Water testing

[jstdv8]

I just bought a SW wet up and I'm not sure how to deal with the testing levels.
its a 90 gallon tank with live rock (about 50 LB's) about 2" of live sand 3 hermit crabs and a lion fish thats about 8" long.
I just set the tank up after I bought it from a previous owner adn i tested the water today (3rd day set up) and my PH is 7.8 ammonia is 1.0 nitrate and nitrite =0
I understand that the 1.0 is high for ammonia and that it will turn into bacteria and the other levels will probably come up. When I did the move I got all of his water and brought it home in rubbermaid totes all 90 gallons. I was told not to set up the skimmer for a while so I could let the bacteria grow in the tank. so I left that off.
The kicker is that 3 days before I was to go purchase the tank his urchin bit nto the wire on one of the power heads and popped the breaker and when he got home from work (4 days at work, which is why he sold the tank) and the water temp was 70 and the urchin and a bunch of the hermits were dead. 3 hermits and the lionfish survived. he did a big water change and we let it sit for 2 days before I came to ge the tank so the lion wouldnt get over stressed from all the stuff hed been through.
So, my first test has the 7.8 PH and the 1.0 ammonia levels and Im worried about the fish. stuff I read say that ammonia can kill if its that high and Im not really sure what the PH should read.
What do you guys think I should do, let it go and see what happens or move the lion to the pet store? or what?
Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[lion_crazz]

I would do a 20% water change ASAP. You will need to do it with reverse osmosis water and make sure the specific gravity is whatever you are currently keeping the tank.
You have to get the ammonia and nitrite to a solid 0. Anything higher and the fish could be dead. The pH needs to read between 8.0 and 8.4

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by lion_crazz
http:///forum/post/3163264
I would do a 20% water change ASAP. You will need to do it with reverse osmosis water and make sure the specific gravity is whatever you are currently keeping the tank.
You have to get the ammonia and nitrite to a solid 0. Anything higher and the fish could be dead. The pH needs to read between 8.0 and 8.4
+1

 

[ashleigh234]

Im in a similar scenario ... i brought a tank that has a few corals and mushrooms and a range of things, and 8 fish, a cucumber, and an urchin (and a baby urchin) and it got set up and all running at 3am (im in australia, so its been going for 10hrs approx so far) and I just did water tests and ammonia is between 0 and 0.25, and Nitrates are on 20
We couldnt take all of the water with us as its a 320L (75-80 gallon) and we ran out of containers so had to make up more water at home. We would have put just over half in the tank of the original water.
We cleaned the sand out slightly (with the a bit of remaining salt water in the tank) so as not to have too much dirt in it as i heard that could be bad when setting it up again
PH and Nitrites are perfect, PH 8.2 and Nitrite at 0 as it should be.
the fish all look happy and are moving all round the tank and eating fine (except for the foxface who doesnt like change, he hid for a couple of days last time it was moved as well approx 6mths ago)
Does it sound like the tank may try and cycle again, or should i just keep an eye on it. i cant really do a water change as we have already put a lot of new water in there, so the more of the old stuff we take out the worse of we will be?

 

[jstdv8]

I retested the water with a higher end kit and it says the PH is 8.0 but it agreed with the cheap kit that the ammonia is at 1.0. So I got teh R.O. running and im mixing up some new water. I dotn have any salt yet and the stores are closed so I'll get some in the AM. Should I see a pretty instant decrease in teh ammonia once the change is complete or does it take a bit and am I looking for perfect numbers right away or just better numbers that I have right now?

 

[twood]

Originally Posted by Jstdv8
http:///forum/post/3163365
Should I see a pretty instant decrease in teh ammonia once the change is complete or does it take a bit and am I looking for perfect numbers right away or just better numbers that I have right now?
If you do a 20% water change, you will probably see a 20% reduction in the ammonia level. So your next test will probably show around 0.8.
You want to get ammonia and nitrite both to 0. You want to do this as fast as possible because both are toxic to your fish and will kill them. I would recommend doing 20% water changes daily or every other day until the ammonia and nitrite is 0.
Something else you can do that would help a LOT would be to add more CURED live rock to you tank. Live rock contains lots of nitrifying bacteria that break down ammonia and nitrites. Cured means the rock has been kept in circulating salt water for several weeks or more allowing it to grow nitrifying bacteria. You said you have 50 lbs of live rock in a 90 gallon tank. Most recommendations for live rock I have seen suggest putting 1 to 1 1/2 lbs times the number of gallons the tank holds. In your case that would be 90 - 135 lbs. I suggest trying to get at least another 40 lbs of cured live rock to put in the tank as soon as possible. If you do, bring some buckets filled about 1/3 full of tank water to carry the rocks in. You want to keep them wet (preferably submerged) when transporting them. If you don't, they will dry out and the organisms living in the rock will die off and produce even more ammonia which will make your situation much worse.
Hope this helps.

 

[twood]

One more thing I want to add. You tank is cycling. Meaning that it is having to grow (or re-grow) nitrifying bacteria that can break down ammonia and nitrites. It does this in phases. The first phase is to grow bacteria that break down ammonia into nitrites. Once this starts to happen the ammonia levels go down and nitrite levels go up. Which starts the second phase. Growth of bacteria that break nitrites down into nitrates. As that starts to happen, nitrites go go down and nitrates go up. Nitrates can be lowered through weekly water changes.
In your tank, as the ammonia level decreases, you will see the nitrite level increase. So be watching for this. Nitrites are also toxic to fish. So you need to keep the water changes going until the nitrite level goes down to zero.

 

[twood]

Originally Posted by Ashleigh234
http:///forum/post/3163289
Im in a similar scenario ... i brought a tank that has a few corals and mushrooms and a range of things, and 8 fish, a cucumber, and an urchin (and a baby urchin) and it got set up and all running at 3am (im in australia, so its been going for 10hrs approx so far) and I just did water tests and ammonia is between 0 and 0.25, and Nitrates are on 20
We couldnt take all of the water with us as its a 320L (75-80 gallon) and we ran out of containers so had to make up more water at home. We would have put just over half in the tank of the original water.
We cleaned the sand out slightly (with the a bit of remaining salt water in the tank) so as not to have too much dirt in it as i heard that could be bad when setting it up again
PH and Nitrites are perfect, PH 8.2 and Nitrite at 0 as it should be.
the fish all look happy and are moving all round the tank and eating fine (except for the foxface who doesnt like change, he hid for a couple of days last time it was moved as well approx 6mths ago)
Does it sound like the tank may try and cycle again, or should i just keep an eye on it. i cant really do a water change as we have already put a lot of new water in there, so the more of the old stuff we take out the worse of we will be?
I think you are ok. Your ammonia levels are probably up from having stirred up dead organic matter that was down in the sand. Keep testing your water daily for the next week or so to see if the ammonia level gets better or worse.