New to Marine

TJustice86

New member
Hello All,

My neighbor had to move and could not take his tank with him. We had to move it rather quickly with out much preparation. It has a live rock wall, existing gravel, refugium, and wet/dry filter/sump. I have had freshwater aquariums before, though even that's been over ten years ago.

We drained pretty much all of the water out of the aquarium and added new. The only water conditioner I could get my hands on was Walmart Tetra Aquasafe. The water has been in the tank for ~48 hours and the fish ~24. It is a 90 gallon tank with 3 fish in it, surprisingly the fish are still alive.

My current readings are :
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 7.8
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm


Is there anything I should do right away to get my numbers down, or should I just continue to monitor for a few days in hopes that it will cycle/level out. Thank in advance for any help and I can't wait to get into this hobby further.
 
what are you testing with, did you pre mix the water? did you use RODI water? id say if you put freshwater in the tank then added salt, you are totally screwed & only way to fix it is trash all the rock cause everything on it will be dead. also, did the sand get stirred? that will create nitrogen sulphide
 
what are you testing with, did you pre mix the water? did you use RODI water? id say if you put freshwater in the tank then added salt, you are totally screwed & only way to fix it is trash all the rock cause everything on it will be dead. also, did the sand get stirred? that will create nitrogen sulphide

Testing with an API Saltwater test kit.

Did not premix water, added water then salt, as that is what he said to do... Oops, I suppose I'll wait it out and see what happens.

Sand might have gotten stirred slightly while adding water, but tried not to as best as we could.

Thanks for your response, and If I have to start new, that's okay too!
 
what are you testing with, did you pre mix the water? did you use RODI water? id say if you put freshwater in the tank then added salt, you are totally screwed & only way to fix it is trash all the rock cause everything on it will be dead. also, did the sand get stirred? that will create nitrogen sulphide
 
Testing with an API Saltwater test kit.

Did not premix water, added water then salt, as that is what he said to do... Oops, I suppose I'll wait it out and see what happens.

Sand might have gotten stirred slightly while adding water, but tried not to as best as we could.

Thanks for your response, and If I have to start new, that's okay too!

For future reference, you want to mix the salt with with the RODI water with a powerhead for at least 24 hours prior to a water change. At the very least mix for at least an hour.
 
Thanks for the responses/insights guys/gals.

Right now ammonia is still really high. Even if I do lose the fish is there anything else I should be doing or will it still cycle on it's own?

Thanks!
 
Thanks for the responses/insights guys/gals.

Right now ammonia is still really high. Even if I do lose the fish is there anything else I should be doing or will it still cycle on it's own?

Thanks!

Did you add the poly filter? What fish are alive? Can you setup a small tank to house them until you get the ammonia down?
 
+1 the ammonia is going to be at like a gazillion ppm cause you killed everything on the rock (unless you added the rock after the salt water) see if you can board your fish at a LFS until the water is stable
 
Did you add the poly filter? What fish are alive? Can you setup a small tank to house them until you get the ammonia down?

Yes I added the poly filter, there is a clown fish, blue tang, and a black and white damsel. I do not have a small tank, but could probably go pick one up.
 
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