amonia going up and few other questions

bluestar34

New member
started 20 gal tank with 20 lbs of live sand and 5 lbs of live rock... after two weeks ammonia level was 0.... now we added 15 lbs of dead base figi rock from bulkreefsupply and also added 10 lbs of sand to tank to seed. today is 4 days from adding the sand and dead rock and my ammonia has spiked to 0.5 ppm .....

would that be from adding the dead rock and the sand? as far as tank i added 3 blue leg hermit crabs but thats it and there doing fine... temp is thermostat controlled at 78 degrees... i have not been doing any ghost feeding. and currently lighting is a 1000k t8 17 watt single tube fixture... ordering a 24 inch led setup at end of month just trying to get by till then.

also how long will it take to seed the 15 lbs of dead rock from the 5 lbs of live rock i had in tank and will a powerhead speed that up.. current flow is just from filter but i have a koralia 450 powerhead that should be arriving this week...


and other suggestions for tank at this time? Thanks...all info is appreciated
 
I would guess the ammonia reading is from the rock. If I understand you are just starting your cycle. I would add a deli shrimp or some pure ammonia to get the cycle going.

The outlook for your crabs is not good if this is the case and would suggest removing them.
 
Well I thought my cycle had completed since my ammonia had returned to zero after 2 weeks... I was gonna wait on adding anything for another two weeks but daughter had to add something so I let her add those three crabs and lfs had double checked my water readings and said they were good and I could add them
 
I misunderstood. You may have cycled that fast but it would be a very small cycle IMO. I would add things very slow. Good luck
 
No problem... Yea from my readings I had ran a cycle with just the live sand and the live rock... But would u cycle all over off u add dry base rock for seeding... I was under assumption for reading that seeding dry rock would not as there was no die off and it just seeded gradually... I'm not planning on adding anything else untill it comes back down and I gonna add slowly I want to make sure I don't overwhelm my system as well as myself... Lol
 
Eventually the 15lb of rock will become live. No one can really say how fast this will occur. If I were in your shoes, I would cycle the tank by adding an ammonia source. Either a deli shrimp or some pure ammonia then let it cycle.

The little bit of LR you originally had will help but the bacteria need some food source. I know it feels like you are starting over but I think this would get you on a better starting foundation.

If you do this of course your hermits need to be removed. As far as your light goes it is fine until you get something else. I never run my light during a cycle other than to determine what my heat input is going to be.
 
I would avoid adding dead shrimp or anything similar to the tank. The higher ammonia likely is from organic debris on the dead rock. Adding more organic debris is redundant. Once the ammonia hits zero and stays there for a week, the tank should be ready to be stocked up slowly. In the mean time, I'd dose some Prime or Amquel to neutralize the ammonia in the water column, which the hermit crabs likely will appreciate, although they probably can survive as is.
 
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