amonia spike

[crenny]

starter my salt water tank about 4 monthes ago. after cycle, took 5 weeks. Ive only did about 5 gal water change every week to my 75 gal tank. Well hears the thing i just got my or/di unit and mixed up 15 gal. By now i had brown algae growing all over. So i cleaned my tank for the first time. I wiped all 4 sides clean, syphoned most of the crush coral, took the fake plants out cleand with bleach and water. And did the 15 gal water change. That was 24 hours ago. Now ive got amonia showing up at a level of .05 to .15. Now did i do to much cleaning at once are is this normal? Will the amonia keep climbing? To much water change? i dont know.

 

[ericholcek]

i hope you didnt get any bleach in your tank.....:scared: I wouldn't worry much. Your tank is fairly new. Did you add anything to your tank? Did anything die?

 

[bigarn]

BLEACH!............ :scared: :nope:

 

[crenny]

added 7lbs live rock about 1 week ago? people at fish store told me to clean plants with bleach and water. used ony small amount in a 5 gal bucket filled to the top and rinces every thing real good.

 

[debbie g]

I really don't know if bleach makes the ammonia shoot up or not, but when I had fake corals in my tank and when I would clean them with bleach, I'd have them in a bucket for weeks, changing the water every day to make sure no bleach was left on them. I think putting them back into the tank the same day was not a good idea.:nope:

 

[crenny]

5 fish one eel all seem fine?

 

[bigarn]

IMO get rid of the plants now and do a LARGE water change ASAP.

 

[big911dog]

i dont think the bleach would raise the ammonia, but if something died from the bleach, it may be overloading ur biofilter causing the ammonia.
i agree with bigarn!

 

[guru]

Bleach would not create the amonia spike since Bleach and Amonia generaly dont get along and produce a noxious gas. From Experiance; Don't use Bleach again especialy if you have live specimins in the tank.
TAKE YOUR TIME Amonia is a good thing for new tanks. It'll help the anerobic bacteria proliferate.
Every things going to be okay, add the LR or LS, cycle and enjoy.

 

[sly]

You can use bleach but you have to let your stuff sit in clean water for a week before you put it back in your tank.
Back when I used to bleach, I would let it sit in about 25% bleach solution for a day and then through the course of the week I would empty out the water in the container with fresh filtered water. I changed it daily.
I never had any problem doing this.
If you suspect poisoning in your tank, add some activated carbon in a filter sock. Do a water change as well.