Getting are feet wet again Feeling Rusty Please HELP!!!!

[BPUMFREY]

Ok so to start off we are now getting back into saltwater Aquariums after being out of it for about a year. We (My wife and I) inherited a saltwater tank from a friend that is about 4 months old water was way out of whack and after about a week everything is coming into order but are nitrates...they seem high for our current setup:
29 Gallon
Compact Lighting 10k Bulb and Actinic Blue bulb
30 Pounds of Live Sand
27 Pounds of Live Rock
5 Hermits
2 Turbo Snails
and 2 Damsels for Cycling

And our current Balances are
Ammonia~0
Nitrite~0
Nitrate~40
P.H.~8.2
AK~3.2
Salinity~1.025
Calcium~460

Does everything seem in balance? again we were novice when we shut our tank down and we still somewhat are... How do we get our Nitrates down and is our alkalinity acceptable? we want to add Corals back to this tank but want to wait until the water is somewhat perfect (if thats possible) I know im rambling but any advice would be great thank you...

Also we live in Jasper, AL and we know of only two saltwater Aquarium shops one in Hunstville (2 Hour Drive) and one in Birmingham (1 Hour Drive) we used to go to the one in Athens, AL Coral Reef Aquatics John Newby was the owner but sadly it was hit by the tornado last year, So i guess i'm asking if anyone knows of any that might be closer to us?

 

[Scoly]

I would say do a couple small water changs to help bring your nitrates down and your all up.

 

[wysiwyg]

if your ak is 3.2 its way low assuming its a typo and is 13.2. do a 20% water change and it should bring your nitrates down. make sure to only use ro/di water

 

[BPUMFREY]

if your ak is 3.2 its way low assuming its a typo and is 13.2. do a 20% water change and it should bring your nitrates down. make sure to only use ro/di water

Its the Test Kit we have for the ALK its says 3.2 and says its in the high Range...? Milli Equaivalents per liter? is what is says on the card

 

[ritter6788]

The alk number is probably in meq/l which translates to 8.96 dkh which is perfect to me.

 

[BPUMFREY]

Thank you also by doing partial water changes that will bring out Nitrates down at what level would it be ok to start adding Corals?

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Welcome to R2R! Thanks for joining and please make sure and post often!

 

[wysiwyg]

yeah alk is good then. another thing besides water changes is if you have room in your sump add some chaeto to your refug its a great nitrate exporter

 

[BarbH]

Hello and welcome to r2r, agree with the water changes. Hopefully someone can answer what level for nitrates is good for starting to add corals. Good luck and look foward to seeing some pictures of this tank

 

[strange33w]

Ya some good water changes will bring that down. You could also cut down on feeding a little to help also. And welcome to R2R.

 

[R&J_Mako]

I am working off of those test strips. So when checking Amonia I work with shades of color for a reading. when I check for other stuff its the same, shades of the color telling me "safe"; "okay"; "caution" <---stress---> etc...

of course the color orange for testing pH tells me the number 7.0 I can see that.

Tan for the Nitrate tells me "ideal"

tan for Nitrite tells me "safe"

I have a test kit for 5 in 1 then a kit for Amonia. Calcium test is not available. Another test kit for that?

Now we have some rust algae forming on the live rock and settling on the live sand...Argggggg!