New established tank

[bonniewoodruff]

I purchased an established tank, and I had an aquarium service move the tank for me. It has been set up now for about 3 weeks. I have had all great readings until today. I have been doing a 15 gallon water change weekly, I did one last night. Water is clear. I have fish, Koran angel, ****** trigger, 4 damsels, foxface, and a snowflake eel. Live sand and live rock. I have a wet dry trickle filter with a protein skimmer. Tonight I tested the water and my ammonia is at .25(has been at 0 until now), my nitrite is .25(has been at 0 until now), and my nitrate is at 5.0(was also at 0 until today) My ph is at 8. What do I need to do?
Thanks for any help. I am enjoying the tank so much!:

 

[NicoleIsStoked]

Based on the censorship, I think you misspelled Niger trigger. Lol.

 

[MacDracor]

Well, first off, how big is the tank? That's a lot of fishies, and a carnivore like a snowflake can cause huge bioload problems.
You'll want to do an immediate and large PWC to dilute that ammonia and Nitrite, and then consider the root problem. Your tank is producing more waste than the biological filter can handle. There are two ways to handle this. Reduce livestock (no one likes doing that) or increase biofilter. I don't know all the details of your setup, but an increase in surface area (sponge, bioballs, live rock) may be able to counteract the problem. This is the more complicated and expensive option. Because "just a little bit" won't cut it. I mean huge increase in rocks, fill a sump chamber with rock rubble, stick a sponge prefilter somewhere, etc.
My guess is that the tank is overstocked, and since predators eat infrequently, but large quantities, that's why you haven't had a problem until just now. The eel had not yet pooped.

 

[Beengirl]

I purchased an established tank, and I had an aquarium service move the tank for me. It has been set up now for about 3 weeks. I have had all great readings until today. I have been doing a 15 gallon water change weekly, I did one last night. Water is clear. I have fish, Koran angel, ****** trigger, 4 damsels, foxface, and a snowflake eel. Live sand and live rock. I have a wet dry trickle filter with a protein skimmer. Tonight I tested the water and my ammonia is at .25(has been at 0 until now), my nitrite is .25(has been at 0 until now), and my nitrate is at 5.0(was also at 0 until today) My ph is at 8. What do I need to do?
Thanks for any help. I am enjoying the tank so much!:

When a tank is moved, it'll stir up things in the sand that can release ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. An ammonia and nitrite of 0.25 shouldn't kill any fish. It's probably not making their life awesome right now, but shouldn't kill them. I would recheck the ammonia and nitrite levels tomorrow, and if they go above 0.25, then do a 10-20% water change. Just keep those below 0.25 until they get back to zero. As long as the nitrate level is below 40, that shouldn't harm the fish either. Keeping nitrates closer to zero is optimal because high Trates can contribute to algae, but the fish won't be harmed as long as they're below 40. Enjoy your new tank!! Really gotta learn to spell that one right, though!! Lol.

 

[bonniewoodruff]

sorry it has been a long day!!!lol

 

[bonniewoodruff]

Thanks, it is a 93 gallon cube. I tested the water this am and all levels are good again. The live sand did get moved around during the water change and I put back in the powerhead to move more water around. Could that have caused a temporary spike?