Having problems with the Ammonia !!! Need advice!!

[Bry17nyc]

I recently upgraded my aquarium from a 55gallon to a 90gallon tank with a wet dry filter which instead of bio balls I put live rock in it, it has a protein skimmer and a UV sterilizer also.. But a week ago I tested the water a noticed that my ammonia was a little high so I bought a zyme( to increase the biological filtration ) but it didn't work.. I heard that a water change would help .. But isn't that going to make it worse because I'm adding not cycled water?
I don't know
what you think it's best to do?

I need help

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

just give it time its probably just recycling because of the big change you just did. also how many pounds of live rock do you have?

 

[ryangrieder]

Most importantly... Are their fish or corals currently in it? If so, your going to have a few things to do to save them because amm is tough to deal with on fish, but if you don't have fish, well take a breath because its going to be ok. Just let it finish its cycling.

Also, how long ago did you set the 55g up, when did you switch to the 90, and when did you last test it, and test with?

 

[Bry17nyc]

I have about 140 lbs of live rock and 50 to 60 pounds of live sand
I have all my fish in there!!!! =o
my 55 was running for about 6 months then a month and some days ago I swap to the 90.. And I been testing it every week to see how everything is going and the only problem is the ammonia ... I have the "API drop test kit" and the result is bet. 0.25 and 0.50 ppm

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

I recently upgraded my aquarium from a 55gallon to a 90gallon tank with a wet dry filter which instead of bio balls I put live rock in it, it has a protein skimmer and a UV sterilizer also.. But a week ago I tested the water a noticed that my ammonia was a little high so I bought a zyme( to increase the biological filtration ) but it didn't work.. I heard that a water change would help .. But isn't that going to make it worse because I'm adding not cycled water?
I don't know
what you think it's best to do?

I need help

what else did you add new to the upgrade?(skimmer,reactors,etc) you sure the rock you added was alive and not dry? I went from 72gal to 220gal with no problem. As long as you have enough biological rock it will level the diffrence IMO.

 

[masterswimmer]

Like Jarrett said, as long as you have enough live rock in there it should be fine. However, based on what you're saying, I'm going to guess you added dry base rock to the new tank and are experiencing quite a heavy cycle. Not only because of the dry base rock, but because of the fish you added.

A very common and very misunderstood fact about the bacterial colonies that are beneficial to our systems cycle is that the bacteria does NOT populate and grow in the water column (very much). You can have a fully cycled tank and do literally a 100% water change with no adverse effects to the livestock, as long as you have a sufficient amount of quality live rock. The bacteria doesn't 'grow' on clean glass either. It requires a huge amount of surface area, like good live rock has. When coralline algae grows on the glass, or even slime algae, it offers the bacteria places to colonize.

What we need to know is, did you add dry base rock to your new tank? If so, how much? How soon after setting up the tank did you add your fish?

Russ

 

[Bry17nyc]

Actually yes!.some of then were dry... I could say maybe 20 or30 pounds were dry ...
I added my fishes a 1 1/2 week after.. So far all my fishes seem to be in good health ..that's why I'm trying to lower it down as soon as posible

 

[masterswimmer]

20-30 lbs of dry rock is certainly enough to cause a cycle in your tank. I'll bet that is about 12%-16% of your total rock. Your cycle most likely didn't finish before you added your fish. That would have just extended your cycle.

Ammonia, even at low concentrations is extremely toxic to your fish. It can burn their gills and at the bare minimum cause undue stress. That can lead to other problems for the fish, including disease and death.

I hate to say it, but in your case it might be advantageous to add some chemical/biological filtration to expedite your cycle. Ecological Labs has a couple of products that can effectively cycle your tank overnight. Nite-Out and Special Blend will do this. I do NOT recommend this in a normal tank setup, but in your situation it would be more stressful to attempt to remove all your fish at this point.

Russ

Russ

 

[Jkedra]

When I was going through my cycle my ammonia was realllyyyy high.....I would recommend nite out II...its not really a chemical, just the colonies of nitrifying bacteria. I only had to use it once. I still got the entire bottle. I just poured in 15 ml of it and turned off my skimmer for 2 hours...should help you alot.

 

[basiab]

If you don't see any problem with the fish then it is probably a bad reagent for the test. I once had a kit from them and it always showed .25. Try to get it tested from someone else. If it really has ammonia I would remove the fish or keep doing water changes to dilute the ammonia. Also as alluded to above, even after cyling your tank is not ready to handle much of a load. It takes time to buid up the bacteria to support large loads.