massive ammonia spike over night

last night I tested the water at 10pm!
everything was fine.
ammonia was only a tiny bot above 0. not even enough to call 0.25
and nitrite and nitrate were both at 0.


but at some stage throughout the night between 12-7
the ammonia spiked and kill both fish. poor little guys.
But
my question is.
should I get ride of all that water or should I leave it in there so it can cycle it....

and would my live rock still be okay?

Thanks

 

how long has the tank been running?

 

how olds your tank what fish. need specs here

 

Do a 20% water change and continue testing every couple of days. When everything is zeros again add a CUC and wait 2 wks before you add any more fish. Your LR should be okay.

 

tanks been running a month, live rock added to the tank 24 days ago, and fish added last week.


I wasn't very happy with the set out of the tank....
can I go buy some more live rock to put in it while there are no fish so it had time to cure?
and the

pH was too low arounnd 7.8
weird thing Is I added buffer last night?!
at 10pm!

 

the water needs to balance before adding live rock, and cycle before adding fish or anything else. what were the fish?

 

clown and a blenny.
and test results are in.
ammonia - .25
nitrite - .25
nitrate - 10
and get this pH is 7.6!
but I added buffer last night to the tank to get the pH to 8.0?!
I don't get it!
there's barely any ammonia and nitrite.
could this be the work of a heavy metal?

 

thats still alot of ammonia and nitrate, how long did you have the fish before this?

 

Sounds like your tank is still cycling, your biological fiter was not established enough to handle your livestock. Dosn't help now, but only bad things happen fast in this hobby, better to wait to add livestock until your 100% your filter is established and then add slowly.

The low pH is probably from die-off. I wouldn't change the water. Let the cycle finish. If there is any livestock left though, I would remove it until the cycle is complete. The only possible good thing is the low pH should drive the ammonia to a less toxic form of ammonia called ammonium. This may help save some livestock, so, if you have any left, I probably would not try raising the pH until you remove the livestock.

 

add some live bacteria you can get it at your local fish store. it will cycle your tank over night. some of the die hard long time tank keepers dont believe in this. but i have used it and it works. twice now.... my tank had fish in it the second day both times. and yes they lived and readings were where they should be.
i used start smart by TLC