One and Only ?'s

DO NOT do another 100% water change, 50% at the most ...by doing 100% water changes your starting over. let your tank cycle. i feel 30% is all you should do if you have to do a water change. let the nitrites turn to nitrates. if you keep messing with the water it won't happen.

 

Banging your head against the tank, wall or any other hard object nearby is part of reefkeeping 101 - didn't anyone tell you?!

I just don't think "removing" everything is going to help but it can't hurt and if the tank is not so big then do that. Rinse the sand well etc.

Regarding your LR - was it well cured? Uncured or poorly cured LR will have a lot of decaying stuff on it and will definitely cause an increase in ammonia and so nitrite.

 

and DO NOT wash your sand out.

i agree with drtim on the rocks. they could be part of whats happing but that will pass if you stop messing with things

 

pink4miss - I disagree. The nitrifying bacteria are not IN the water. So changing 100% of the water does not remove any good bacteria and since his nitrite is so high that it is inhibiting the bacteria changing as much water as possible is a good thing.

Now, gravel washing or removing all the sand and rinsing it will result in a loss of some to most of the nitrifiers but that's the trade-off.

However, I want to repeat - removing all the water (and leaving the sand undisturbed as much as possible) will not harm the nitrifiers.

 

drtim i disagree bacteria ia also in the water. and if you keep changing it out your tank will never cycle. well i should not say never thats not true, it will take much longer to cycle.

 

No idea. I was just hoping to help the good Dr with his diagnosis.... This is a very strange case to me. But if anyone can guide you through to the solution, it's Dr. Tim.

Recap.
Tanks been holding salt water, dry sand and dry rock for a period of months. Dr. tins was added as well as some shrimp. The shrimp were removed "months"ago. For a long period the tank had sat with high nitrite and ammonia right?

Water change makes very short term difference... Does all that sound right?

 

Dr. Tim,

I happen to have an extra bottle of the 8oz one and only on hand that I picked up from a fellow reefer.

If I do another (about 75-100%) water change, but this time add some LR (cured/no pests and about 10-15#) to the mix. Would I be able to add the bottle of one and only after adding the rock?? Are there any problems with this besides the hike in ammonia / nitrite?

 

You might want to look up Dr. Tims credentials.

"The President of DrTim's Aquatics is Dr. Timothy A. Hovanec who, for 17 years, was the Chief Science Officer of Aquaria Inc., the parent company of Marineland Aquarium Products, Aquarium Systems (Instant Ocean) and Perfecto Manufacturing."

"Dr. Hovanec earned his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he investigated the phylogenetics of nitrifying bacteria in aquaria and Mono Lake, California. Dr. Hovanec was the first to demonstrate that bacteria of the phylum Nitrospira were the active nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in aquatic systems such as aquaria."

He knows what he is talking about.

 

Different type of bacteria in the water column. He's speaking directly about nitrifying bacteria which colonize rock and sand and don't really (at all?) spend any time in the water column.

 

Everything is on point except the ammonia... I never saw high traces of it or really anything for that matter.

Anytime I tested the ammonia, it would always be <0.25ppm. I even had other ppl test including the LFS.

Ammonia levels were acceptable/non existant, but nitrite/trate levels were through the roof.

But there had to be ammonia there somewhere/some time because I got a spike in nitrite right?