help nitrate and ammonia levels went up ???

[sd777]

my ammonia level went to .2 and nitrtate levels went to 5-7 all ive done is been adding 5tsp of magnesium for the past 4 days to lift from 1000 and my ph is low 7.6-7.8 . should i be concerned ?? any ideas . i have 29g biocube with media basket , power head , 2 blk wht clowns a ylw watchman goby and pistol shrimp with zoas and kenya trees

 

[Pat02026]

How old is the tank, and what's the most recent addition/change aside from Mg dosing?

 

[frank180reef]

do u have corals? sounds like something might have died in ur water, how old is the tank?

 

[frank180reef]

sorry saw the zoos and kenya

 

[sd777]

tank is 3 and i just added a pistol shrimp

 

[beckbrass]

3 years or days old? A water change with ro/di will help lower levals.Sounds like something died.

 

[P-Nut]

do you ahve a serpent star? They are gret to take care of anything that dies or any uneaten food.

 

[sd777]

Sorry it is 3 years old. I will look into star also thank you

 

[kingfish62]

Those high nitrates are probably from your kid dumping in the overload of fish food that you mentioned too me. Or as previously mentioned something could have died.
Any missing snails?

+1 on the water change. That should help all your parameters.

 

[mark429]

3 years or days old? A water change with ro/di will help lower levals.Sounds like something died.

+1 water changes and get a head count on live stock

 

[Ruge13]

my ammonia level went to .2 and nitrtate levels went to 5-7 all ive done is been adding 5tsp of magnesium for the past 4 days to lift from 1000 and my ph is low 7.6-7.8 . should i be concerned ?? any ideas . i have 29g biocube with media basket , power head , 2 blk wht clowns a ylw watchman goby and pistol shrimp with zoas and kenya trees

PH is fine, deal with that slowly. Media basket would be the first place I looked, I'd clean that.
Given your mag dosing (no idea if that is a lot or a little) I would look for dead snails. I did the same as you the first time I dosed mag, which I later found out is a soft tissue paralizer for mollusks. Your mag levels may be still lower than you like, but the dramatic changes were toxic for snail like critters. I lost all but 2 or 3 snails (including 2 serpent stars and stomatella snails etc) and plucked them out at the time. You may be experiencing the same. Either way, water changes were the answer as they usually are.