Ammonia Spike

I have a 29 gallon Biocube which up until I made some recent changes, was doing terrific. Corals are flourishing and growing like crazy. Tank is about 4 months old and I have quite a few corals in there. My parameters have all been fairly consistent, though a had a couple small nitrate spikes a while back that I nipped in the bud. My Nitrates tend to run right around 5ppm which is normal for my tank (and to be expected in a biocube). Never had any adverse effects from it.

Lighting has been retrofitted and I am now running a 12k LED strip, a 10K pc, and a blue reefbrite led strip.

My bioball chamber has been emptied and filled with live rock rubble and a chemipure bag. I run a carbon bag in the overflow chamber as well and have 2 powerheads.

However, last week I decided to rescape my rock and added 2 sizeable pieces. 4 days ago, I added one more piece. There were a couple of old pieces that I could not fit so I turned them to rubble and put them in the bio chamber as to not lose that bacteria with the exception of one small piece that I took out. In addition, I added about 4 lbs of sand to recoat the surface.

I have never had high ammonia before but tonight my ammonia read .5. The only x factor that I cannot account for is that 2 nights ago, my scarlet shrimp molted (which he does pretty regularly) and I havent seen him since (which is also not out of the ordinary after he molts either). So I cannot confirm that he is still alive since he may be in the rock work somewhere and to remove the rock is a HUGE project at this point.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or possible reasons for the ammonia spike?

I have included a couple of pics so that you have an idea of what I have. One of the pics being a "before" pic and 2 of them after. The point of rescaping was to create more real estate which you can clearly see.

And yes. I use RO/DI water.

 

Gorgeous tank.

I am concerned it was the addition of the rock as well as the rearrangement of the scape.

Water changes in that size tank are your friend.

If corals and fish are not looking stressed a 10% water change and smaller ones if the problem persist.

 

Thank you. Wish I had better pics of it off hand. Why would the additional rock pose an issue if I kept what was in there? Just curious.

 

That 1st picture the color is really nice. I can't get that nice of color out of my coral.

 

Was the cured rock live or dry?

Are you using an API test?

What prompted you to check for ammonia?

Moving scapes around especially with pieces that are fairly sizeable can expose detritus that has collected under or around the structure. In a tank 4 months old the biological filter may very well still be evolving.

The death of cleaner shrimp in an established tank should not make a blip on the ammonia radar.

 

Yeah. Well the camera is hit or miss too. Sometimes I have to pay with it a bit to get that color out of it. Time of day and ambient lighting as well. Plus the LED's are individually dimmable. I have a camera that I use when diving that is made for underwater. I'm going to experiment with that next. But the true color more closely matches the first picture.

 

Please see answers below.

It is also worth reiterating that for the months that I have had the tank, 5 1/2 to be exact, the corals, as you can see in the first picture were blooming like crazy daily. Most of them have almost doubled in size. some more than doubled. and a couple of palys I bought about 4 weeks ago, each went from 3 polyps to 7 in less than 4 weeks. The xenia more than doubled in size and the hammer and cynarina are out of control. Everything prior was stable.

 

I agree with Cheryl, your tank is stunning! But in a tank our size, water changes and time can fix almost any problem.

I would invest in better testing equipment soon, the more accurate the better. Especially in smaller tanks.

Your tank is still "young" things will happen, you are by no means "out of the woods". And that's okay, there are two very cool factors going on in our tanks. Biological and Chemical, it will take time for everything to balance out. But like I mentioned before, if you invest in better testing equipment and create an even more stable environment, that should help keep your corals alive and happy during times like these.

Lastly you mentioned nitrates, I don't have nitrates in my cube. I feed every two days and run GFO with Cheato and Skimm pretty wet. I would focus on finding a way to lower your Nitrates.


Keep up the good work!

 

Do you like the Salifert tests better?

Currently I am feeding one Mysis cube per day, which the fish consume entirely in about 10-15 seconds. I feed my corals Microvore Microdiet every 2 days, and I spot feed once per week. Should I still reduce the frequency of feeding?

Also, where do you put the cheato? In the middle chamber?
What are you using for a skimmer? I have been told that a skimmer doesn't make a significant difference in a biocube. Not to mention I am space limited. And I'm not very versed with GFO.



Also, for what it's worth, I did a water change that night and all parameters including ammonia are back to normal. However, I still have not seen my shrimp, so I am going to assume he is dead. No idea why though.

 

Also, for those that liked the pics, I have taken some much better pictures and posted them here:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/my-first-reef-tank-biocube-29-a-145607.html