Mistake after mistake..?

if you have that much ammonia it says somethings out ... your tanks not cycled. your either adding things to fast, or doing to many water changes on a new tank. adding these store chemicals that aren't natural based are a bad idea. they throw you further out of whack ... my recommendation would be to add some live bacteria. there are many out there. bacter7 is easy to find and works well also products from TLC work well as does micro lift special blend. try to stay a natural as you can its the key

 

I got it completely cycled. She had it running for years. And the peppermint shrimp can wait? And I should just let it sit for a couple weeks? Alright. This is all new information haha.

 

I would wait on the pepermint shrimp just so it dosent have a chance of dieing on you since your levels are not quite right yet. I would however make sure you not going through minie cycle and give it a few weeks to see if the tank dosent fix its self so to speak.

also what if any fish do you have in the tank?

 

do not cook your live rock! it will send your tank threw another mini cycle . you will have die off in your tank when you add it back to the tank is why it will set off another mini cycle.

 

you say this tank was running and you took it over. did you move it? if so... if all the sand and rocks was moved your worse off starting a tank. you would have all the old debris in those things. most throw the sand out, when taking over a new tank or wash it, in my mind washing it is not recommended. i feel the live bacteria will help you.

try this route, you will be glad you did

 

I say stay the course at this point. If you like the look of the live rock then slow down your roll on the water changes (10 percent water change once a week) and wait it out. I would monitor your ammonia levels and when they drop move onto nitrates etc. This process could take up to 6 weeks. If the ammonia goes away quickly, think about adding a cocktail shrimp or something to continue adding small amounts of ammonia to build up the levels of beneficial bacteria. Once it is cycled then you can think about adding fish etc. Take your time and don;t over worry when the tank is cycling, you will likely have some spikes and algae outbreaks. Get rid of the aptasia now!

 

get some joes juice and inject the aptasia

 

and be prepared to do it again and again. Genocide is ok in this instance =-)

 

have you tested your water? tap water I mean, sometimes that can add to it too

 

After reading all the advice everyone else has given I will offer something a little different. You mentioned that the tank has been up and going for years before you got it. How old is the test kit? Old test kits (more then 1 year) can give you false readings. Also, what kind of test kit is it? I would suggest taking a water sample to a LFS and have it tested.

Secondly, what water are you using for you water changes? I highly recommend only using RO or RO/DI water only. You can even buy a RO system for your home. You never know what exactly could be in your water you are using if you are using tap water.

Good luck to you. I usually don't do water changes until Ammonia and Nitrite levels are at zero and even then I only do roughly 10% every other week. I also don't run a protein skimmer right now either.