55 gallong saltwater tank question

[bradphish]

Hello everyone hope everyone is well. Well let¡¦s see here; first off I have a 55 gallon saltwater tank. Runny two whisper filters w/ammo carb and some fancy pre-made carbon bags. Anyways two power heads and an underground filter. 25 lbs of lr lots of substrate 6 inches. 2 bubble stones. It has been up for about 2 months now. Fish inventory 1 porcupine puffer 3 (peceula) clown fish 1 mandarin goby (green) 1 lemon peel angle. 1 wrasses (banana some sort of 7 inch Hawaiian. 1 yellow damsel. 1 long tentacle anemone and one mushroom. The lighting is one actinic blue strip and one 50/50.
My question is two days ago I did my 20% water change and added some new fish. After changing the water the water became cloudy (which I associate with bacterial bloom) and of course after testing everything the ammonia came up high .02. It has been two days now and I have cut back my feeding and added some amquel detoxifier which safely takes down ammonia levels without adversely affecting the nitrogen cycle. I have also added accu-clear which clumps bigger particles together to help clear the water (this has proven effective in the past). My question was is there any way to get my water crystal clear again and fast. I have kept my salinity very close when doing the water changes; right now it reads just a little high. The first night of this my fish were very sick. Porcupine puffer (frank Sinatra) (ole blue eyes!) was very sick and lost color. He has now come back nicely but is still lethargic. I would appreciate any suggestions and criticism possibleļ.

 

[tru conch]

if your ammonia has already started to rise, its going to continue to rise.
how many new fish did you add? imo you were already at your limit with your old fish. you might want to considering taking some of your livestock out of your tank.

 

[heavenly damsel]

You are way overstocked my friend. The rule of thumb is 1" of adult size fish per 5 gallons of tank size. Your ammonia is on the rise due to bio load. You have too many fish per gallon. IMO the amount of fish we can have is way to small, but more than that equals a tank crash, which is where you are headed if you keep going at this rate.

 

[jcb101]

I'm no expert, but I agree you have maxed out your tank, plus you are just now into the cycling. You might want to do a search on set ups and you may get some ideas. I have a 55 and a 29 no filters except lr and ls with skimmers. well the 29 actually has cc with ls covering. (some will complain about that) 55 has a clown, 2 damsels, yellow tang and a royal gamma assortment of hermits, snails, a fighting conch and a peppermint shimp. a number of mushrooms, a waving hand coral (not xenia) a yellow colony polyp. Tanks like mind have been up for 15 plus years. Mind has not but is running and has always run cystal clear. Long post sorry, but check out others on subject. Good luck keep asking questions, everyone on this board is willing to help..

 

[bradphish]

Thanks for all the advice i have done a couple of 25 percent water changes and the tank has once again become crystal clear. I am now wanting to swith to sand and take out my underground filter. Is this risky...what kind of sand do you recoment and how much. What method should I use to go about making this change.
Thanks for all the help
brad