acquired a 2yr old tank and crashed it..

[CrimpReaper]

okay, so i bought a 30G cube style tank from a guy on Craigslist. I didn't do enough research before i started adding some things (the tank had been established for 2 years with some corals, 2 blennys, a clown goby, 2 snowflake clowns, and a fox face ((i know the tank is too small for a fox face))) anyway, i noticed a fish looking lethargic, so i tested positive for ammonia.. I'm at .25ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites, and 0ppm nitrates. I've been doing water changes regularly and added prime to detoxify the ammonia. I've read that a cycle takes 6-8 weeks on a new tank... given this is an established tank, will it take the full 6-8wks to cycle, or will i have a shorter time frame? also is there anything else i can do besides just water changes water changes water changes?

any advice, tips for a newby or anything to note would be really helpful!

also i recently added a toadstool leather that is very slumped over...will this coral fix itself after the ammonia is gone? or is it basically doomed?

thank you so much in advance!

 

[HammerLover]

If its a mature stable tank, adding seachem may help alleviate the ammonia until the tank adjusts itself. Doing daily water changes can go a long way too. When my 10 gal crashed, i only had one fish left a pajama cardinal. It went thorugh all the mini cycles and bits ammonia spike when the tank is adjusting from the crash.

The leather toadstool will open after a while, mine took a whole day to open and sometimes will be closed for weeks when it is shedding. As long as the coral is still whole and the flesh is still firm and intact, no worries on it. Leathers are very hardy corals

 

[CrimpReaper]

Hammer lover, thanks for the advice! here's a couple pictures of my Ammo level and the toadstool if they may help..i know they tend to open up after a while, and i dripped him to acclimate him, but i just wanna make sure he isn't gonna die because of the ammo or something.. thanks again for the advice, i love the hobby already and love how supportive the community is.
I also moved that green star polyp rock! didn't want any warfare going on..

 

[CrimpReaper]

holy cow that was huge....sorry thats the first time I've ever posted an image...

 

[Sk8r]

Many corals can tolerate ammonia much better than fish can. Remove anything that looks dead. Get the fish out to q. Get any fleshy inverts out (excluding shrooms.) The idea is to lighten the bioload on the tank and get ahead of the ammonia. If you see the crisis deepen, get the coral out as well. Otherwise just try regular means to lower ammonia.

 

[CrimpReaper]

if i don't have a quarantine tank, should i just continue my 30-50% water changes?

 

[Sk8r]

A clean poly bucket with a bubbler can be a qt, if managed as such with 100% water changes. If you're trying to ride it out in situ, then yes, continue with water changes daily. How is your skimmer? Pulling crud?

 

[HammerLover]

The toadstool looks fine. Its just kinda closed up

Watch out when its open, they can get huge!

I had a electrical outage last night. My tank went for 8 hours no pumps and lights and its frigging summer here. All i did is do some 10% water changes every two hours. Hoepfully nothing died in the tank and everything is fine now.
I had a bit of nitrite and ammonia spike since my tank is small.

 

[nibor75]

API test kit showing 0.25ppm for ammonia is meaningless.

Double check with a better quality test kit. I'd wager it shows no ammonia.

 

[HammerLover]

Some test kits arent that accurate. I always go for expensive ones usually

 

[Kyuss]

API test kit showing 0.25ppm for ammonia is meaningless.

Double check with a better quality test kit. I'd wager it shows no ammonia.

+1 on this. API kits are pretty notorious for showing 0.25ppm for ammonia indefinitely.