Ammonia down

[mlt]

Finally my ammonia level is down-now nitrites over the top. How long will the tries stay high? Both ammonia and trires have been over the top for over a week-10 days but as of yesterday the ammonia has dropped to .25. I crashed my first tank full of livestock for some reason (still haven't figured out why) so this is the second time around. The brown "stuff" is all over the glass on both sides. Should I scrap it off and do a water change or just wait longer? I do have some white patches on my LR-will this come back again or is it dead for good? Will coralin algea grow back over it? How long before I can add a clean up crew? I have a CBS-cleaner shrimp and a horseshoe crab that has lived through everything. I am going to leave the tank empty of fish for atleast 2 more weeks (total of 4 weeks) since I don't know why all my other fish died. This time around I have a QT and I am going to use it! I figure if I get a couple of fish and put them in the QT that my main tank will be ready by the time the fish finish their time in QT. Is this the right way to do it?

 

[birdy]

I would say it sounds like things are going normal, I sure do wish we could figure out why your tank crashed though. Wait out the rest, you don't want to add anything until all levels are clear, 0 ammonia,0nitrites, below 40nitrates. Then I would do a large water change, 30%. Get all your levels back in line pH, alk, Ca. then you can add a cleanup crew, your corralline will grow back. If you have your lights on you could cut them way back to try to keep the algae growth to a minimum.

 

[beaslbob]

I agree it sounds normal. nitrItes should come down shortly with a no fish tank.
the brown stuff is algae which is feeding off the phosphates. They trun to green as phosphates are reduced.
To prevent or at least control the algae, I recommend you add all the plant life you can. This will additionally will reduce the time it takes for the ammonia and nitrItes to come down. And in the process nitrAtes will be reduces hopefully to 0.0
Finally I totally agree to run the tank fishless for at least three weeks.