High ammonia

[tess&ellie]

Anyone had this problem i came home from vacation and one of my clowns was dead I had a sitter but too much food My fault. I changed the water and then i bought so additional "CURED" rock and my ammonia is off the charts i have changed water and added amquel plus. OK off to get water for another change i did a 30% and a 20% can anyone help me with this problem I have had my tank running for a year.

25 gallon bio cube

every thing tested good except ammonia and my ph a bit low

THANKS

[Sugar Magnolia]

There's not much you can do other than water changes and wait it out.

[scherzo]

Did anything else die? Something might be hiding behind a rock somewhere decaying... which also will help the ammonia spike along..

good luck

[tess&ellie]

Hi Thanks just did a 15 gallon water chgange and still very high i am sure it is the additional live rock i added {like a fool} I am going to get more water and try again any suggestions i would appreciate

[TheBends]

Did you re-aquascape when you added the live rock? Did the new rock just go on top of old rock or did you plop it down in the sand?

If the latter, I would be concerned about trapping stuff under the rock... Just food for thought.

[davskee]

was the new live rock cured?

[tess&ellie]

Holly Cr-p I had to go out and buy a 12 gallon tank today added half new water and half the old water and i managed to save my fish and corals so far so good. I have learned a very expensive lesson do not add a whole pile of "cured" rock to an established tank what a mess. My old rock was full of brissel worms so i thought i would replace the rock as i did not like the set up i had what a mistake. i have only been in salt water for just under a year and it has cost me a lot of money and stress I have a 25 galllon tank so when things go wrong they really go bad fast. Thank you all for you help I am back in the cyclye stage again.

[Cloudburst2000]

Did you just add the new rock or did you take out some of the old rock too? You were talking about replacing rock in the last post. If you actually took out some of the old rock, then you probably removed a large section of you biological filtration which would cause your tank to go into another cycle.

[MarineBioMel]

Yikes! Too much change too fast for a nano tank! Good lesson learned though. Don't get frustrated. I've never had to use it, but there are pads that absorb ammonia that you might try. Ditto on the removal of your established biological filtration when you changed out the live rock. Also, even when live rock has been cured, when you move it around or put it in a new system, you change the flow dynamics and the chemistry of the microenvironment in different areas inside and on the rock. Some critters - sponges, tunicates, bryozoans, etc. - won't like this change and will die even if the rock was previously stable. Make sense? Good luck!