i fyou do decide to g et corals get an kenya tree coral great starter coral and will close u when water is going bad so when you see one close up you know its time for a water change lol
So what next...............
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Otherone;4997995; said:Admitedly this is my 1st saltwater tank by hardly my 1st experience with water chemistry. My nitrate test kit is maroon @ 80 ppm, red @ 40ppm, orange @ 20 ppm
yellow @ 10, 5, & 0 ppm and from personal experince I've found the Nitrate stage to be almost as quick as ammonia (nitrosomonas) but perhaps the chemistry is a little different in saltwater , guess I'll find out and sure glad you ppl are here to help out.
I'm in no rush, nothing is going to be added til nitrates are 5ppm or less, just trying to get my head around the next step to aviod costly mistakes like buying conflicting corals that release toxins that kill each other.
My sand bed is 4" deep
Hmmm, must have a good test kit. I know the test kits I have seen I can't tell you the different really between any close numbers.
Your sand bed is what will be contributing most to the drop in nitrates, at least for now. Like others have said it can cause problems long term, particularly when in tank where food ends up rotting in it. For the time being, and as long as you don't over feed or let your water quality get bad, the DSB(deep sand bed) will help keep your water quality high.
As far as corals killing each other via toxins, most likely won't happen. Putting them too close together can stress or kill many of them, but toxins released into the water shouldn't reach too high of levels as long as you maintain a proper water change schedule and have good protein skimming. If you wait too long between water changes and don't do them enough those toxins will restrict growth before killing.
I hear what you all are saying and am quite suprised. I have been doing 10% + H20 every friday religiously approx 30 gal. I was led to believe that this would be sufficent by my LFS the self porclaimed - largest fish store in the world and sometimes sponser of this site. I'll bump them up to 2x 30 gal weekly. I don't mind putting in the footwork.
My freshies get 50% weekly approx. 500 gal. a week and I haven't had measurable amounts of Nitrate in years. I'm kinda shocked thinkin' 3 lil' 1" fish a few dinky crabs and less than a dozen snails are gonna generate more Nitrate than 12" Piranha shoal w/ a breeding colony of 40+ assassian snails , 16" Wolfish, 10" datniods, 12" Cichlids, a tank loaded with 8" freshwater Cudas, and a Vampire Tetra that eats 100 feeders a week all in similair size tanks. That is truely shocking why would anyone ever buy autodrips it would be piontless.
My freshies get 50% weekly approx. 500 gal. a week and I haven't had measurable amounts of Nitrate in years. I'm kinda shocked thinkin' 3 lil' 1" fish a few dinky crabs and less than a dozen snails are gonna generate more Nitrate than 12" Piranha shoal w/ a breeding colony of 40+ assassian snails , 16" Wolfish, 10" datniods, 12" Cichlids, a tank loaded with 8" freshwater Cudas, and a Vampire Tetra that eats 100 feeders a week all in similair size tanks. That is truely shocking why would anyone ever buy autodrips it would be piontless.
Otherone;4999386; said:I hear what you all are saying and am quite suprised. I have been doing 10% + H20 every friday religiously approx 30 gal. I was led to believe that this would be sufficent by my LFS the self porclaimed - largest fish store in the world and sometimes sponser of this site. I'll bump them up to 2x 30 gal weekly. I don't mind putting in the footwork.
My freshies get 50% weekly approx. 500 gal. a week and I haven't had measurable amounts of Nitrate in years. I'm kinda shocked thinkin' 3 lil' 1" fish a few dinky crabs and less than a dozen snails are gonna generate more Nitrate than 12" Piranha shoal w/ a breeding colony of 40+ assassian snails , 16" Wolfish, 10" datniods, 12" Cichlids, a tank loaded with 8" freshwater Cudas, and a Vampire Tetra that eats 100 feeders a week all in similair size tanks. That is truely shocking why would anyone ever buy autodrips it would be piontless.
Don't get me wrong here. If you are doing 30 gallons a week in water changes you are doing plenty. You should not need to do anymore than that. You nitrates should continue to come down if you maintain that schedule and feed appropriately.
Most likely it built up during the cycling time from die off on the rock and not doing water changes to let it cycle. You are already reversing this and well on your way to success.
Otherone;4999386; said:I hear what you all are saying and am quite suprised. I have been doing 10% + H20 every friday religiously approx 30 gal. I was led to believe that this would be sufficent by my LFS the self porclaimed - largest fish store in the world and sometimes sponser of this site. I'll bump them up to 2x 30 gal weekly. I don't mind putting in the footwork.
My freshies get 50% weekly approx. 500 gal. a week and I haven't had measurable amounts of Nitrate in years. I'm kinda shocked thinkin' 3 lil' 1" fish a few dinky crabs and less than a dozen snails are gonna generate more Nitrate than 12" Piranha shoal w/ a breeding colony of 40+ assassian snails , 16" Wolfish, 10" datniods, 12" Cichlids, a tank loaded with 8" freshwater Cudas, and a Vampire Tetra that eats 100 feeders a week all in similair size tanks. That is truely shocking why would anyone ever buy autodrips it would be piontless.
Off topic here a little, but man you have an awesome freshwater collection. How long have you had your vampire tetra?
The Vampire will be 2 years old in mid May and thank you.
Talk about an EPIC fail - I changed another 30gal. on Sunday as I assumed I was helping to get rid of more Nitrate - better safe than sorry right. It was at 20 ppm prior 40 ppm after - CRAP WTF. Filled and tested the water change system and it to
was 40 ppm - went to the Tap - 40 ppm. I got screwed. I tested my nieghbors on both sides 40 ppm. Called the water treatment plant and am now engaged in an EPA issue as Federal law prohibites Nitrates over 10 ppm in municipal water supplies.
Usually and as recent as last week the Nitrate in the house system is 5 ppm.
What a mess. I really don't want to be in the middle of this. Oddly enuff there was a recent article in the paper warning ppl to clean up their dog pop as it's leaching was getting problematic.
Talk about an EPIC fail - I changed another 30gal. on Sunday as I assumed I was helping to get rid of more Nitrate - better safe than sorry right. It was at 20 ppm prior 40 ppm after - CRAP WTF. Filled and tested the water change system and it to
was 40 ppm - went to the Tap - 40 ppm. I got screwed. I tested my nieghbors on both sides 40 ppm. Called the water treatment plant and am now engaged in an EPA issue as Federal law prohibites Nitrates over 10 ppm in municipal water supplies.
Usually and as recent as last week the Nitrate in the house system is 5 ppm.
What a mess. I really don't want to be in the middle of this. Oddly enuff there was a recent article in the paper warning ppl to clean up their dog pop as it's leaching was getting problematic.
Otherone;5004694; said:The Vampire will be 2 years old in mid May and thank you.
Talk about an EPIC fail - I changed another 30gal. on Sunday as I assumed I was helping to get rid of more Nitrate - better safe than sorry right. It was at 20 ppm prior 40 ppm after - CRAP WTF. Filled and tested the water change system and it to
was 40 ppm - went to the Tap - 40 ppm. I got screwed. I tested my nieghbors on both sides 40 ppm. Called the water treatment plant and am now engaged in an EPA issue as Federal law prohibites Nitrates over 10 ppm in municipal water supplies.
Usually and as recent as last week the Nitrate in the house system is 5 ppm.
What a mess. I really don't want to be in the middle of this. Oddly enuff there was a recent article in the paper warning ppl to clean up their dog pop as it's leaching was getting problematic.
Sweet fish, not many people do well with payara, congrats on that.
40ppm is terrible. Dog poop doesnt get down into your water that fast....unless something is really bad, or your aquifer is at like 3'.
That being said, in your situation you might have to go towards getting RODI just to be on the safe side.
Good for you to point this out to the municipalities however, water like this can be bad for ones health, especially pregnant women. (Birth defects)
Otherone;5004694; said:The Vampire will be 2 years old in mid May and thank you.
Talk about an EPIC fail - I changed another 30gal. on Sunday as I assumed I was helping to get rid of more Nitrate - better safe than sorry right. It was at 20 ppm prior 40 ppm after - CRAP WTF. Filled and tested the water change system and it to
was 40 ppm - went to the Tap - 40 ppm. I got screwed. I tested my nieghbors on both sides 40 ppm. Called the water treatment plant and am now engaged in an EPA issue as Federal law prohibites Nitrates over 10 ppm in municipal water supplies.
Usually and as recent as last week the Nitrate in the house system is 5 ppm.
What a mess. I really don't want to be in the middle of this. Oddly enuff there was a recent article in the paper warning ppl to clean up their dog pop as it's leaching was getting problematic.
Wow, that is crazy. Definitely need to switch over to RODI I guess. I am glad you took a proactive approach on this and hopefully the issue will be resolve soon.
Meet with the municipality and physically saw nitrate of 15 ppm coming in untreated outgoning was 5ppm or less. As it turns out it is my test kit. Apparently the shaking process of the nitrate test is flawed - the municipality also used to use the shake method and got irradic readings as well. They switched to another method not involving the shaking of anything but the kit was extremely expensive.
Anybody now a good nitrate test were you don't need to shake the bottle or tube?
Anybody now a good nitrate test were you don't need to shake the bottle or tube?
No...but I have only ever used API, and I get very consistent results.
When this runs out, I will probably buy a salifert one to replace it, they are sort of an industry standard for a lot of reefers.
When this runs out, I will probably buy a salifert one to replace it, they are sort of an industry standard for a lot of reefers.
