Help!

jaspian

jaspian

Member
Frustrated with no options..... I did yet another water change yesterday... had to .. nitrates were like 40ppm.... now today ammonia and nitrite bumped up a bit and nitrates just over 20ppm.... what can I do??????... I am about to just drain the stupid tank.
I put cycle in this morning when i saw that ammonia and nitrite werent 0 anymore but no help 9 hrs later. What could be causing this...????
 
ejensen

ejensen

Member
Maybe it is your test kit. I think you have done almost anything I can think of. By changing all that water you might of sent your tank into another cycle. Leave it alone for a while until everything is back to zero except your nitrates. Take some water to a LFS and compare your test results. What kind of test kit are you using?
 
jaspian

jaspian

Member
Im sure I sent it into cycle again since reading are the same today.... :-( so im not gonna touch it... maybe go get lots of plants today. I have used the same test kit all along so I know i screwed it up. I am just concerned for my fish and inverts. Will they be ok while just is running its course??? Today ammonia was about 0.25-0.30... nitrite better today at 0.1... and nitrate about 25ppm... my pH is messed up... couldnt tell where it was from colored colored card... im going to get it tested today. Just dont want my tang to die since I noticed the water got a little cloudy and a brown algae blown turned up.
I have 2 feathers dusters, a small whitecheek tang (that eating the hema algae plants i have in there), 2 yellow damsels, and 2 yellow clown gobies. Havent fed them for 2 days now. Thanks for any help.
 
jaspian

jaspian

Member
Had my water tested... ammonia and nitrite are bumped slightly from 0 but my test kit is messed up for the nitrates... they are about 5 and my test kit was saying over 20.... so i messed my tank up temporarily for nothing... hopefully itll get back on track soon. I was told to use carbon to get rid of the ammonia.
 
jaspian

jaspian

Member
My rock lost a lot of color during the cycle but now they are covered in brown fuzz and there are two areas that are a distinct rust color.
 
jaspian

jaspian

Member
Also.... the guy at the LFS said my nitrates were 10ppm (I was getting 20ppm) so I bought a new test kit (same brand I had and he used) and the new kit is reading 5ppm. I dont know what to believe. And also he told me my salinity was reading 0.027 so I thought that was the problem since my reading was 0.024 with my hydrometer.... so I am just confused at what to believe.... should I go get another hydrometer? I might go get my water tested somewhere else also cause I have no clue of what to believe my nitrates are. His readings for ammonia and nitrites were also worse than mine.. but he uses his vials over and over whereas I use one for each type of test. I just dont know what to believe. :-(
 
ejensen

ejensen

Member
The only reason I can think you LR lost its color is because it was out of water too long. If your reading were high on the nitrates then it could be from your rocks having alot of die off. Not sure because we really can't trust your test kit. What kind of test kit are you using? You might want to test your water twice to check if there is any difference in your results. You can even get a salifert nitrate test if you don't trust yours. Salifert are the more accurate test out there. The other test should be clos. The brown alge will go away by it self in 2 weeks. You really shouldn't do anything about it. Just let it take its course. I Just went though it. You can scrub it, but if there is any life on it you might scrub it off too.
 
ejensen

ejensen

Member
What kind of hydrometer are you using? I use 2 kinds. One glass and one floating meter. You high salinity shouldn't affect it too much unless you keep it there. Just lower it slowly.
Do you have a skimmer?
 
jaspian

jaspian

Member
Yeah i have a skimmer running.... had some trouble adjusting it today... it just decided to let the water level rise... but its working well for removing junk. I have a float hydrometer (coralife one)
 
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