NH3 Levels

[tyrfing]

Just checked my system today. 75 gallon SW setup, 60 lbs live sand, 60 live rock, big cleaning crew, antennata lion, 3 damsels, 3 clowns. 2 Huge anenomes, 3 feather dusters, mantis shrimp, peppermint shrimp.
Water seemed kind of cloudy so I did the water checks. PH is 8.2 (normally it was 8.4 steady), alklinity is between normal and high but the NH3 levels were .40.
Any suggestions?
Set this up with a friend and the LFS, I'm afraid I may have put fish in before the tank cycled (just started on this BB 2 weeks ago). Should I do a change or let the cycle go? Only other problem is brown growth on the bottom. Think it's diatoms but no one in the cleaning crew is touching it.
Help!

 

[mrmaroon]

the brown growth is diatons. As the nitrite falls the grown will be replaced by green algae. How long has your tank

wn up? If you are still getting diatoms you definately added way too many fish. And most people do not keep anemone until the tank is around 9 months old. Hopefully, you have not lost anyhting yet. I would check you amonis and nitrite. If they are high. YOU definatley need to be doinf more water changes thatn you normally might.

 

[fshhub]

how long has your tank been up and ho lwong did you cycle it before adding livestock, it probaly is still cycling, if this is the case, water changes may save your fish(doubtfully the anemones), but may not allow your cycle to complete,
IMO anemones should only be attempted by those with alot of experienc, they have alife span greater than ours, but rarely make it a year in tanks of even 5 year and better vets
I would get the anemones out and take them back to the lfs, in hopes of saving their lives, and hope your fish survive, if it is still cycling,
I would get the anemones out in any case, if you get them back alive, you may also be able to get credit for later use, because they not only won't survive a cycle, but can't stand hardly any nitrite or nitrate levels at all
I know you want your tank to flourish, but the best way to do this is go slow, and look at an empty tank for a while
also are you using a skimmer
this sounds alot like what our lfs put us through, going too fast for the system..... it eventually destroyed my system completely

 

[tyrfing]

fshhub:
Thanks, that's what I was looking for. Anenomes will just be lost at this point, I ordered them online. Wasn't too happy with them anyway, they are absolutely huge even though I ordered smaller ones (didn't come from SWF.com just to let everyone know). So at this point am I screwed? Do I just let the cycle continue or attempt water changes and struggle with it? Is my livestock lost? How long should I let it cycle before adding livestock?
Tank has a protein skimmer (boy are those things disgusting!) and has been up for 2 months. Obviously things went too quickly, but I'm wondering about my options. Thanks

 

[mrmaroon]

You know the cycle is done when you no longer have amonia and nitrate for sure and when mitrate is low (around 10ppm or less). If you want your fish to live you should be doing water changes. I hope you are using someting better than tap water. Have you tested your water? If not and you do not have akit, take it to the LFS and have them test it for you.

 

[tyrfing]

mattjtitus:
No, I'm not using tap water. I go to the local grocery store and get about 3 gallons of RO H2O and mix the salt, let it sit for a week, then add. I have about 10 gallons sitting by. So if I continue to change water, will I never get the cycle completed? I just want to try and understand the process. Right now there is about 48 actual gallons of water in the tank so doing 6 gallons a week -10 days is actually a 12% change. Any hope here? Thanks for everthing.
null

 

[mrmaroon]

THe cycle will continue to run even if you are changing water. It has more to do with the bacteria levels repsonding to changes in ammonia which will turn into nitrite and then nitrate. I would but abook and read about it.

 

[tyrfing]

mattjtitus:
Thanks, that's what I needed. Unfortunately I have about a half dozen books, and they all say something slightly different. Your explanation about the bacteria helps. Did a 10% water change, got rid of the 2 anenomes and everything is crystal clear. Ammonia fell to .15 so that's a big improvement. Only trouble is, the antennata lion seems to have cloudy eyelids now. Everyone else is fine, going to watch him before I quarantine him. Most people on this board indicate that cloudy eye can be due to changing water conditions. Thanks!

 

[karlas]

yea your tank probably didn't finish cycling. ammonia can cause cloudines in the tank. the cycling always goes ammonia, nitrites, nitrates those are the things you should check also (very imoortant) water changes may slow down the cycle,every time i did a water change (because the lfs said so) i was actually starting the cycle over. also you overstocked to quick when stocking a good rule to go by is add 1 or 2 fish then wait a couple a weeks for your bio load to straighten out. and you said you have a mantis shrimp (not good) they are highly efficient predators. there are 2 kinds spearers and hammerers the spearers use their claws to

[hr]
fish, the other ones hammer on clams and snails and smash them
here is a link for starting an aquarium explains the cycling process to
starting a new tank
here is one on mantis shrimps
mantis shrimp
hope everything works out for u