damn water

ok, yesterday.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 80
PH 8.0
Magnesium 1300
calcium 440
Phosphates -0
alkalinity 2+
KH 179
Salinity 1.025

Ok, needless to say Nitrates threw me into a panic so I did a big water change assuming something was dead in the tank somewhere (never did find it) took out the ceramic media rinsed and put back in.

re-tested today

ammonia .50
nitrite .25
nitrate damn near 0
PH 8.0

What the Hell?

could I have done something bad by cleaning the crud of the ceramic media?

I'm going to re-test in the morning since tonights test was in the afternoon and yesterday was late morning but damn I thought I was done some good re-testing the nitrates then tested the rest for S&G and yikes.

 

What size is your tank, and how much sand and rock do you have?

Allowing the ceramic media to get "cruddy" was definitely raising your nitrates. However, cleaning all of it at once, especially if done improperly, will kill the bacteria on it, therefore causing an ammonia spike- IOW, another cycle. If you have sufficient LR, you can do without the ceramic.

You should consider another WC to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels as low as possible.

 

29Gallons

Couple inches on the sandbed and probably 40 lbs of rock

That's exactly what I feared. I rinsed the ceramic media in cold water and it sat out for 3-4 minutes out of water while I was moving things around.

 

With 2 inches of sand and 40lbs LR, you really don't need it at all. Now would be the perfect time to remove it and let the sand and rock take over.

 

do you think that rinse on the media started another cycle?

All I have for filtration now is LR and Sand and one pre-filter as I had already taken the bioballs out of chamber 2 and replaced it with more LR and a mangrove.

 

That's what it looks like. Your sand and LR are already seeded, so it should take a week, maybe less, to recover. Just keep a close eye on ammonia and nitrite and perform water changes as necessary to keep them as low as possible. And as I said before, you have plenty of LR in the DT; you really don't need anything in the sump that requires extra maintenance.

 

Well wish me luck, I'll update the thread as I progress. ran out of water tonight have to go pick some up in the a.m.

biggest fear is that I just killed my two new additions with all these water issues.

goby & pistol have not seen either all day.

 

It will start a mini cycle

 

Agreed! K+

 

Are you running a skimmer? Maybe a good idea to run a little carbon if you can. I'd also cut back on feeding for a couple of week as well..