Eminent Tank Crash - Please Help

[CoralPavillion]

Thanks in advance Marine Legends!!

Here is my situation: I did a water change about 1.5 weeks ago when everything was flourishing. I recently added two black and white oscilleris and a rose bulb anemone to a few other coral in my 12 gallon nano.

My friend BruceWayne checked all my parameters today and here are the results:
Alkalinity - 8.0-8.5
Ammonia - 0.25 ( i know this is bad but I dont think there is anything dead)
Nitrates - 50
Nitrites - 0
Phosphates - 0
Calcium and magnesium - We tested them 3 times each and they wouldn't change colors at all. Don't know whats up.

I'm thinking about doing a 50% or so water change today and maybe syphon out the sand as well and put new sand in there. Any suggestions at all will help a lot.

[barometer]

How old is the setup? Could just be that the nem and fish were alot to add to a 12g at once.....that's small for a nem. I'd stick with the WCs for now, many smaller ones may be better than a single large one. i'd also try to figure out where that ammonia reading is coming from, the nem and corals will be extra sensitive to that. Others will chime in I'm sure, HTH :)

[CoralPavillion]

ok I will try small WC for now maybe once a week? My setup with the fish and nem has been goin for like 6 weeks and only the past two weeks has it gotten bad. before that it was flourishing better than ever and my fish even hosted the nem. Thanks for the info. Also my nitrates seem to be through the roof at 50 p/mil what can I do about that?

[CBlanks]

I wouldn't put a nem in anything smaller than a 40. I wouldn't put a nem in a tank that hasn't been going for at least 6 mos.

[Puff_love]

I would get more water volume! upgrade :-0

[CoralPavillion]

CBlanks, Alright got it man I am going to take the nem out for a while at least. My tank has been going for maybe 8-10 months but like i said I put the nem in about 6 weeks or so ago.

Ok I understand the nem needs to go, but is that why I have high ammonia and high nitrates?

[barometer]

I agree with CBlanks, the nem really should go in a bigger more established system. Nitrates can come from various sources, overfeeding, detritus buildup, filter collection, etc. WCs will also help with that, but ultimately you want to find the root cause of these readings. While things are funky you can do small WCs every day or every other to help.

[CoralPavillion]

I was already going to get more water volume before this thread, but I just wanted to know how I got such bad readings on my parameters so it doesn't happen again...

[davocean]

It's really easy to have a decent param swing in a small volume of water.
Any trace of amo at all is bad, I'd get stock moved quickly.
Going by second post I thought your system was only 6 weeks as well.
Helps/faster to have specs in sig.

[DaveMorris]

What kind of test kits are you using? If they are old, they can be giving you bad readings.

[Techknowledgy]

Bad things happen very quickly in small tanks. I agree with Ed. Small water changes every day for several days.