Ammonia rising in established tank

[amandadee]

Hi guys,
I've had my 29 gal FO tank set up for over a year, with two percula clowns and a large hermit crab. My sand is about 1" deep, I have a HOB filter and protein skimmer and 130w PC's. About a month ago, I added a couple xenia frags that were "weeded out" from my brother's tank, attached to a few small pieces of his live rock. Since the xenia hasn't really flourished in my tank compared to his, I poked around and found out that they like to have a pH around 8.3. When I took a little of my water to the LFS to test the pH, I found out that I have small amounts of ammonia, nitrites and nitrate! What could this be from? Die-off from the live rock, maybe? Any suggestions other than a quick water change? Thanks. ***)

 

[angelsrock]

there's lots of things you can do, but it is possible the lr had some die off when transported. the only way to get rid of ammonia is to do water changes and clean. you might want to stir up the sand and then gravel vac. to prevent ammonia you can be on the look out for dead fish, rotting food if you feed too much, clean your filters and protein skimmer, or do small water changes once a week.

 

[amandadee]

Would cleaning up a cyano bloom cause it? I just recently had to put the turkey baster into action because of all the red algae, and adjusted my lighting schedule down a notch. This knocked out the cyano, but would it have caused a little ammonia spike?

 

[angelsrock]

it's very unlikely that the cyano being wiped out would cause this. you know you can buy this stuff at the store that is meant for exactly that, cyano destroyer aka red slime destroyer.