Bought used aquarium with saltwater fish,ammonia,nitrtes high

[bigmarj]

I bought a used 150 gal.saltwater tank with fish on sunday.We set it up as fast as we could,for the fish,with live sand, that came with the tank,some live rock and some water from the tank and new ro saltwater. Today thursday, the ammonia is 2.0 ppm,nitrite 3.0 ppm and nitrates 8.0ppm.I added same Kent Pro-Ammonia-Detox but it didn`t seam to make a differance. What should i do now?
Thank You bigmarj

[Ninong]

I bought a used 150 gal.saltwater tank with fish on sunday.We set it up as fast as we could,for the fish,with live sand, that came with the tank,some live rock and some water from the tank and new ro saltwater. Today thursday, the ammonia is 2.0 ppm,nitrite 3.0 ppm and nitrates 8.0ppm.I added same Kent Pro-Ammonia-Detox but it didn`t seam to make a differance. What should i do now?
Thank You bigmarj

Hi bigmarj,



You should do a big water change with new saltwater. As big as you can manage. Then do it again a few days later.

What species of fish do you have? Ammonia at 2.0 ppm and nitrite at 3.0 ppm could be fatal to many fish. It all depends on what you have. Damsels, for instance, will probably make it through okay but dwarf angels and many other fish won't.

Good luck!

[bigmarj]

I have 2 big (4-5 inch) foxface rabbit fish,a purple trigger fish,3 damsels and a bright green fish that hides in the sand. I did a 21 gallon water change last night and the nitrite went down to 2,but the ammonia is still at 2.