Water Quality Question
- Thread starter KHow
- Start date
KHow
Member
The ammonia looks greener in the pic... Almost due for a water change based on the calender.... Also, would it affect my readings if, about an hour prior to testing, I scrubbed down the glass and intakes due to algae and red slime? Livestock all looking good, clarity is stellar, SG is right on, holding at 1.024 on the refractometer.
flower
Well-Known Member
I thought API kits were just bad for reading nitrates high. OY...ammonia too... ??? Get another test, for ammonia I use the strips, they are fast and cheap. Any reading at all on ammonia means do a water change. With fish already in the system, you should have no ammonia reading at all.
snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
Don't waste your money on an ammonia Hanna checker. Just wait a minute and take a water sample to your LFS.
Kristin1234
Active Member
You don't like it? I was thinking about one. I love my Hanna checker for phosphates.
snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
I like Hanna checkers. Calcium, alkalinity and phosphate are pretty much the only ones you need an absolutely accurate reading on.
Others like ammonia, nitrite and pH are pretty insignificant after the tank cycles and stabilizes. It's not worth it, at least for me, to buy three photospectometers that I would never use long term.
Others like ammonia, nitrite and pH are pretty insignificant after the tank cycles and stabilizes. It's not worth it, at least for me, to buy three photospectometers that I would never use long term.
KHow
Member
So, I am pretty sure that I have a well cycled tank. Almost a year up and running. Fish look good and a small hammer coral is doing well along with a two polyp zoa colony. Water changes happen every month... Usually 15 gallons on a 36g tank that effectively has 30 gallons circulating. Plenty of live rock and a good sand bed... I don't need to check my ammonia, PH, nitrates and nitrites? I thought those values were important. What do I need to monitor?
beaslbob
Well-Known Member
KHow
Member
Kristin1234
Active Member
Man that sucks. Sorry.
Fox faces eat a lot. Mine is probably my biggest eater.
A good diet should consist of a variety of different foods.
This is a good rule for most fish. Variety is the spice of life.
Fox faces eat a lot. Mine is probably my biggest eater.
A good diet should consist of a variety of different foods.
This is a good rule for most fish. Variety is the spice of life.
Last edited:
beaslbob
Well-Known Member
I to am sorry for your loss.
One thing to remember on Prime (and other ammonia locks) is to only dose for the free ammonia. Test kits like the api ammonia test kit actually measure both the free and safer "locked" ammonia. The danger is you add Prime still test ammonia and repeat. Each dose of prime also locks up oxygen so by overdosing the fish can actually suffocate from the Prime and display the symptoms of ammonia.
One method of prevent that is to use a test kit like the seachem multitest ammonia test kit which measures free and total ammonia.
That being said I much prefer to use macro algaes or an algae turf scrubber to balance out and stabilize the tank. Algae actually prefers to consume ammonia directly over nitrates and, unlike the chemical treatments, algae also consumes co2, nitrates, phosphates and returns oxygen and fish food.
my .02
lmforbis
Well-Known Member
I'd say my rabbit fish is my biggest, least picky eater too. I do switch up the type of algae sheets I use day to day as well as the type of fish food (flakes, pellets, assorted frozen foods). It could have had some sort of internal parasites preventing it from absorbing food. I suspect they are inefficient feeders like tangs so they need a decent amount of food to thrive. It sucks any time one of our fish dies.
KHow
Member
He was on a very varied diet. He loved the sea weed on a clip, he ate mysis and cyclops very well and every now and then, they would get red snapper or sheepshead bits. He just seemed to stop eating. I tried romaine, fresh and scalded, I never took any of that. The other day; I got up and could tell something was wrong, he was just skin and bones. All of this seems to be on the heels of that two day Popeye event; which resolved on its own. The Prime dose was just an emergency stop gap. I am at work for 24 hours and needed to do something. My wife might be able to do a water change this evening, but she might. It get off before she can get to the LFS. I have a bad feeling that I am going to lose everything to a crash.