Moved tank and now nitrates out of control

[juissed]

Tank Setup:

55gallon
4 x 65w power compact 50/50s
aquapro 125 wet/dry with one layer blue media, liverock, sponge (no bioballs)
aquapro seastorm 250 skimmer w/ rio 600+
powersweep 180gph powerhead
koralia 425gph powerhead
return is a rio 2100 (692gph) to a single outlet


I adopted the tank from a friend. We moved it on friday night. I used about 35gal of the old tanks water and then (tested 0 across the board) saltwater from my LFS.

The old setup was glass bottom. I added a 1-3" bed of fiji pink + a few cups of livesand from my nano.

Phosphates were a little high yesterday, but are in check since the addition of some extrax phos. (what I use on my nano)


Livestock:
3x oscellaris (one is an orphan, soon to go to another tank)
4x green chromis
1x tiny blue hippo
1x watchman goby
1x pistol shrimp
3x peppermint shrimp
4x giant snails (mex turbos or something another)
12x+ random hermits


coral is all looking good, opened up.. Corals include GSP, 10"+ brain, athenia, bunch of zoas, frogspawn, neon candy canes, pipe organs.. typical stuff.

Did a water test today...
Nitrates 150+ ppm :hmm4:
Ammonia was 0.25
Nitrites 0
PH 7.8
Phosphates 1.0


I checked and the skimmer was not bubbling.. so i cleaned the powerhead / air hose for it and it's now working. I'm going to do a 10% change tonight and vac whatever detritus from the sand I can.

Any tips? I'm hearing talk about vodka or sugar dosing.. but should I wait this one out since the tank was just setup?

[SushiGirl]

9 fish in a 55 is a lot, and the Blue Hippo will soon outgrow the tank.
I wouldn't start vodka or sugar dosing just yet (once you start, you're pretty much committed to keeping it up or weaning off slowly), you probably just went through a mini-cycle due to the move. Did you rinse the rock in saltwater or clean your wet/dry media or anything? I'd do water changes and see where you stand in a few weeks.

[juissed]

New filter media. rocks were rinsed in salt and lightly brushed (around the coral)

[SushiGirl]

I'm pretty stumped. Normally it's moving the sand, but you didn't move any sand.

[juissed]

next day and now nitrates are down to 40ppm.

No water change done yet. Skimmer is pulling a pretty wet brown sludge, so its doing its job now.

[m2434]

Sponges exposed to air tend to die. If you had some sponges on the undersides of the rock, they could have died and caused a spike. Could be other things as well, that's just one common problem. Tough to say, there is also a lot of denitrification happening on the biofils on the rock. Disturbing them, via scrubbing or just moving could have destabilized your bacterial population. Should come down as things stabilize though. Water changes are good, but I may suggest going easy until it's more stable. Keep the skimmer going, run GAC. If ammonia stays high, especially if things start looking sickly, you may need some prime, but so far, you said the corals are looking good, so, I may avoid it if possible as it may mess with your test kits.


Good luck!

[juissed]

it's looking decent. Sucks that all of the coraline on the back glass died from being out of water.

Any side effects from scraping it off?

http://i.imgur.com/5oYYm.jpg

[bertoni]

Scraping it off would be perfectly safe.