looking for direction.

[Apartmenttank]

I have a "new" 60 gallon cube. got it set up from someone else.
tank has 4 corals(xenia ,zoa, polys, frogspawn) and 4 fish(2clowns, goby, firefish) and snails and hermits. the tank had 80lbs of liverock in it already cycle. i removed 20 lbs because it smelled like liquid death before i set it up(currently recurring)

Running a 15 gallon sump with a Reef Octopus 110ss skimmer and a filter sock on the over flow, as well as some chia.

here are my readings, any advice to help them out or should i just stay the course.
PH 7.8
Ammonia .15 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 5 ppm
Phosphate: .05ppm
Calcium 320
KH 11 dkh

currently doing daily tests(ammonia going down slightly phosphate down slightly, calcium has been dropping nitrite and nitrate constant)
5 gal water changes daily as well as dosing with prime.

Keep doing what i'm doing? any changes to recommend for the fish?

i have an ATO and Phosphate reactor neither are set up yet.

[Sounds Fishy]

How long ago have you set up this system.It sounds like it is still cycling?What is the condition of your livestock?
What is your specific gravity?Definitely concerned about the ammonia,and KH ,is a tad high.

[blanden.adam]

I agree that it sounds like a cycle, but whether it's a mini cycle because you removed rock or your tank never cycled in the first place depends on some things.

I guess I don't understand. If you had 80 lbs of already cycled liverock, how do you know that the 20 you removed smelled like liquid death? What condition were the rocks in when you received them?

More details about the system would be helpful. As previously asked, how old is the system? Where did get the rock come from? What kind of rock was it when the "other" guy got it? When did you move the tank? How long has it been set up in its current state? etc.

What I would recommend doing is re-testing the ammonia (which kit are you using?) to make sure it's right, and if accurate I would do water changes. The ammonia level is higher than I'd be comfortable with for sure. Just until the biological filter has time to catch up. Are you seeing any distress in the corals or fish?

As previously mentioned, your calcium is a touch low (below the normal recommended level of ~380-450 ish) and your alk is on the high side, but still within normal limits (normal range ~7-11 dKh give or take). However, those levels are of secondary concern right now. I'd focus on getting my ammonia under control and tank properly cycled before doing anything else.

[Apartmenttank]

I have had the system up and running for only 4 days, it has been running for a while before that, i bought it used. I'm going through a short recycle, also noticed i wasnt running my skimmer properly, i got that fixed up and shouldn't be an issue now(hoping that will help with ammonia).

the 4 fish all seem happy they are eating and swimming around but they have only been in there for 1 day. i had the fish store watching them for the first 4 days i had the tank here.

prime and watcher changes helps with ammonia, what would you do about the KH?

[Apartmenttank]

the person before me owned the tank for a year. so it was fully cycled. i put all the rocks into the tank as quickly as possible when i moved in. after that i moved the rocks around. it had a coral on it some sort of weed i planned on getting ride of. When i pulled this rock out it smelled horrible, like a rotting vegetable. so i left it out, currently it is is a bucket of salt water, the LFS said bleach it to make sure everything is dead then recycle it. i still have 50-60 lbs in there.

[blanden.adam]

Ahh, gotcha. Then yea, I think you're right in that it's a mini-cycle from re-locating the tank.

I'd say bleaching it is totally unnecessary unless you are worried about transporting a pest from the other tank. That rotting vegetable smell happens when there is significant die-off (I've had it happen when I left rock in stagnant water for as little as 24 hrs). The die-off will cause an ammonia and nitrate spike certainly, but the rock should re-cycle just fine and the smell will go away. Tossing a filter sock with carbon in it can help with the smell while it cures as well.

To solve the calcium, dKH, and ammonia problems, water changes would be my first bet to help with all three. Apart from that, I'd dose some calcium chloride to bump up the calcium to 380-400 ppm, and the dKH I'd leave alone. If you really want to drop it, you can dose small amounts of a mineral acid like muriatic acid (we can help you with the calculation if you like), but at 11 I wouldn't change it unless you saw a reason to.

[Apartmenttank]

it has a large junk of some sort of coral on it, as i said previously it was described as a weed, if i leave that in a bucket with no light with ill dye off and help keep the rock cycled/recycle the rock?

continuing with 5 gal daily water changes until the ammonia drops. where would i pick up calcium chloride? LFS or is there a different better place?

[bertoni]

The dKH is fine as is. I agree that the calcium needs some help. Any calcium chloride product should be fine. Turbo Calcium is one example. I'd keep up with the Prime for a while, and see how the tank stabilizes.

The rock that has the algae on it could be cleaned and bleached. Is there a powerhead in the bucket with it? If not, the water likely has gone anoxic. I'd ditch the water, pull off as much of the organic debris is possible, and consider curing it in a container with a power head and preferably a heater. Bleaching should be safe enough, and might help the process by removing organics.

[Apartmenttank]

Do i need to rush this? or will it be ok for now? I'm thinking about dosing kalcwash, but i haven't set up my ATO system yet, didn't want to overcomplicate my system yet. wanted to make sure i had everything working first.

[tmz]

Kalk will add alkalinity as well as calcium.The calcium chloride Jonathan recommended will only boost the calcium not the alkalinity which is high enough already. Aside from boosting the calcium a bit , I'd wait until the cycles ( nitrifying and denitrifing) are complete, probably a few weeks from now, before establishing a dosing regimen.

[bertoni]

I agree that waiting a while to start the Kalk should be fine. I'd take some time to get accustomed to running a saltwater system.

[Apartmenttank]

my calcium is back up to 360 with the constant water changes(5 gal a day). Ammonia still at .1, how long before this goes down? my clean up crew should be here Thursday, maybe they will prevent ammonia build up?

plan on doing the 5 gal water changes till ammonia is down and other levels look good.

going to LFS on Friday(hour and a half drive) the LFS by me doesn't carry anything but fish and tanks. should i pick up a calcium supplement? any other things i should pick up in case of emergencies?

[Apartmenttank]

Just to add here are my levels for the last 3 days.
Ammonia .15, .15, .1
Nitrate 5,5,8
Nitrite,0,0,0

Looks like the first stage of the cycle is started but it is so slow, doesn't make sense for an already cycled system? should i slow down on my water changes? maybe i am not allowing the cycle to happen?

[ZeeSparrow]

When you got the tank, was all the rock kept under water? The longer it was out of water, the more chance there will be die-off. That's what's causing it to cycle now. Living things on the rocks died because of the move, causing the ammonia to rise. The bacteria that was eating up all the ammonia before the move wasn't sufficient to keep up with this new, higher supply. It'll catch up, eventually.

Since you have fish in there, you want to do what you can to lower that ammonia. That means water changes. Personally I'd probably change out 10 gallons. That's approximately 10% change on your system, give or take. And as bertoni said, keep using the Prime as well, to help detoxify it.

[blanden.adam]

I agree with the above advice. If there were no fish in there, I'd say just walk away, but because there are fish I'd keep up with water changes. It looks like a good portion of the biological filter didn't come along with the tank for whatever reason.

[Apartmenttank]

they were kept in water, and i transported them in buckets. ill move up to 10 gallons a day. how long do you think the water changes would last?

also what is the best way to dose with prime.. holding it over the tank counting drops sucks..

[bertoni]

Any time live rock is removed from water, some die-off is likely to happen. It might take a while for the system to recover its filtration capacity. I probably would back off on the water changes now that the ammonia is at 0.1 ppm, but I'd keep up with the Prime. Those test results seem normal for a tank that's been moved, in my experience.

If you keep up with the water changes, you might want to check the ammonia level in some freshly-mixed water. Most salt products have some ammonia in them as a contaminant, but the exact ppm might vary a lot.

[Apartmenttank]

Tested my water and got .5 ammonia, as i Panicked and started searching the water for a dead snail or something causing the spike my gf retested the water and got a zero, maybe i just suck at the tests.

current numbers
PH 7.9
Ammonia .0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 5 ppm
Phosphate: ~zero
Calcium 400
KH 11~12 dkh

Looks like everything is in range now. Should i stop with the daily water changes? and stop dosing prime? ill check levels tomorrow when i wake up to confirm, i also have a large CUC shipment coming in so i might see a new ammonia spike.

[blanden.adam]

The prime can interfere with ammonia testing, but nonetheless, I think it would be safe to back off of the daily water changes and try to taper off your prime dosing. Just keep testing and go slow. glad things seem to be working out for you.

[bertoni]

Okay, assuming the 0.5 ppm reading was a fluke, the tank seems to be doing well. I agree with tapering off the Prime and the water changes, as long as the ammonia stays down.