Water problems

I just recently added a cleanup crew and some did not make it. The ones that did not make it were taken out. I did notice my urchin, zoas, polyps and anemone not looking as healthy as they usually do. I checked the parameters and found the ammonia and nitrate levels to be high. My question is how other than water changes is there anything else to do or be looking for. I am guessing the dying cleanup crew contributed to this. How much water and how often can this be done without causing anymore problems. Thanks for the help!

PARAMETERS (important)
Temperature: 76-78
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: .50
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Salinity: 1.025

Tank size? 90 gallon

Reef, fish only or, freshwater? Reef

Current inhabitants? What and how many? yellow and sailfin tang, 2 clowns, seabae anemone, urchin, yellow polyps, green zoas, 3 green chromis
Clean up crew? yes

How long has your tank been set-up? 2years

Substrate.
Type? sand
Depth? 1 to 2 inches

Live rock? yes
How much? 60 pounds
Did you recently add some? no

Filtration.
Type? wet /dry
Protein skimmer? yes
Do you wet or dry skim? dry
Maintenance schedule for filtration? clean every other week
Drilled tank/hang on back overflow? drilled
Sump/refugium. What's in it and how much? sump

Lighting.
Lighting type? halide
Age of bulbs? 8 months

Feeding
What? frozen brine shrimp
How much? 1 cube
How often? every other day

Water change schedule.
How much? 10 gallons
How often? every other week
What salt brand? red sea
Water source? ro/di

 

How strange. A 2 year old tank has ammonia in it. Something major must have happened for ammonia to appear in a tank that mature.
What it was i do not, however i do know now that your anemone has been exposed to ammonia, its only a matter of time before it dies. You should take it out asap before it makes things worse.

 

I would add carbon to your tank for awhile, continue to monitor your water and its inhabitants and continue water changes. Make sure that you don't over correct things too quickly or you end up overcompensating and have other problems.
Make sure that all the dead animals have been successfully been removed and don't add anything else till the tank has been rectified!
Best of luck!

 

How many critters have died? To get that much nh3 in a 90 gal tank take more than just a snail or two to croak. Also you could do a 20% W/C instead of a 10% and see if that helps dillute the NH3 a bit. Like Coral reefer stated, DON'T go gung ho and make the situation worse, BUT a 20% W/C is still safe enough to not be overdoing it.

Good luck and keep looking for any remaining dead critters!

 

I agree with Phoenix - The NO3 is probably the issue.

I also agree with Reefer. Look to see if there is something dead in there that you've missed.

If I had a .5 reading on Ammonia I would do a 25% water change.

 

I guess the NO3 would be the cause of an algae outbreak as well?

 

the ann is due to the death of the inverts, you probably missed some. alot of inverts are sensitive to the iodine levels.
what is your Ca, Mg, dKH, I?
bump up your skimmer up to get more out of the water.
other parameters: PO4, Si? rowaphos or seachem gel type would help.
then when you get a chance check Sr, K, B?

 

I think ALW meant NH3, not NO3.

 

Are you having an algae outbreak as well? Didn't see that in original post.

 

There is more than usual...started about a week or so ago.