First water test!

firecop951 · Feb 7, 2016

Happy Super Bowl Sunday. New to the game and just put a new build together on 2/5. Its a Uniquarium 55R. I made my own water and have it at 1.26. I am using dry rock and live sand. I did use Bio-spera to get it kick started. I am a Firefighter and just got home this morning. I did a water test just to see were the tank is sitting. Below are the results. If I could get some feedback on my results that would be great. I do understand that it has only been cycling for less than 48 hours. any input would be great!!! Thanks
Ca- 290ppm
Mg- 1600 ppm
Kh- Meg/L 5.0
Dkh 14.0
No3- 5
No2- 0
Ph- 8.2
Nh3/Nh4- 0

water temp- 78.5

jrr98002 · Feb 7, 2016

Did you add an ammonia source? Your ammonia shouldn't be 0 this early in really. Bio-Spira will give you a headstart with the nitrifying bacteria, but you need an ammonia source to start the cycle. You can either add a raw shrimp for a couple days or buy some pure ammonia (make sure it's unscented and has nothing else in it other than 100% pure) add dose it up to at least 3ppm. Then keep testing until it goes down to 0 and you see nitrite. Then I'd suggest dosing your ammonia back up until it goes from around 3ppm to 0ppm in 24hrs, as well as your nitrite. Then you're ready to do a WC to lower nitrates then you can add a cleanup crew and get started. Also, if you plan on doing a reef, you need your Ca to be up to 420ppm.

firecop951 · Feb 7, 2016

I didn't add a ammonia source. Will my calcium go up during the cycle or will i need to dose? Would you suggest adding a couple fish at this point to help cycle or wait till i get ammonia in range and after water change?
Thanks

dbrewsky · Feb 7, 2016

I would recommend adding a raw shrimp, or ghost feeding your new aquarium with fish food daily and monitor. Your tank has to test positive for nitrate before you can start to consider it being properly cycled. This process usually takes 2-6 weeks depending on your aquarium and should not be rushed since elevated ammonia is guaranteed to cause any animals distress and/or death.

There are other advanced methods such as dosing ammonia directly to the aquarium at certain levels that can also provide the results of the methods listed above.

Patience during this time is critical and necessary! Just keep testing and you will see ammonia ramp up, then down, followed by a nitrite spike, and finally nitrates will test positive and ammonia will be undetectable.

dbrewsky · Feb 7, 2016

definitely no fish and no need to monitor calcium at this time, just keep an eye on the ammonia as you add a source to the tank and monitor how your test kits react. You know you are getting near the end of the cycling process when your nitrate shows detectable levels.

firecop951 · Feb 7, 2016

Awesome!! thank you for your time and help. Been planning and purchasing equipment the past 8 weeks and finally got the build done. Need to get that ammonia up and let this thing take off. Go Broncos!!!

dbrewsky · Feb 7, 2016

haha, should be a good game! Good luck with your build!

Diesel · Feb 7, 2016

As @dbrewsky mentioned ad ammonia and keep testing.
When ammonia is back down at 0 or close to that add more ammonia and let it come down again.
CAL isn't much important as of now.
What with testing that till you ready to put corals in.
What kind of salt are you using?

firecop951 · Feb 7, 2016

Salt I used was Red Sea coral pro.

Diesel · Feb 7, 2016

firecop951 said:
Salt I used was Red Sea coral pro.

Not sure where the High ALK is coming from other than you dose some of it as RedSea in Houston gave me these test results from their testing,
Red Sea alkalinity of 9.0.
Red Sea 450 calcium.
Red Sea 1350 magnesium.

firecop951 · Feb 7, 2016

I am not sure. Used RO water. Maybe the balance in the live sand? Not sure.

Diesel · Feb 7, 2016

Ummm, what test kits are you using?

joshkirkland83 · Feb 7, 2016

Diesel said:
Ummm, what test kits are you using?

At a salinity of 1.023 rscp has a kh of 12.2.

firecop951 · Feb 7, 2016

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firecop951 · Feb 7, 2016

joshkirkland83 · Feb 7, 2016

firecop951 said:
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Put you a frozen shrimp in there or ghost feed. Check again in a week.

firecop951 · Feb 7, 2016

Already in and cooking!!! Thanks for the info!!

bklynreef123 · Feb 8, 2016

Lots of people are having issues with Red Sea coral pro. I am one of them.

Diesel · Feb 8, 2016

bklynreef123 said:
Lots of people are having issues with Red Sea coral pro. I am one of them.

Enlighten us my friend?

bklynreef123 · Feb 8, 2016

I had issues keeping sps alive for months. Only upon changing salts and doing big water changes did things turn around. I didn't send samples out to triton or anything like that. There are others who have. I don't want to open too big of a can of worms here but this salt really isn't what the marketing hypes it up to be. The alk is also super high. If you do some poking around on the boards you will find others with similar problems. You will also find people who swear by it. My .02 is to save a few bucks and use a proven "old school" salt.