Is my tank ready?

briandg

briandg

Member
I have a 55 gal. tank that has been cycling for 7 weeks. I have a Rena XP2 canister filter, Prizm skimmer, I will add to maxijet 900 powerheads as soon as they're delivered on Tuesday. 70 lbs live rock, 40 lbs live sand. My readings are as follows:
Nitrate 80 (seems awful high)
PH 7.9 (seems a little low)
Nitrite 0
Ammonia between 0 & .25
Specific Gravity: 1.0235
Temp: 76 (is this warm enough or should I turn up my heater)
I initially set up my tank using tap water from my well (did this before I found this site, one of many bad suggestions from my lfs) I have been topping off with ro water purchased at Walmart.
I have an ro unit ordered should be here Tuesday, will do my first water change as soon as it comes in. Will this help with my nitrate and PH readings. I was also wondering if the increased flow from the powerheads would help with the PH. Are these readings good enough to go ahead and slowly add a cleaning crew?
Finally if I should begin adding does anyone have any suggestions what what I should add first and how many. I'll probably be ordering them online as I don't trust my lfs and their tanks don't look so good.
Thanks
 
yimmy

yimmy

Active Member
everything is looking good, have you seen a spike? Your nitrates are high and cleaning a water change would help, as for ammonia I would wait till it's zero till you add any fish. 76 is fine IMOI keep my tank from 79-79.5. I would say once the ammonia is 0 and nitrate below 30 you can add a clean up crew. I'm not sure about the pH, mine is 8.2, not sure what is a good pH. Good Luck
Yimmy
 
briandg

briandg

Member
Originally Posted by Yimmy
everything is looking good, have you seen a spike? Your nitrates are high and cleaning a water change would help, as for ammonia I would wait till it's zero till you add any fish. 76 is fine IMOI keep my tank from 79-79.5. I would say once the ammonia is 0 and nitrate below 30 you can add a clean up crew. I'm not sure about the pH, mine is 8.2, not sure what is a good pH. Good Luck
Yimmy
It's strange, I never really saw a spike, I didn't have a test kit for the first couple weeks, my lfs tested my water after about 3 weeks and said the numbers were going up. I should have asked more specifics but didn't. At first I purchased the test strips, all my readings have remained very close for the past four weeks. I finally got my test kit today, so it's the first time I've had numbers. I can't imagine though, after 7 weeks my tank hasn't cycled. I'm hoping water changes, powerheads, and ro water will get everything else in line. My nitrites have been 0 since I started testing.
 
yimmy

yimmy

Active Member
I think the cycle ended but a water change will help out the ammonia and the nitrate. Also if you have the kind of filter that you can clean that would help you out too. RO water might help the pH I'm not really sure though, if worse comes to worse you could maybe get some pH buffer but I would just wait for the RO water. I did this for kicks though and grocery store RO water has a lower pH than RO water that you get from a fish store or from the kind of RO unit you buy. Good Luck
 
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