Test Readings (Help)

brokendeck

brokendeck

Active Member
Got my new test kits in today. Here are the test readings.
Small Tank (29 Gallon)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
PH - 8.0 to 8.1
Alkalinity - 4
Ammonia - 0.1 (Im guessing thats what it read. Hate this test kit by the way. Gonna buy a different brand.)
What do I need to do to fix these problems. I know water changes. How often? Anything else? I also have a bad HAIR ALGAE problem in this tank.
Big Tank (75 Gallon)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40 to 50
PH - 8.0 to 8.2
Alkalinity - 5
Ammonia - 0.15
I have a bad cynao problem in this tank. What do i need to do to fix the problems in this tank? Anything besides water changes? How often?
If there is anything else i need to be testing for, please let me know. Any info to help with these problems would be greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
 
geridoc

geridoc

Well-Known Member
Your ammonia should be at zero - I'm guessing the test is hard to read at low concentrations. Your alkalinity is low for reef, but you don' say what kind of tanks you have. Anyway, it is clear you have too many nutrients in both tanks - hence the algae. Reduce feeding, add chaeto, improve circulation, add a phosban reactor, or any combination of these to reduce nitrogenous waste and trap phosphate will eventually solve your problem. At this point there is no point in measuring phosphate since they will probably be zero since the hair algae or cyano are using them to foul your tank.
 
brokendeck

brokendeck

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeriDoc http:///t/393255/test-readings-help#post_3497139
Your ammonia should be at zero - I'm guessing the test is hard to read at low concentrations. Your alkalinity is low for reef, but you don' say what kind of tanks you have. Anyway, it is clear you have too many nutrients in both tanks - hence the algae. Reduce feeding, add chaeto, improve circulation, add a phosban reactor, or any combination of these to reduce nitrogenous waste and trap phosphate will eventually solve your problem. At this point there is no point in measuring phosphate since they will probably be zero since the hair algae or cyano are using them to foul your tank.
whats the total gph should i have in the 29 gallon and 75 gallon? not sure what i have in either one. im at work at the moment but ill post when i get home this afternoon.
 
S

saxman

Guest
Without knowing what you're keeping, it's hard to say what your flow should be, HOWEVER, for most SW applications, if you don't have at least 10x turnover, you have to little flow. You also need to be mindful of how whatever flow you have in the tank is distributed (try not to have any dead spots, or at least too many of them ).
What's your tank stocking density?
What and how often do you feed the tank?
If you feed frozen foods, do you rinse them prior to feeding them out?
How much/how often do you perform water changes?
Are you using RO/DI or treated tapwater? If you'e using treated tapwater, your test kit may be registering that bound form of ammonia, which is harmless NH4 as opposed to the toxic NH3 (assuming your city doses the water with chloramine). Water treatment products don't remove the ammonia, they bind it up, which renders it non-toxic.
 
brokendeck

brokendeck

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by saxman http:///t/393255/test-readings-help#post_3497393
Without knowing what you're keeping, it's hard to say what your flow should be, HOWEVER, for most SW applications, if you don't have at least 10x turnover, you have to little flow. You also need to be mindful of how whatever flow you have in the tank is distributed (try not to have any dead spots, or at least too many of them ).
What's your tank stocking density?
What and how often do you feed the tank?
If you feed frozen foods, do you rinse them prior to feeding them out?
How much/how often do you perform water changes?
Are you using RO/DI or treated tapwater? If you'e using treated tapwater, your test kit may be registering that bound form of ammonia, which is harmless NH4 as opposed to the toxic NH3 (assuming your city doses the water with chloramine). Water treatment products don't remove the ammonia, they bind it up, which renders it non-toxic.
29 gallon tank is my big problem at the moment. all i have in there is a yellow watchmen and a longnose hawk. ro/di water. just checked my gph pump. its 396 (29 gallon). i think my pump may be going bad. doesnt seem to be pushing as much water as it did in the past. should i move up to a stronger pump? ive always had this problem in this tank with algae and cyano. it has a 2 tube 1/2 loc-line. what do you think?
 
S

saxman

Guest
I'd give the pump a good cleaning and let it run a few mins in a white vinegar/water solution for a few mins, then let it run in fresh water for a bit, and then see how it's pumping.
How old are your lamps, and what color temp are they?
Please respond to my question regarding feeding as well...
 
brokendeck

brokendeck

Active Member
MH lamp got replaced 5 months ago. not sure the color thou. its the more blue color MH.
tank has yellow watchmen and longnose hawk. i feed 1 cube of mysis, brine and bloodworms. i just scoop a cup of water out of the tank and let it melt then pour the cup into the water.
also water change every 2 weeks.
 
S

saxman

Guest
Bingo...you're not rinsing your food. Put it in a small net and rinse it under the tap before adding it to the tank, One of the biggest things you're adding at that point are phosphates, bacteria (not the type you want), and other organics.
 
brokendeck

brokendeck

Active Member
so am i feeding to much food for 2 fish? my wife bought me phosguard yesterday in a pouch. should i put it in my tank?
 
S

saxman

Guest
It's mostly about not rinsing the food...all that "juice" from the thawed food is pure trash you're pouring into your tank.
If you're saying you're feeding out 3 cubes of food per day, that's WAY too much for two fish, besides not rinsing it. Feeding a varied diet is the right idea, but you don't have to offer everything at once. Your two fish shouldn't be getting more than one cube per day. Out of the three foods you're offering, mysis is by far the best in terms of nutrition, so I'd use the other two maybe once or twice a week.
 
brokendeck

brokendeck

Active Member
i feed them 3 cubes once every 2-3 days. ill cut back on the bloodworms and brine. will continue to rise the food off from now on. did not know that.
 
xcali1985

xcali1985

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by morgan175 http:///t/393255/test-readings-help#post_3497881
I use ro water to when rinsing food. Im ocd though
If im not mistaken, I read an article about rising food had minimal to no effect on lowering phosphates, which is most of the reason people rinse their foods. If you have a feed the "soup" that the cubes are frozen in is actually beneficial for filter feeder corals.
I'll try to locate the article.
 
xcali1985

xcali1985

Active Member
Here it is:


http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry
It states near the bottom that rinsing food and looks at it in 2 situations. Read the entire article to understand the analysis below.
Quote:

Rinsing Foods and the Effect on Phosphate
Now that we have some information on the phosphate in foods, we can critically examine the concern that many aquarists have about foods, and specifically their rinsing of frozen foods before use. A typical test you see is someone taking a cube of fish food, thawing it, and putting it into a half cup of water. They then test that water for phosphate and find it "off the charts". Let's assume that means 1 ppm phosphate, which would give a very dark blue color in many phosphate tests. Bear in mind this is a thought problem, not an actual measured value, but it is typical of what people think the answer is.
Is that a lot of phosphate? Well, there are two ways to think of the answer.
The first way is as a portion of the total phosphate in that food. A half cup of water at 1 ppm (1 mg/L) phosphate contains a total of 0.12 mg of phosphate. A cube of Formula 2 contains about 11.2 mg of phosphate. So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food. Not really worthwhile, in my opinion, but that decision is one every aquarist can make for themselves.
The second way to look at this rinsing is with respect to how much it reduces the boost to the aquarium phosphate concentration. Using the same calculation as above of 0.12 mg of phosphate, and adding that to 100 gallons total water volume, we find that phosphate that was rinsed away would have boosted the "in tank" phosphate concentration by 0.12 mg/379 L = 0.0003 ppm. That amount washed away does not seem significant with respect to the "in tank" target level of about 50-100 times that level (say, 0.015 to 0.03 ppm), nor does it seem significant relative to the total amount of phosphate actually added each day in foods (which is perhaps 50-1000 times as much, based on input rates from Table 4. Again, the conclusion I make is that rinsing is not really worthwhile, in my opinion.
It's more of a comfort action then actually effectiveness. Most companies take pretty good measures to lower the unwanted minerals in their products. Besides like I said if you have corals that filter feed the particles of food that you rinse off is removing food that they can enjoy.
 
brokendeck

brokendeck

Active Member
great article. ive watched many videos of people feeding there tanks online. most of them just throw the cubes in the water and the fish go to town.
 
S

saxman

Guest
I get what the article is saying, however, in the "SH world", with messy eaters and heavily fed tanks, I have had several folks who didn't rinse and had an algae problem, begin rinsing and their problems went away. No other changes were made. Coincidence? Maybe, but what works, works...
That being said, there's a lot more than phosphate in the "juice" of thawed food...bacteria and organics are also going into your tank. Again, it's all how one chooses to keep their system. Any "loose" food that is thawed gets rinsed at our house.
It's just like the drip acclimation issue...due to the ammonia content in the bag, we don't do this on most of our new acquisitions as they've usually been shipped to us.
 
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