Water Conditions

laurabelll

laurabelll

New Member
Pls eval my water conditions and advise if I am okay or not. Amonia-0.1, Alk-H, pH-8.6, NO2-0, NO3-0,PO4-0.1, Salinity-22.5 (increasing very slowly for 23.5), Temp-78. 120 gal, 2 months old, 2 coralife lighting. I have several coral and 4 green chromis. Approx 90 lbs LR. 100 blue hermits, 100 snails.
Reason asking is the pH & Alk won't budge. Would welcome some experienced reef keepers advise.
OH - how do you post a photo to username?
 
B

billb

Guest
Click on "f.a.q." up at the top of the page...see - User Maintenance!
 
cprdnick

cprdnick

Active Member
Ammonia should test unreadable. If you are seeing Ammonia but not any Nitrates, then it is safe to assume you are in the beginnings of a cycle. Ammonia is toxic to pretty much anything you can buy for your tank. This would explain the unbudging, high pH. Your pH will not stabilize during a cycle, in fact pH and Nitrates will be hard to accurately test during a cycle. Also, you measured your Alk, and it tested "H"???? You'll have to help us out on that one. If you are testing for Alk, are you testing for Ca as well? Your temp (depending on what kind of tank you are going for) should be between 78-82 degrees F.
Did you run an initial cycle on your tank when you first got it? How quickly did you add all of the life to your tank? with an ammonia reading like that, you may start to see some deaths in the next few days, if it raises, you will most certainly start seeing them.
Clint
 
laurabelll

laurabelll

New Member
Thank you Clint,
My Alk tested high. A bright blue. Cycled tank two weeks just water and about 45 lbs LR. Then added rest of LR. Waited another week with water testing thru LFS before added 12 snails, and 4 corals. have added one or two corals per week since. Testing every 2-3 days and 10% water changes weekly. My goal is a very full reef tank with minimal fish for attractiveness. My Amonia was .15 on 4/23, .01 4/30 and today
 
laurabelll

laurabelll

New Member
Clint. I forgot to tell you that my tank does look very healthy and there is no indication at all of anything wrong. I just was not sure why my pH & Alk stayed the same all the time. Do you have any ideas? I raised the temp to 79, I will raise another degree in a couple of days. Could use your advise.
 
barry cuda

barry cuda

Member
I haven't used them myself, but I know a lot of people here don't have much confidence in the Red Sea kits. I use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals myself, but if I venture into real reefkeeping I will probably switch to Salifert. You might try another brand of test kit and see what you get.
 
cprdnick

cprdnick

Active Member
I too don't have much experience with the Red Sea's either, I am currently using Aquarium Pharmecuticals, and if I had a hard core reef, I would not be using anything less than Salifert as well.
Laura, you may look into taking a water sample to your LFS and ask them to test for the two parameters in question, to check your test kits accuracy. I'm sorry I couldn't be much help with this issue, but second opinions from a different brand of test kit is as good as I can do at the moment.
Clint
 
laurabelll

laurabelll

New Member
Clint that is what I shall do then! I think that is a grand idea, I should have come up with that on my own...smile. Thanks for your time. Laura If you don't mind please tell me what this Selifert is???
 
cprdnick

cprdnick

Active Member
Salifert is a top brand of test kits, it is a step below LaMotte and Tunze, but still about 10 steps up from Aquarium Pharmecuticals and Red Sea.

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reefkeepers are not

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unless they care enough about their reefs to purchase atleast Salifert. I personally will never be able to affore a Tunze or LaMotte, but Salifert is fairly affordable with about the same accuracy as one of the high end kits.
Clint
 
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