Water Problem

[Echosgold]

Things were running smoothly until recently. On 3/12 I added a half pound of live sand and after several days there was an outbreak of pods. They have since died down but my water is still hazy. I performed 25% water change and tested my water and found out that my ammonia is .25.

Here are my parameters:

30 gallon tank
Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Ammonia = .25
PH = 8.4
Temp = 79
SG = 1.024
Running a skimmer, 3" DSB, and 30 lbs of live rock

Just added a HOB filter with carbon yesterday but it hasn't seem to have done anything.

At the moment all I have is a small clean up crew and 2 clownfish who are acting a little lethargic hanging out near the bottom of the tank. I performed another 25% water change yesterday but still the tank is hazy and ammonia is reading .25. Any ideas on what I should do? I'm getting a little worried. Why would their be ammonia all of a sudden and my nitrate, nitites be 0?

 

[katfood]

Sounds typical of the first stages of a cycle. I'm assuming your tank is already established though. Did you take care to wash your sand?

 

[Echosgold]

Yeah, my tank cycled in early February. I did not wash the 1/2 lb of live sand I added to my existing sand because you don't wash live sand.

 

[slipknottin]

Sounds like a bacteria bloom. Id hold of on the water changes unless the ammonia gets above 1. The bacteria bloom and the ammonia should subside in less than a week.