Live rock curing/tank cycling ammonia question

[natureboy]

Well, I just set up my 24 gallon aquapod 4 days ago. I got some Walt Smith fiji premium from Reefer Madness, which smelled fine when I opened the box. The rock was nice, but I didn't see any special hitchhikers, just algae. And now, my aquarium absolutely reeks! It's disgusting!

I did a 40% water change on days 2 and 3, sucking off some of the loose decomposing material from the rocks. I've also added some activated carbon to try to deal with the ammonia and smell. Other than that, I am just using live rock rubble as filtration.

So the question is: Should I continue to perform large water changes due to the high ammonia levels or should I just leave it be?

Here's my parameters (SeaChem test kits):
temperature: 78.5
pH: <7.8
free ammonia: 0.5
total ammonia: >6.0
nitrites: 0
nitrates: 0

For more info on the tank, check out my journal.

[OnTheReef]

Live rock generally goes through a series of stages as it cures. The smelly stage you are describing is typical, though I must say your temperature is quite low and you could be experiencing a larger than normal die-off because of this. I keep both my tanks and replacement water ~80 F. You also have not mentioned your specific gravity, which can be another factor in live rock curing. Something in the range 1.022 to 1.024 specific gravity is a good start. After the smelly stage, you will go through a series of algae blooms. You might add some Cycle to the tank to get an innoculation of Nitrosomas and Nitrobacter started. Keep up with regular water changes, say 10% a week, but mostly you are just going to ride this out for 6 to 8 weeks while things stabilize. I'd recommend getting a copy of Delbeek and Sprungs The Reef Aquarium. They go into bringing up a healthy system in great detail.

Good luck,

OnTheReef

[natureboy]

My specific gravity is 1.023.

Am I right in thinking my ammonia is just going to be incredibly high until it's over with?

I forgot to ask one more question: The pH of my water before adding it to the aquarium is about 8.1, but once in my aquarium the pH is below the range of my SeaChem test kit, somewhere below 7.8. Should I be worried about this, or is the die-off just raising the pH?

[OnTheReef]

First of all, ammonnia, then nitrite and finally nitrate levels are going to peak and then tail off. If you run all three tests once or twice a week, you can watch this happen. Your pH is being lowered by the NH4+ ions in the water and will rise as the ammonia levels fall. The cycling tank is much too young to worry about pH or alkalinity yet.