Mini cycle?

[Alexnyc22]

I recently upgraded my 57 rimless to a 90 and moved all my water, sand, and rock over. I used RO water for the rest of the water i needed to finish filling the tank. Its been up and running for about a week now and i tested the water yesterday and noticed im having a huge ammonia spike, its at about 2.0 ppm's. The fish and everything seem fine in the tank but i dont know if im going through another cycle or whats going on. Can someone please explain this to me.

 

[KathyC]

A reading of 2.o is more than a mini cycle.
Did you add additional rock to the tank?


The bacteria we need to keep things in balance (ammonia, nitrate, nitrites) grow on AL surfaces in the tank..including the tank itself, the plumbing etc.
When you switch tanks, you lose a lot of that bacteria and it takes time for it to reestablish, and poof, you get a new cycle. The water itself carries very little bacteria.


I would suggest 2 things..#1 a large water change (50%)to knock down that ammonia reading somewhat as your fishes gills are being burned by the ammonia - even if you aren't noticing a difference right now..damage is being done.
# 2 - go buy a bottle of 'Ammo-lock' ASAP and read the directions..and add the proper amount for the gallons of water actually in the tank - not including what is taken up by rock. It will help detoxify the ammonia into a less harmful type.

 

[marrone]

That sounds very high, I would check the test kit again and possible get another one just to be sure, especially sine you said everything was acting fine.

 

[Alexnyc22]

Im going to go home after work and bring some water to my LFS so they can test it for me again just to make sure. It makes no sense to me though because i recall reading that if i used all my old stuff and just added new saltwater to the tank then it would be just as if i did a large water change.

 

[Loose tenticle]

Im having the same issue i went from a 30 gallon to a 90 gallon, one thing you gave to remember is thatthe more water you add the more live rock you need in order to build up the beneficial bacteria, also you might need to up your filtration.

 

[lnevo]

Wait a sec... you said you finished filling the tank with RO water? Do you mean RO water + salt mix??? What's your other parameters, salinity, pH, nitrite?

 

[outeastreef]

What type of test kit did you use? You can use a product like Nite-out a nitrifying bacteria.

 

[jrobbins]

my guess is you stirred up your sand bed and released a bunch of junk

 

[Alexnyc22]

Correction, I finished filling the tank with RO water plus salt mix. Red sea to be exact. Ammonia is at 1.0 PPM not 2, 0 Nitrite, 0 Nitrate, 0 Phosphate, 360 ppm of calcium, my salinity is at 1.024, Ph is at 8.0, and everything else seems to be ok.