Ammonia to high...

[SC350Z]

Correction to title! Not ammonia its Nitrates! Sry... So my 30gal saltwater tank has been set up since 7/28/12 and 4 days ago the Nitrate was at 20ppm and now today its around 30ppm... I put a crab and 5 little baby blue leg hermit crabs in 4 days ago bc I figured it was time to get something going. Other than that I don't have any fish just some live rock and base rock.
Should I do a water change? I have about 4gal I got the other day... try that first and see if it lowers? Or do I need some of that stuff they sell at the LFS.. not sure what its called but I know they have some stuff that treats the water for high levels of anything.

 

[Beengirl]

I don't add chemicals if I don't have to. Just do a water change. Any nitrates below 40 is not going to harm fish, though. Obviously closer to zero is better cuz if they're high, you'll be fueling algae and cyano.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Correction to title! Not ammonia its Nitrates! Sry... So my 30gal saltwater tank has been set up since 7/28/12 and 4 days ago the Nitrate was at 20ppm and now today its around 30ppm... I put a crab and 5 little baby blue leg hermit crabs in 4 days ago bc I figured it was time to get something going. Other than that I don't have any fish just some live rock and base rock.
Should I do a water change? I have about 4gal I got the other day... try that first and see if it lowers? Or do I need some of that stuff they sell at the LFS.. not sure what its called but I know they have some stuff that treats the water for high levels of anything.

What are you "feeding" the bacteria? Are you putting food or anything in the tank? Hmmm.. What about your water source? Are you using tap or RO? Test your water source for nitrates either way just to rule that out. If you are feeding the tank to sustain bacteria cut down some. As stated above, I would also do a water change as well after verifying the water source isn't the issue.

 

[SC350Z]

Thanks ladies! I've only put food in once (a few flakes for the crabs) and its RO from the LFS.
My pH is at 8.0, ammonia is at 0.1, nitrites are 0.0 and the nitrates are around 30... I did a 4gal water change so I'll test again tomorrow and see what the results are. I haven't fed the "tank" anything does the LR need "food"?

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Thanks ladies! I've only put food in once (a few flakes for the crabs) and its RO from the LFS.
My pH is at 8.0, ammonia is at 0.1, nitrites are 0.0 and the nitrates are around 30... I did a 4gal water change so I'll test again tomorrow and see what the results are. I haven't fed the "tank" anything does the LR need "food"?

If you don't have any fish for a long time or anything in the tank it's a good idea to put something in to sustain the bacteria. Did you test the RO water from your LFS? Sometimes they just need to change out their filters.

 

[obscurereef]

You might of not had enough ammonia and sometimes other bacteria advances at different times like ammonia doesn't drop completely to zero and then go to high nitrites, but instead both raise at different levels at different times. Maybe this is what is happening. You added the crabs and that was a form of ammonia that the system should have handled, but since it probably didn't finish cycling (you still have ammonia), the bacteria didn't handle even a minute amount. I think that you didn't add enough ammonia b/c you've been cycling which a long time to low ammonia and low nitrite...or am I mistaken and you already cycled?

 

[nikki_kaiser]

You might of not had enough ammonia and sometimes other bacteria advances at different times like ammonia doesn't drop completely to zero and then go to high nitrites, but instead both raise at different levels at different times. Maybe this is what is happening. You added the crabs and that was a form of ammonia that the system should have handled, but since it probably didn't finish cycling (you still have ammonia), the bacteria didn't handle even a minute amount. I think that you didn't add enough ammonia b/c you've been cycling which a long time to low ammonia and low nitrite...or am I mistaken and you already cycled?

+1 I have to agree with this theory. Adding a small CUC shouldn't cause any kind of ammonia spike unless your tank hasn't finished cycling and you don't have the bacterial load to support them. Keep testing for both ammonia and nitrites. If the ammonia keeps going up then you'll know for sure. As far as your CUC goes, they may or may not be able to handle a large ammonia spike if it continues to rise. Nitrites are just as deadly as ammonia and that's why I would test for it as well. If by chance you are cycling and something doesn't make it, I would leave it in there as a lot of people will use a piece of shrimp to cycle anyways. Hopefully you aren't and there will be no loss!

 

[SC350Z]

Yea the tank has been active for 2 months lol I'm sure its done cycling... I kinda forgot to continue testing it after the first month so it wasn't tested for like 3 weeks lol but yes I will keep testing and hope to get 2 clown fish in about 2 weeks... that's the plan..

 

[obscurereef]

You might want to get 2 chromis instead of 2 clownfish. Chromis-$10, clownfish pair-$50...wouldn't want to waste money and get discouraged. So just moniter parameters and how the CUC is doing.