What is wrong with my tank

[DaddyK]

I've had my aquarium up for about 2 months it's a 175g running a Rena xp3 and a fuval 405. There are 2 small oscars in there atm. Since having the aquarium up I've done a few things that were probably bad for the cycle.
First i had a piece of driftwood in there that i decided to take out about 3 weeks in because it was leeching so much tannins, of course with the brown water from the tannins i did a big water change. 4 days ago i took out the greater majority of my gravel and replaced it with sand.

So today i took a sample in to the lfs and everything is still messed up nitrites and nitrates and ammonia are high. The guy there said my pH is high too. I didn't ask him for the exact results but i think ill have to invest in a test kit to figure this out. His advice was to do a 25% water change but to use RO water bought from the store... I think i should test the tap before i go that route. He also said that i probably didn't have enough current.

My question is do you think my tank wont cycle because i changed my gravel to sand and did the big water change? Think i should give it another week or 2 before putting anything important in? Should i just leave it alone for a few weeks or do the water change?

Thanks for the help

-B

 

[mr.reef24]

I've had my aquarium up for about 2 months it's a 175g running a Rena xp3 and a fuval 405. There are 2 small oscars in there atm. Since having the aquarium up I've done a few things that were probably bad for the cycle.
First i had a piece of driftwood in there that i decided to take out about 3 weeks in because it was leeching so much tannins, of course with the brown water from the tannins i did a big water change. 4 days ago i took out the greater majority of my gravel and replaced it with sand.

So today i took a sample in to the lfs and everything is still messed up nitrites and nitrates and ammonia are high. The guy there said my pH is high too. I didn't ask him for the exact results but i think ill have to invest in a test kit to figure this out. His advice was to do a 25% water change but to use RO water bought from the store... I think i should test the tap before i go that route. He also said that i probably didn't have enough current.

My question is do you think my tank wont cycle because i changed my gravel to sand and did the big water change? Think i should give it another week or 2 before putting anything important in? Should i just leave it alone for a few weeks or do the water change?

Thanks for the help

-B

just sound's like you disrupted the reproduction of the bacteria bloom when you removed gravel and the water. The PH probably skyrocketed cause of the removal of the driftwood but with a good test kit and some ph down you'll be fine. for the cycling part I would wait for a bit till your tank reading's are 0 before adding any more livestock as they'll parish in the Ph spike and all the cycling being messed up. You could get some Fritzime or Smart Start to cycle the tank and you'll be good.

mr.reef24