Water quality question?

[mazdaspeed]

This is my most recent test of water...
S/G 1.024-1.025
Temp 81
PH - 8.4
Ammonia - not sure
Nitrate - Less than 10ppm
Nitrite - 0
Alk - a little under 300ppm
How is that? And whats like the best most accurate test kit to get?

 

[bigarn]

You need to know what the ammonia level is. Get Salifert test kits... they're the most accurate out there, IMO.

 

[manjisann]

I personally use red sea and the only complaint I have is that the alk doesn't give you an exact measurement, it just low, normal or high. You really do need to know what your ammonia level is. How long has your tank been established, and are you currently cycling it? :happyfish

 

[mazdaspeed]

Tank's been up for about 3months now so it's been already cycled... It has almost 20 some pounds of live rock in it... I've been using test like strip kits but i'm all out of them and i've heard there not the most accurate so I wanted to get somthing a little better. The tank has 1 queen conch, 5 blue legged hermits, and I bought 6 astera snails, one died within about 2 days but the other 5 have been in there for 2 weeks and eat and move all over the place so I think the one was a fluke... But now I look and there are 3-4 little tiny astrea snails that i've found...

 

[laddy]

Accurate testing is 50% of the work--invest in good kits (BTW amonia test kits are normally the cheapest), and insure accurate testing by keeping test tubes clean.

 

[manjisann]

Unless you have mass die offs, one snail here and there are not too bad. You have to remember that these animals are traumatized during transit.
I've heard that the test strips are not very accurate, but this is just second hand knowledge. 20 some odd pounds of live rock in a 12 gal. tank should help stablize your water quality.

 

[mazdaspeed]

Well I got a whole new test kit this time... And re-tested these are the results I got.
Temp: 81
S/g: 1.025
PH:8.0
Amonia: .25
Nitrite: 0.0ppm
Nitrate: 20.0ppm
So now whats the best way to reduce nitrates in the system. In my filter i'm running some live rock rubble and a little bit of live sand. I was running for a while a bio-wheel but I heard bad things about those so I pulled that. Also I had orrginally set up the tank with tap water but have since than been doing some heafty water changes using RO water.
Any suggestions?

 

[manjisann]

The nitrate will remain sorta high until all of the ammonia is gone. you need to figure out what is causing the ammonia. Do you currently have any fish, or is it just the snails you mentioned earlier?
Assuming that nothing in your tank is dying off, you may just want to give it a little time to allow the bacteria colonies to grow to sufficient proportions to be able to process the ammonia and nitrate. If you are not inclined to wait, the only other thing I can think of other than continuing your weekly 10% water change is maybe running some really high grade carbon in your filter for a while. I don't know if it will necessarily remove the ammonia and nitrate, but it will help remove any dissolved organic material, which will break down into these components. If you do try the carbon, make sure it won't leach phospates into your tank or you will have a huge algae bloom as well. I personally use Kent Marine, and I don't have any complaints. Also, be sure to use a filter sock for the carbon. A protien skimmer will do about the same thing. I hope this helps and keep us posted.

 

[mazdaspeed]

No die offs, one stupid snail who flipped himself on his back but i got him out like within hours of that happening and other than that I have clear clean water... No fish yet and probably wont have any looking more for the reef route. Things have been going for almost 3 months now, snails, hermits, and one queen conch all very active . I was thinking of running some carbod for maybe a day and see what happens...

 

[laddy]

I'm not too sure your tank is cycled, but rather in the process of cycling. You still have elevated levels of amonia which would concern me. Do you have live rock and live sand?

 

[mazdaspeed]

three months running and still cycleing?¿ i didn't think it took that long... everything in the tank looks good, i had a bad out break of red algae but thats subsided. there's about twenty pounds of live rock in the tank and twenty pounds live sand both have been in there since setup. monday my 96w powerquad light comes in and once i have that up im going to start building a 10g sump/fuge so i think thatll make a nice difference...
anything else for recomendations?

 

[syres1]

It takes up to a year for a tank to totally cycle. That doesn't mean that you can't get any fish, or coral. I would just stay away from the expensive and very delicate fish. So no seahorses for you buddy. Gonna take longer too because of your 20 pounds of sand you have in there. But you could start with some damsels, take them out later because they are fin nippers, but that will give you something to look at. For now. You can also put a cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp in there if you'd like

 

[syres1]

by the way what filteration do you have? What do you want to put in your tank? Do you have a powerfilter with a biowheel? Do you have a protein skimmer?

 

[mazdaspeed]

Newest water tests:
PH-8.2
AM-.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20ppm
So pretty much still the same. As for filtration the tank is an eclipse 12 so it has like the built in filter on the back but I bascially pulled everything out of it and put some live rock and lice sand back there and it's being used more for water movement. There's no protein skimmer. Next week once I get my 96w powerquad lights, I'll be bulding a 10g sump/fuge for filtration so I think that will make a big difference.
As for what i'd like to put in the tank... I'd like to make it a reef tank in all honesty so that's what i'm working towards.