Very very high ammonia at start of cycle

[glstine1966]

I am setting up a new tank 55 gallon. I ordered 50 pounds of live rock and figured I would use it to cycle the tank (did this on my last one worked out great). Unfortunately ground shipping live rock across the SW for a couple of days in August is far from optimum. You could smell ammonia on the rocks when they arrived. I rinsed them off in a bucket of saltwater and put them in the tank. A couple of hours later I tested the ammonia (API test kit) and the ammonia was off the chart nitrite was 0. I tested again this morning, ammonia was still off the chart but nitrite had risen to 0.25.

My question is, should I go ahead and do a large water change to try to get the ammonia down some or just ride it out?

[Fizz71]

IMO....ride it out at this point unless you see a ton of dead stuff on the rock.

A lot of people use a wire brush or some other implement to clean off the live rock when they get it in (when it's shipped). You lose a lot of the surface critters, but also remove all the sponges and other material that are either dead or will die and just add to the ammonia and extend the cycle time.

This was more popular when people used to get "uncured" rock, but even cured rock will have a lot of die off when it's shipped.

[Twistofer]

IMO you are currently recuring your live rock. I recommend that you do water changes every other to third day until you can measure the nitrate level. Then you can judge how often you need to do water changes based on the cycle itself.

[thegrun]

+1, the damage is likely done so just ride it out.

[glstine1966]

Thanks for the reply, one other question, any point in skimming while cycling? I ask because I have a seaclone skimmer (I know everyone's favorite) that I've had on there with the air valve closed to aid in circulation. Last night on a whim I opened the air valve and this morning the cup was half full of gunk, granted it wasn't dark green, more of a tan color. Might have just been suspended sand particles from stirring everything up when adding the rock.

[Fizz71]

I'd skim.