Cycle crashed after live rock...

[AlisaMarie16]

Hello lovely people! As I am sure you could guess I am new to the reef community (been doing freshwater for years but nothing could have prepared me for this). I jumped in head first and got live Florida rocks once my tank "cycled" or so I thought. The cycle crashed ammonia skyrocketed and my snails and one little shrimp passed away. Started the cycle all over again using Dr. Tims (and the plethora of free ammonia in my tank despite several water changes). The photos show where I am at now - ammonia is FINALLY low but nitrites and nitrates are maxed out. I have a few snails that are doing fine thus far. But my corals (from the live rock) developed a white slime and then started disintegrating. Now all the corals seem dead except one little duncan who's hanging in there.

All this being said - I welcome any and all advice. How the heck do I feed/help whatever life I have left? Is my cycle getting anywhere near complete? What am I missing that I should purchase?

40-gallon cube
Arg-alive Sand
Florida live rock
Dry "live" rock
Using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
Tidal 75 HOB filter
Heater
Power Head
Skimmer (not installed yet as I was told to wait until after cycling)
Handful of snails that some how survive ammonia poisoning
Lots of coral (mostly dead now? RIP)

 

[tzabor10]

Sorry for your losses. Losing life on live rock is not unusual. How are your other parameters? KH and calcium? Hang in there

 

[PotatoPig]

When you say Florida live rock - this came from the ocean and was wet on arrival?

If so you don’t need to do anything to feed it as it sounds like you don’t have fish or inverts, the bacteria aren’t going to starve over any realistic timeframe and there’s plenty of nutrients in there as it is.

Likely cause was die off on the rock due to transport causing an ammonia spike. Once that spike cleared you should be good. Don’t keep adding ammonia.

Maybe do do a water change and with it siphon out some of the gunk that’s building up on that rock.

 

[liddojunior]

Live rock needs to be cured. There’s so much dead and dying oraganic stuff on live rock.

You basically are curing it in your tank

 

[Dburr1014]

Live rock die off, that is what spiked.
Nitrate is not going to give you a correct reading with nitrite.

If it were me,
I would do a water change, 25 to 50%. Test the next day, ammonia.
You may find you are okay.
Add a fish. Go slow.

 

[Garf]

The photos show where I am at now - ammonia is FINALLY low

How high did ammonia get? You can pretty much ignore nitrate at this stage as you won't get an accurate (or anywhere near accurate) reading. Your current ammonia levels aren't going to kill stuff, and the presence of nitrite indicates that ammonia is indeed being converted. Good move having a seachem ammonia alert badge, confirms the safety of the tank, although could be lower.

 

[LiverockRocks]

Hiya, did you use our live rock?

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

You cycled tank then added live rock based on your statement.
Did you get live rock before or after your Cycle?

If after, what happened is because of the difference in the salt, possible temp and chemistry. Everything was shocked and died off. Because we don't know how you cycled the bacteria population, even on the rock, couldn't handle, especially dosing additional ammonia.

Here is what I would do. Drain tank empty. Take the rock and put in buckets with clean salt mix. If you have sand just clean and remove top layer. Rinse the rocks in the salt, readd to tank and fill with clean saltwater. Make sure the temp the rocks are in and in the tank are within 2 degrees of each other. You should be good to go. This will help remove all the die off and get your tank where it needs to be. Do not dose anymore ammonia.

Edit: Any time you have live rock from a source with lots of life, it should be acclimated. If it's just rock with bacteria there is no issue with just dropping in

 

[AlisaMarie16]

How high did ammonia get? You can pretty much ignore nitrate at this stage as you won't get an accurate (or anywhere near accurate) reading. Your current ammonia levels aren't going to kill stuff, and the presence of nitrite indicates that ammonia is indeed being converted. Good move having a seachem ammonia alert badge, confirms the safety of the tank, although could be lower.

Hi there, thank you for the reply and feedback! Ammonia showed 8.0 ppm on the API test, it was crazy high.

 

[AlisaMarie16]

You cycled tank then added live rock based on your statement.
Did you get live rock before or after your Cycle?

If after, what happened is because of the difference in the salt, possible temp and chemistry. Everything was shocked and died off. Because we don't know how you cycled the bacteria population, even on the rock, couldn't handle, especially dosing additional ammonia.

Here is what I would do. Drain tank empty. Take the rock and put in buckets with clean salt mix. If you have sand just clean and remove top layer. Rinse the rocks in the salt, readd to tank and fill with clean saltwater. Make sure the temp the rocks are in and in the tank are within 2 degrees of each other. You should be good to go. This will help remove all the die off and get your tank where it needs to be. Do not dose anymore ammonia.

Edit: Any time you have live rock from a source with lots of life, it should be acclimated. If it's just rock with bacteria there is no issue with just dropping in

I added the rocks after what I thought was a complete cycle - ammonia came up slightly followed by nitrite and nitrate. But after adding the rock the ammonia spiked to 8.0 ppm (possibly worse honestly) so I assume my tank "cycle" never happened OR it crashed?

 

[AlisaMarie16]

Hiya, did you use our live rock?

Hello! I wish I did, I needed shipping directly to the door rather than an airport so I had to go with another seller.

 

[DustinDec]

As others have stated, you've caused yourself a lot of extra work here, but live and learn! I did something similar when I was first cycling, and caused myself extra work, it's definitely not uncommon. As someone already suggested, you're going to need to do a significant water change. If the nitrite/nitrate get too high, it can stall things from progressing. Did you already take out the rocks, and rinse them within a bucket of freshly mixed saltwater? Start with that as well as mixing the necessary water to do basically a full water change. Let us know where things are now and good luck!

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I added the rocks after what I thought was a complete cycle - ammonia came up slightly followed by nitrite and nitrate. But after adding the rock the ammonia spiked to 8.0 ppm (possibly worse honestly) so I assume my tank "cycle" never happened OR it crashed?

I personally hate the term cycling. It gives the wrong impression. Really what you are doing is called bacteria establishment. When you add nutrients to a take it breaks down into ammonia some by other bacteria some by rotting or you dose. Another bacteria breaks the ammonia down consuming it into nitrate and another consumes nitrite into nitrate.there are many other reactions and things going on at the same time. Your cycle is still going and bacteria is building to break down to nitrate. The only way to remove nitrate is by corals which can intake ammonia as well but very little. Algae and other bacteria like cyano diatoms etc. Also protein skimmers and water changes as well as some chemicals can bind it. Your tank is always "cycling". Hopefully this helps. It's not 100 percent of everything but this is to get you in the right direction.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Hello! I wish I did, I needed shipping directly to the door rather than an airport so I had to go with another seller.

Was it shipped in water or not? That’s key information.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

unfortunately you also have a lot of aiptasia on those rocks. Might be a good time to get those while re-starting.
How long did you cycle the tank before adding the rock?

 

[AlisaMarie16]

Was it shipped in water or not? That’s key information.

It was shipped in wet towels in a foam ice chest.

 

[AlisaMarie16]

unfortunately you also have a lot of aiptasia on those rocks. Might be a good time to get those while re-starting.
How long did you cycle the tank before adding the rock?

Any recommendations for getting the aiptasia off without them multiplying? Tank was cycled about 1 month before live rock.

 

[AlisaMarie16]

As others have stated, you've caused yourself a lot of extra work here, but live and learn! I did something similar when I was first cycling, and caused myself extra work, it's definitely not uncommon. As someone already suggested, you're going to need to do a significant water change. If the nitrite/nitrate get too high, it can stall things from progressing. Did you already take out the rocks, and rinse them within a bucket of freshly mixed saltwater? Start with that as well as mixing the necessary water to do basically a full water change. Let us know where things are now and good luck!

Rocks were taken out and rinsed and water fully change. These test results are about 1 week AFTER the ammonia spike and "reset"

 

[jabberwock]

It was shipped in wet towels in a foam ice chest.

That's your kryptonite...

I have never been in this space, and so will not offer any made up advice. Good luck.

 

[jabberwock]

That's your kryptonite...

I have never been in this space, and so will not offer any made up advice. Good luck.

Awe, sorry I could not help, but better for me to defer than make stuff up...