

 

Taking the rock out should not matter unless for long periods. 
 

Disturbing debris can sometimes cause issues. 

[Saltwaternoobie]

I added two new sponges and rinsed the old ones, I did that with RO water, I didn’t rinse the bio media only with the canister water. Then dumped out the canister water and rinsed canister with RO water as well.

[Tamberav]

It doesn't sound like anything crazy was done. My guess is it was just a lot of stuff getting disturbed in a newer tank. Perhaps some debris. 

 

I can't see anything in the photos with the fish but it sounds like he was having some issues prior? odd opening ald closing compared to the other? 

[MinnFish]

How old or long has the sand been in the tank? How long has the tank been up and running? How much sand was removed and what was the condition? 

[brandon429]

No ammonia spike happens even if you remove the canister filter and never put it back. T is correct, causing suspended organics by cleaning can easily foul the reading slightly. 

 

.25 is what most full running reefs report anyway, so it can't all of a sudden be bad here. Look at the degree of live rock and dilution to bioload in that tank...the canister filter is merely extra bacteria but they're not the core needed bacteria. expendable.

 

 

your fish and animals acted fine start to finish: that means cycle held.

 

 

*just last week a poster in Randy's forum on R2R posted a snippet from the president of Red Sea testing stating that two common amino acids can cause misreads on red sea kits. that's happening here above, an interference not actually ammonia. on seneye this tank would have never broke its .00x stride with a canister cleaning.

[Saltwaternoobie]

The fish were deteriorating, my 3 hermit crabs died. I started up a quarantine tank and did a 50% water change on main set up. I introduced the fish back in the main set up after three days and clowns are doing well now as well as fire fish. I unfortunately lost my three hermi crabs though. Not sure exactly what happened my best guess is the ammonia spike.