Ksnell
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have a 20 gallon set up with 2 filters, an aquaclear 30 powerhead, a prizm protein skimmer, 2 24" atinic lights and 2 24" ocean sun lights, all flourecent, 35 pounds of LR, a percula and a cleaner shrimp. Two days ago I decided I was finally ready to add some coral to my tank (all levels at 0, pH 8.2, sp gr. 1.024), and I chose green starburst coral (Pachyclavularia) as I was told it was an easy coral to add. I also bought a turbo snail at the same time. I placed both things into my aquarium, and the next day (yesterday) the polyps were all open and looked great, and the snail was removing all the algae on my tank walls. Last night I fed my fish and shrimp mysis shrimp and then added the recommened amount of Kent Marine micro-vert to feed the coral. Today I got home from work and my coral was all closed up. I tested ammonia and it had jumped to 4! My nitrate jumped though the roof too!!! I immediately did a 10% water change, but I don't know what caused this spike, and I don't know a quick way to bring the levels back down so I don't kill my livestock. Any advice as to why this happened and what to do would be very nice. I plan on doing PWCs everyday, but is there anything else I should be doing/should have avoided?