Ammonia and Nitrate levels question

[pmac85]

Hi, I'm not sure which section I should be putting this in, but anyways, here goes.
I've been starting a new tank recently, and I've just started adding fish. I cycled it for about 6 months with just live rock and sand. Through the whole cycling process my water parameters were as follows:
pH = 8.4
NH3 = 0
NO2 = 0
NO3 = 5
Gravity = 1.022
Over the past 3 weeks I've added 10 Blue legged Hermits, 1 Sand Sifting Star, 1 Brittle Star, 1 Volitan Lionfish, 1 Onespot Foxface Rabbitfish, and 1 Regal Blue Tang.
I've been feeding a mixture of Green seaweed, brine shrimp and krill.
After checking my water parameters today I've noticed an ammonia and nitrate spike.
NH3 = about 0.50
N03 = 20ppm
My other parameters have remained the same.
Is this something that I should be worried about at this point? If so, what can I do to get these levels back down?
Thanks,
Patrick

 

[pezenfuego]

What are you testing with? Having any ammonia is a big issue. It could be due to the fact that you have stressed your bioload. How much rock do you have? You should do a water change regardless (if you haven't already).

 

[geoj]

Originally Posted by PMac85
http:///forum/post/3248593
Over the past 3 weeks I've added 10 Blue legged Hermits, 1 Sand Sifting Star, 1 Brittle Star, 1 Volitan Lionfish, 1 Onespot Foxface Rabbitfish, and 1 Regal Blue Tang.
This sounds like you added too much to fast. Six months is a long cycle, but when you add a fish the bio-filter has to grow out to meet the new waste load. So what I do is add one fish and wait for the waste numbers to come back to normal. If you had been ghost feeding every day a small amount so the bio-filter would grow then when you add fish you get less of a waste hit, but I don’t do this it just seems like more work to me. By adding one fish and waiting you will know when you added more fish then your filter will handle because the waste number will not come back down.

 

[pmac85]

I'm going to do a water change shortly, I'm just waiting on getting my vac back from a friend of mine. But other than that, is there something else I could do to help get the ammonia levels down? Also, what about my Nitrate levels? It seems like 20ppm is awful high. What should I aim for as far as Nitrate goes? and what can I do to achieve this?
Thanks

 

[geoj]

Tell us more about your tank set-up. If you don’t have a skimmer I would buy one. If you can cut back on your feeding that would help. For nitrate undetectable or 0.9ppm is a good goal. You can add live rock to 1 lb per gallon if it would sill work to your liking. Macro algae will use up some nitrates. You have two bio-filters one converts ammonia and nitrite to nitrate this need oxygen. The other bio-filters converts nitrate to nitrogen that leaves the tank this need low to no oxygen.

 

[pmac85]

I've got a 90 gallon tank, and my skimmer is rated for 300 gallons, I've got it in a 20 gallon sump that I made. Right now I've only got 40 lbs of rock in the tank, but I'm going to add another 60-65 pounds as soon as I can afford to. My skimmer has a compartment where I can place a bag of filter media in the output section, is there something I should think about putting in there to help with ammonia? I've heard of Purigen by Seachem, but I've never talked to anyone that uses it, so I don't know much more than what I've read on the seachem site. Also, I plan on getting some cheato for my refugium on my next trip the the lfs

 

[beaslbob]

the algae on the live rock (and any macro algaes in a sump) will consume the ammonia directly and in the process consume less nitrates. So what can happen is you get little to no ammonia bump but an almost immediate spike in nitrates.
Then as aerobic bacteria build up and consume the ammonia, the algae will resume consuming nitrates because that is the only nitrogen source available. So after 3-4 weeks nitrates go down.
my .02

 

[pmac85]

Originally Posted by beaslbob
http:///forum/post/3249556
the algae on the live rock (and any macro algaes in a sump) will consume the ammonia directly and in the process consume less nitrates. So what can happen is you get little to no ammonia bump but an almost immediate spike in nitrates.
Then as aerobic bacteria build up and consume the ammonia, the algae will resume consuming nitrates because that is the only nitrogen source available. So after 3-4 weeks nitrates go down.
my .02
So, by this are you saying that I shouldn't be immediately worried about my ammonia and nitrate levels right now, and they should go back down after the tank balances out?

 

[beaslbob]

Originally Posted by PMac85
http:///forum/post/3249567
So, by this are you saying that I shouldn't be immediately worried about my ammonia and nitrate levels right now, and they should go back down after the tank balances out?

As long as the ammonia level is just barely measureable (or less)

[hr]
yes.
I would not do anything to increase the bioload like adding new fish or even adding food, until the ammonia levels are at the lowest possible measurement. I constantly get a .25 reading on my api ammonia test kit. Which does not seem to hurt anything.
I also prefer to add mcaro algae in a refugium to help things along. With chaetomorphia being my fav. (brillo pad).
my .02

 

[pmac85]

Thanks for the help beaslbob. Right now my ammonia is somewhere between .25 and .50, I'm using an API test kit as well. I wasn't sure what to think about my nitrates, because 20(+/-) ppm seemed pretty high to me. I'm definitely getting some chaeto soon though, and I guess I'll just have to wait and see how things go

 

[beaslbob]

Originally Posted by PMac85
http:///forum/post/3249610
Thanks for the help beaslbob. Right now my ammonia is somewhere between .25 and .50, I'm using an API test kit as well. I wasn't sure what to think about my nitrates, because 20(+/-) ppm seemed pretty high to me. I'm definitely getting some chaeto soon though, and I guess I'll just have to wait and see how things go
IME that's a little high for ammonia.
I think you will find the chaeto will be extremely beneficial. With amazing results.
my .02