Jan November 18, 2011 Share November 18, 2011 (edited) Can an ammonia read of over 8ppm turn over and continue to cycle or should I just get rid of the sandbed and do 100 water change with just L/R? I'm convinced the problem is the sandbed at this point. Even though there are a lot of snails in the sand bed I think I need to stop trying to save them for the sake of stablizing this tank. 8ppm on the API test kit is a deep forest green. The color of my water after testing is almost black. My very first tank crash . Edited November 18, 2011 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT November 18, 2011 Share November 18, 2011 sheesh, got polypad, i would think that could help.. how old is your test kit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RicSG November 18, 2011 Share November 18, 2011 darn County water . Sorry to here that. At least it was just at start so you would not loose anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 18, 2011 Author Share November 18, 2011 LOL, I've got poly pad, carbon pad, pond ammonia pad and both chambers of the reactor filled with activated carbon. I also have the skimmer going, and I'm doing partial water changes. I can't make enough water to do more than partial water changes, which pretty much equate to a drop in the bucket. The ammonia kit is new. sheesh, got polypad, i would think that could help.. how old is your test kit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 18, 2011 Author Share November 18, 2011 Wasn't just the county water. It was moving and using an established sandbed, not properly filtered water and not having any back up water. I really should have made 150 gallons of water before I moved this stuff. It will be more information to share with everyone once I get a handle on it. darn County water . Sorry to here that. At least it was just at start so you would not loose anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypertech November 18, 2011 Share November 18, 2011 (edited) You should have just thrown the sand bed away when you moved the tank. At this point, it very much appears to be making things worse. I would suck it out at this point and do a massive water change. 1ppm water is better than 8ppm. With the source gone, hopefully the die off will stop and you can get ahead of it. Edited November 18, 2011 by hypertech Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite November 18, 2011 Share November 18, 2011 Did the sand have a smell when you were moving it around? Healthy sand will smell fresh. I took down an 8" DSB before and every inch smelled fresh, while another time I had some sand from a tank, which had only been a couple inches, that was almost a vomit-worthy smell indicating a need for disposal. Either way, might be safer to just get rid of the sand. Or put it in a container alone to cycle it if it's so much that you don't want to waste it. You might also be able to tell by the dropping levels whether it was mostly the sand as the problem or something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incredible Corals November 18, 2011 Share November 18, 2011 I would pull that sand bed and add new sand slowly after the tank cycles. A few months ago I got some free sand from another member and one bucket smelled fresh and cleaned easily. The other bucket smelled terrible and I wash it 20-30 minutes and the water continued to come out black so I didn't use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b November 18, 2011 Share November 18, 2011 (edited) You can always setup an emergency 5G tank using a plastic bucket form Home Depot, an air pump and small heater. Sand beds have a way of collecting crud over a period of time. YOu can take the sand out rinse it a lot with tank water and return it --that would be just as effective as putting new sand in. Edited November 18, 2011 by sen5241b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 18, 2011 Share November 18, 2011 I would pull that sand bed and add new sand slowly after the tank cycles. ^^This is what I would do. Pull the sand, change water, and start over. Let the tank settle in for two months then if you want add new or rinsed very well sand to the tank. Doing constant water changes is not going to help much unless you are vacuuming the sand too, better to take one drastic approach then to drag it out for another week or more. Just my 2 pennies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annap729 November 19, 2011 Share November 19, 2011 When you say fresh do you mean like clams? Bc the sand I got smells like the ocean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf November 19, 2011 Share November 19, 2011 ^^This is what I would do. Pull the sand, change water, and start over. Let the tank settle in for two months then if you want add new or rinsed very well sand to the tank. Doing constant water changes is not going to help much unless you are vacuuming the sand too, better to take one drastic approach then to drag it out for another week or more. Just my 2 pennies. I agree, the systems that I have upgraded to bigger tanks, I have always used new sand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 November 19, 2011 Share November 19, 2011 I'd pull your rock and livestock and then stick some clams in the water from the grocery store. They'll help to eat up the ammonia unless it kills them, too. Either way, your stuff is toast if you don't take it out of there. That's a pretty high reading of ammonia... put whatever you've got in fresh saltwater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite November 19, 2011 Share November 19, 2011 When you say fresh do you mean like clams? Bc the sand I got smells like the ocean. It should not smell any different than clean tank water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 19, 2011 Author Share November 19, 2011 This is what was puzzling me as well. I've smelled bad sand and good. Good sand smells like the ocean. It's not offensive. This sand smelled fresh. It should not smell any different than clean tank water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FormulatedFire November 19, 2011 Share November 19, 2011 How long was all of your liverock and sand out of the water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 19, 2011 Author Share November 19, 2011 (edited) It was in a bucket out of water for about 1.5 hours from the time it was taken out of the tank and transported to my home and then immersed in my tank water. It stayed in the bucket immersed for about 3 days before I dumped it in the 156. The water it was immersed in had "0" ammonia. How long was all of your liverock and sand out of the water? Edited November 19, 2011 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FormulatedFire November 19, 2011 Share November 19, 2011 And I'm assuming that you kept the bucket at the same temp as the tank. Only reason I ask is because I've heard a similiar story with adding liverock that had been in storage and the heater malfunctioned and the LR was sitting in an overheated bucket for a week which killed off pretty much everything in the rock. When the liverock was added to a new tank it killed the tank parameters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trockafella November 19, 2011 Share November 19, 2011 I recently switched tanks during a move, my sand set in a bubket with water, no heat, no pumps. I added to the tank after sitting for a month, I had no issues. That sand was 3 years old from my previous system.. I didnt rinse it or anything.. I have not had any bad readings from it. Is it possible the tank was cleaned some kind of chemical, or any chance something got into the water or sand during the process.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k November 19, 2011 Share November 19, 2011 so the sand in the bucket had zero ammonia, but when you added it all to the tub, you got elevated readings. kinda leads me to think that there was ammonia in the tub before you added everything. could be that something got spilled to have ammonia issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 21, 2011 Author Share November 21, 2011 (edited) No, nothing spilled in that bucket. It's dedicated to fish stuff and I keep it seperate from everything. I also rinsed it before I placed sand in it. I took out over 90% of the sand. There was some sand that smelled rotten when I pulled it out. It was a spot in the center of the tank. There's just a dusting on the bottom of the tank at this point. I also changed 40 gallons of water. I'll give it a day or so to see if the ammonia starts to drop. If not then I do another 25-40 gallons. I'm hesitant about doing 100% water change. I've also dosed Microbacter7 to see if it will help to establish beneficial bacteria. The read before the LS and WC was 4ppm's. After the LS was removed and WC it's back up to 8ppm. It's the sandbed. I'm hoping it will cycle now. I didn't see any signs of cycling at above 8ppm. Just die off. I'm amazed that with such high levels of ammonia there was still alot of life in thet sand. Snails galore. I picked out as many as I could. They were very tiny. I feel badly that I couldn't get them all. so the sand in the bucket had zero ammonia, but when you added it all to the tub, you got elevated readings. kinda leads me to think that there was ammonia in the tub before you added everything. could be that something got spilled to have ammonia issues. Edited November 21, 2011 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 21, 2011 Author Share November 21, 2011 We're at 2ppm. Finally there's some progress. Yay!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 21, 2011 Share November 21, 2011 Good News! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT November 21, 2011 Share November 21, 2011 sweet glad its turning around for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 21, 2011 Author Share November 21, 2011 But no nitrites yet . Atomic crabs are still moving around. Snails are climbing around too. I hope this tank doesn't go into a full month long cycle. I've never had to cycle a tank a month. Does anyone have a couple of cups of good established sand from their pest free system they can give me? Somewhere in the Fairfax area? I want my space back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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