i need some help.....

[ronboy]

i had my tank setup for 2 years.everything was just great until i had my tank drilled.a couple weeks ago i had a friend come to my house and drilled some holes for me. 1 overflow and 2 return holes.i keep all my animals ect. in a 100gallon container. i rinsed the substrate cleaned the glass.first i put the live rock and substrate back in for 24 hours.then i put the animals in the next day.
now i am having some problems and not sure why....bad alage "brown",corals open quarter of the way.some corals look very ill. please let me know what i should do at this point!!!!

 

[Bifferwine]

My guess is rinsing the substrate killed off all your beneficial bacteria that lived in it. It's best to disturb the substrate as little as possible...

It sounds as though you may have inadvertently started another cycle. What are your water parameters testing at (pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in particular)?

 

[ronboy]

ph is 8.0
ammonia is.25 ppm
nirite is o
nitrate is .25 ppm

 

[ronboy]

should i leave it or should i start from scratch and cycle?

 

[Bifferwine]

If your ammonia is actually at .25, then you just started a new cycle. However, the test kit could be wrong. A lot of times, they read .25 when it's actually 0. If it's cycling, there isn't much you can do except wait it out. Hopefully since you used all the same live rock, it won't be a very big cycle (at least, not big enough to do any permanent damage to your corals or fish). It could also be that the corals are just adjusting... It can take them several days to open back up once they've been moved or disturbed.

 

[reeffreak]

What would Living Reefs be without Biff coming to the rescue.

Ron,if you rinse the sand in anything but saltwater,you probably killed off the beneficial bacteria and thats where the ammonia is coming from.Hopefully,its just a false reading and if it is a little ammonia,it should go fast.

 

[Bifferwine]

What would Living Reefs be without Biff coming to the rescue.

Is that sarcasm that I sense in your voice, boy?!?!

 

[reeffreak]

Yes ma'am!