Nitrite Ammonia Nitrate levels off the charts

[jay917]

I had an established tank running for couple months with very low nitrites nitrates and ammonia. I just added about 50 pounds of live rock after i cured it and now all the levels shot up substantially. The ammonia went up but the nitrite and nitrates went up off the charts. What is the caused of this and how do i lower the levels? I have a 40 gallon tank with a biowheel filter. I took off the biowheel after i put in the live rocks becuase i heard that it its not recommended to have both live rock and the biowheel. Could this be the cause of it?

[mjvincent]

No, Biowheels themselves do not create ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. They just provide a media for the natural cycle to complete (and are good at doing so). Your spike is caused by die off which is normal. I would do a partial water change around 30% at least and monitor the tank... What kind of livestock do you have in there? You may want to look into moving them temporarily ... I never added large quantities of rock to an established tank for this reason... There will invariably be some die off when moving even cured rock. Good luck and hth...

[flame82]

if the biowheels havent dried off yet i would put them back on to help the process cycle faster.

[Phyl]

Your biowheels were probably a big source of the cycle goodies and taking them out pulled all of that bio-load processing power out of your tank all at once. That's probably why you saw your numbers shoot up. I agree. If they're still wet get them back into the tank. If not start some water changes to keep the spikes at bay. Good luck.