Where did I go wrong??

[mjslaugh]

Okay so I just tested my water parameters today and a couple of them have me a little worried. Should I be worried, I just did a 5g water change that is almost 20%, do I need to do anything else??

PH in between 8.4-8.6 to hard for me to tell
Alk normal range
No2 0
No3 20
NH3 0-0.25 again to close to call closer to 0 but still a slight green tint
salinity 1.025 compliments of my new refractometer

 

[DonW]

Your numbers are not that bad. What test kits are you using? Go out to google, find and read as many articles as your brain can handle on NNR (natural nitrate reduction).

Your nitrates are up due to pollution. You need to track what your doing and determine where they are comming from. Your putting it there some how, may be over feeding, maybe an overstocked immature tank.

Don

 

[mjslaugh]

Your numbers are not that bad. What test kits are you using? Go out to google, find and read as many articles as your brain can handle on NNR (natural nitrate reduction).

Your nitrates are up due to pollution. You need to track what your doing and determine where they are comming from. Your putting it there some how, may be over feeding, maybe an overstocked immature tank.

Don

Thanks, I just got done reading your thread about not reading it was good, but in my case I don't think it is a lack of effort, but mearly a lack of understanding. I have always strugled remembering or comprehending what I read, not necessarily a bad thing I just learn better by doing, my stuggle but its getting better, It just usually works better when I have something good that I can read and then go back and re-read after I forget it. From what I have read I was expecting an ammonia spike due to my cleaning crew that I added all at once 5 snails, 3 hermits, 1 emerald. I also had not done a water change since the middle of my cycle, after that water change I read that I wasn't supposed to do a water change during the cycle so I didn't. I just did one today.

I will go and research nnr as much as I can, but if you or anyone finds a really good article on it would you mind shooting me a pm and a link.

Thanks for the info, I guess the only other question I have is about the PH in my tank is it to high, I have been looking for a cheat sheet for numbers to shoot for in my water tests(Oh and I am using RedSea kit), but there are so many varying answers depending on what type of tank your using, it is hard to know what to shoot for.

 

[Brenden]

I would work on the NO3 first. PH is ideally around 8.3 Redsea kits are not very accurate.

 

[mjslaugh]

What should I do for it, I read about it and what I found says that it is taken care of by your live rock and sand and macro algae??

I don't want to add any macro algae, right??

I am already using cheato as a filter, should I increase the amount of cheato??

 

[loohunter]

how long has your tank been set up with live rock

 

[returnofsid]

A refugium with lots of macro algae that's getting proper flow and proper lighting will go a long way towards lowering and eliminating Nitrates. I'd suggest using Salifert or Elos test kits. They're a bit more expensive, but much more accurate.

 

[Barbie]

Patience . The pH will drop. The tank is just new and there's nothing to defeat the buffering capacity. The chaeto will help with the nitrates, it just takes a little time is all and your water changes will keep pushing them down slowly. This is the cycling process and why you didn't want to stock a bunch of stuff in the tank already .

Barbie

 

[busdriver]

8.4-8.6 is much better than 7.4 that I had a month or two ago...
I have loads of cheato and cheato/calerpa/hair mix if you want some. I'm in the Spokane Valley...

 

[DonW]

Dont worry about PH, you cant do anything about it anyways without effecting other parameters.

Get your self a note pad and keep track of everything you do to your tank including feeding. Note the test results as you go along. Also note what livestock you have at the time.
When you see things like elevated nitrates you can go back and look at your notes since the last test. In this case you would have seen that you did not do a waterchange since mid cycle and you added a clean up crew.

By reading your notes you can reason that you waited to long for a waterchange. Your new crew did alot of eating off your LR releasing whatever was in the algae on the rock.
Now you know you need to up your waterchanges for awhile and see how it goes. Start on the high end, more like 20% weekly. Do that for awhile and keep taking notes and see how it goes.

Macro is not a fix. Your tank is still young and has very liitle stock that should be able to take care of N without the use of macro. Macro is great when youve reached a point that your tank cant handle the bioload or you need more time away from the tank and cant do the hands on like waterchanges.

Don

 

[mjslaugh]

ok, will do, I am starting a journal to record my activity. I found the last set of numbers from the day that I added the crew. I had zeros for ammonia nitrite and nitrate and the rest were the same, so I am starting there.

So would you say that this is the 2nd cycle I was reading about?? I was assured that I wouldn'g get this, but hey isn't that what lfs are for??

Basically I am going with the idea that I added the crew to fast, and to much at once, does that seem the likely cause??

 

[DonW]

ok, will do, I am starting a journal to record my activity. I found the last set of numbers from the day that I added the crew. I had zeros for ammonia nitrite and nitrate and the rest were the same, so I am starting there.

So would you say that this is the 2nd cycle I was reading about?? I was assured that I wouldn'g get this, but hey isn't that what lfs are for??

Basically I am going with the idea that I added the crew to fast, and to much at once, does that seem the likely cause??

Very well could be the cause but I do think your lacking water changes, at least until you get the hang of your system.
Depending on the critters they eat the algae on the rocks. The algae was holding nutrients. The critters of course release the nutrients via their rear ends.

Don

 

[Barbie]

A small amount of ammonia isn't a "cycle" it's the system adjusting to nutrient being introduced. Without adding something to eat in the tank, you aren't getting waste. Adding snails or clean up crew added something making ammonia. .25 is NOT a cycle, it's a reading showing you're getting ammonia. Now wait for it to stabilize and the rock to catch up with the waste being produced. Basically you're seeing why it's important not to go too fast. High pH is normal in a new tank. There's not enough waste in there to bring the pH down. New tanks are all about swings and figuring out what works in your particular system. Going slow is the key to success. Take a deep breath .

Barbie