Second Round, need help, affirmation

[Yellow_donkey]

OK I will try to keep this as short as possible.

I live rock cycled my tank and it took 20 days, my ammonia and nitrite never got very high at all but it did cycle. I went ahead and added by CUC, some corals, some more corals, a pair of clowns, a wrasse, some more corals and more corals.

Everything was going great, we get to day 60 or so and I decide I disliked my aqauscaping as portion of what I used was man-made dry rock and my wife did not like it all. So I decided to remove 2 pieces out of this 30-gallon rimless gallon tank with 2 AI Primes. I figured it was about 20 to 30% of the rock total and after reading figured it would be worth the risk.

Well, as you can imagine within 2 days I had an ammonia spike and completely lost my cycle. I lost both clowns over the next week and anxiously waited for cycle to start picking up again, but nothing, ammonia was staying high. So I reached out to a few local Facebook forums and had a really nice fella an hour away who frags for a living and he was able to hook me up with about 50 cycled (20 years cycle) blue bio balls. That was 3 days ago. Now mind you this is a 30 gallon with a 18x18x18 sump and a 24x24x12 tank. So I start cramming bio balls and bags wherever I can, the overflow, the return, the skimmer compartment, even in the sock.

24 hours goes by and no change. I am standing in front of the tank along with my wife scratching our heads and I realized I left the SUPER over sized UV light going, so all water column movement of BB is null and void. I turn that off and within 12 hours ammonia is halved. 24 hours after the light went off I see my first Nitrite. 36 hours after light, ammonia is trace and nitrite is pretty darn high. And now, just an hour ago, about 48 hours after the UV went off I am back to 0 ammonia and zero nitrite. With a Nitrate sitting between 5 and 10.

Also, today, with the cycle completed for the second time I get a green algae bloom, well not a bloom but a good bit of growth on everything and I see the CUC sigh in relief. They did not like the brown diatom, most still sitting on rocks leftover. BTW this is my first green growth in the tank so far.

So I am writing to ask, what is my next step. Again my Nitrate is at 5 to 10 (some is residual from first cycle, have not done a water change in 15 days as I wanted to keep ammonia up to promote the BB bloom).

What I dont understand is my Phosphate went from .5 to 0 in the last 12 hours, ooohh wait the algae bloom today! Is that what happened? I just figured it out writing the question down, haha.

So what do I do now? Do I do a large water change? I have a DIY ATS, still Diatom growth from what I can tell, BRS media reactor with ROX .8 I need to change, it just got to day 15 today and with that change should I add GFO, or too early? I also dose Brightwell Reef Code A and B as well as MG and then reef colors and reef fuel on a 8 dosser unit. All corals did amazing well through this, none showed any signs of being unhappy. Torches are fine but not ecstatic (if I had too pick anyone unhappy) but even my two Yumas are really happy and Goniopora (good salesman got me on that one!)

When should I throw the UV back on or just leave it off for awhile?

I have one wrasse remaining but I don't think he is going to make it unless fish can become unpoisened from ammonia?
So, add GFO?
UV situation
Add a a clown pair back in, (want to keep a healthy ammonia dosing and BB up)
And these bags bags of bioballs. They worked a miracle with a 3 day re-cycle but they are really unsightly. Can I remove like 2 a week or so. I did add a plate of MarinePure at the start of this, so I am thinking that will take 30 days to get a good growth of BB going. If 55 bio balls total, 2 a week, 4 a week removed?

I wont again, impact any % of my BB surface area unless I know I can support the bioload, without question, such a foolish mistake. When I do remove bioballs (they will go in a saltwater mix for holding and ammonia doseing) Feel sorry for the couple of fish I lost. I have not had higher Nitrate before; water change, GFO, wait for ATS to come up to full capacity? Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone.:dance:

 

[Coralfuture]

I would suggest wait at least another week to add more clowns just to be safe and the 2 balls out per week sounds like a safe way to do it. I don't see a skimmer on your sump description at all I would get one if you can any is better than none I've even seen DIY ones. The UV Sterilizer I would get rid of, I don't use one and my tank is CRYSTAL clear. I use a filter sock, skimmer, chato refugium, and an algae scrubber (DIY), there is a carbon reactor and a bio pellet reactor and that's it for a heavily stocked tank. 0 algae in the MDT other than some coralline algae but that mostly grows in the refugium for me. If you can I would keep 1 of those bio balls in there for like 3 months+ in the sump. I would do w/e your regular water change is as well.

 

[Yellow_donkey]

I would suggest wait at least another week to add more clowns just to be safe and the 2 balls out per week sounds like a safe way to do it. I don't see a skimmer on your sump description at all I would get one if you can any is better than none I've even seen DIY ones. The UV Sterilizer I would get rid of, I don't use one and my tank is CRYSTAL clear. I use a filter sock, skimmer, chato refugium, and an algae scrubber (DIY), there is a carbon reactor and a bio pellet reactor and that's it for a heavily stocked tank. 0 algae in the MDT other than some coralline algae but that mostly grows in the refugium for me. If you can I would keep 1 of those bio balls in there for like 3 months+ in the sump. I would do w/e your regular water change is as well.

Thank you all good ideas. That brought up a good idea. I could take half of the bio balls and cut them down to just stripes, so much space in them and place those strips of blue plastic into a reactor and not tumble, that would leave them in the tank for now until I can get a solid 3 to 6 months for my Marine Pure to build up.

And yes, sorry forgot to mention PS, I have a Bubble Magus C7, works really well. I am also thinking I went TOO much on the UV, with the ATS, ROX .8 my water is super clear, UV is overkill. Also been reading a bit on cheato and refrugiums, I dont have any space for a sump refrugium but could do a really nice display refugium.

Your last line, a little gumbled, shoiuld I resume my water changes now? Standard 5 gallon out of 30 total that I do then resume weekly, bi-weekly as I can?

Thanks alot!

 

[Coralfuture]

I would do the water change now then in 2 weeks another water change then add the fish after testing levels. After that I would suggest weekly 5gal water changes. That can be excessive to some but IME nothing is better for the tank than water changes. I do 40gal a week on my 90 gal system to avoid dosing

 

[Yellow_donkey]

I would do the water change now then in 2 weeks another water change then add the fish after testing levels. After that I would suggest weekly 5gal water changes. That can be excessive to some but IME nothing is better for the tank than water changes. I do 40gal a week on my 90 gal system to avoid dosing

I have done just that, with 5 gallon weekly to 10 day changes and everything is electric in tank now (no electrical leak either, I mean doing very very well).

Thanks a bunch, my ricordia and goniporia have been fully extended and super happy since.