false cycle?

[clarki]

My tank was doing just fine and I decided it looked pretty grimey and cleaned it.... a little too much I'm afraid. I cleaned the overflow box inside and out.. including the tubes and then the protein skimmer and then I scraped the side of the tank all around and then I changed the bags of nitrifying stuff inside the sump.... (obviously I wasn't thinking clearly)
anyway... then I did a water change... yikes!~
SO... suddenly my ammonia and nitrites have spiked out of this world.... I did another water change... and the next day still outrageously high.. so I went to my lfs and he told me to do another water changed (60gal. tank so 12gal changes each time)
Then he had me add
Cycle, and Prime.... in double doses... then he told me to wait 1 week before I do anything else and to bring him water to test at the end of that time... he said I cleaned too much and caused a false cycle....
Do you guys agree???
Do I really just sit back and wait for a week now??
I've already lost a few corals and a brittle star.... fish seem fine... but how much will I lose? ADVICE????
:help: :help: :help:

 

[littlebuck]

How long has the tank been up in the 1st place?

 

[clarki]

I had a 29 gal. up for about a year.. then I moved on nov. 1st and upgraded it to a 60 gal. so it has been up now for about 6 weeks in this new tank... I moved all the original water and didn't clean anything at the time of the move... I did go through a week of spikes but it had been stable for about 3 weeks now... so I thought it was safe to clean it... but probably too much cleaning?

 

[littlebuck]

well i would say so also when u did the upgrade did u add new LR or any more sand and also you had to add about 30 more gallons of water. But cleaning it could have done it but i dont think it would have done that much but never know. Hope everything works out well adn it dosent do it again.