Mini-cycled

[Sparkfarmer]

OK, I know that it was probably a dumb newbie thing to do in hindsight, but i was trying to get rid of a red slime problem so I did a couple of water changes to drop the nitrates... The thing is, I did 2 20% water changes about 5 days apart and now I think my tank is cycling again. I've lost a couple of snails and now a little starfish. My corals and nem still look ok, but I want to keep it that way. Is there anything I can do to ease the cycle, or should I just leave it alone?

[banditpowdercoat]

Just leave it alone. What were/are the nitrate levels? and what else are you testing? For the red Slime, most likely Cyano, try lights out for 3 days. No food, no light. I put a towel over my tank. Fish will be fine. After the 3 days, do a 15-20% water change. Slowly reacclimate the tank to the light as well. couple hrs first day, longer 2nd then full lighting by the 3rd day back

[i have crabs]

i doubt the waterchange caused a cycle, did you test for amonia and nitrite? if you had a spike in amonia then yes to the cycle being a posibility, it would have to be kinda major to be killing stuff and i thing something else probably happened.
how about some tank info, size?, skimmer? type of filtration? sand?how old is the tank?
same goes for the cyano, access your tank situation and make a plan or figure out a possible cause, cyano wont grow without food, so there are probably ways fix the cyano with out sticking a bandaid over the problem.

[Sparkfarmer]

I checked the Nitrate after the water changes and it was <10 ppm. The slime algae is getting a lot better. The tank is a 29g biocube with a sapphire aq. nano-skimmer, about 29 lbs of liverock + livesand, 92W PCs. I'm running carbon and PhosGaurd (just put in Phosgaurd this evening {Didn't know about gfos when I bought it and will remove in three days}). The tank has been up for about one year. dKh = 7, Ca = 400ppm, Sg = 1.025. Haven't checked Ammonia or nitrite today, but will tomorrow.

[Myka]

Water changes won't cause a cycle. You can try reading through the algae info in my signature. Lots of info on controlling algae (and cyano) there.

[Sparkfarmer]

Todays parameters......

pH = 8.2
Alk = 6.5 dKH
Amonia = 1 mg/l
Nitrite < 0.3 mg/l
Nitrate < 010 mg/l
Phosphate = 0.5 mg/l
SG = 1.025
Temp = 78 deg F

Snails & starfish are not happy. How bad is this level of Amonia? Should I be worried about my Anem? He is spread out and feeding, although alittle bleached. (Noticed that last week. New lamps and bigger weekly feeding since.)I'm not going to feed them for a few days. Other than that is there anything else I can do (last water change 20%, two days ago)?

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by Myka

Water changes won't cause a cycle. You can try reading through the algae info in my signature. Lots of info on controlling algae (and cyano) there.

+1, This is because most of the bacteria which establish your tank are in your sand/ rocks. Doing a water change really only dilutes pollutants and should not cause any mini cycles.
Levi

[i have crabs]

only reason i could guess is if you stirred up your sandbed while adding the new water, other than that i dont see anyreason you could get anytype of cycle from changing water,
like i said in your other thread, dont use phosguard with any leathers in your tank, they usually live but sometimes they dont recover,

if you have any prime, add a cap of that it will detoxify the amonia/nitrite just for a bit extra saftey, if you dont have prime i wouldnt worry about it.

do you use ro/di water? what do you feed the tank?

[Sparkfarmer]

I went out and bought a gfo and I will replace the PhosGaurd (Al based too) tonight. I do use ro/di water and I feed a mix or blood worms, brine shrimp in garlic. I did blow off the rocks with my turkey baster a lot when I did the water change. Maybe thats what happened. Hope everything will weather the storm.....