Help!! High nitrates

[Keeks09]

Sea Clone skimmers are the worst I have used. We had one and it never did skim properly even with all the mods. We ended up with an Octopus nano at half the price and that little fella chugs skim day and night worry-free. Couple of questions:
How old is the sand
What was the condition of the other tank before you took the rocks
Did you clean the rocks?

I kept rhe sand from my tank, her rocls are in good condition other than aptasia. No i did not clean them off they stayed submerged in rhe water since they had corals and anemones. Took my water to get retested

 

[Flippers4pups]

Who tested your water? LFS? Looks like a bad test kit!

 

[Keeks09]

Who tested your water? LFS? Looks like a bad test kit!

Petsmart lol.

 

[Daddy-o]

This was water from your tank after you set it up ? Give us a time frame

 

[Keeks09]

This was water from your tank after you set it up ? Give us a time frame

This is a water sample from just now. petsmart read it So im confused on my readings at home compared to theirs especially since they said if the hardness is that high my ph should be lower

 

[Flippers4pups]

This is a water sample from just now. petsmart read it So im confused on my readings at home compared to theirs especially since they said if the hardness is that high my ph should be lower

This may sound stupid of me, but they tested for saltwater, not fresh water, right?

And did they test with test strips?

Do you have a saltwater store, other than petsmart or petco, near by?

 

[Keeks09]

This may sound stupid of me, but they tested for saltwater, not fresh water, right?

And did they test with test strips?

Do you have a saltwater store, other than petsmart or petco, near by?

Well the paper said freshwater and no not really except at work which i dont go back to until Thursday
And yes it was with strips

 

[Flippers4pups]

Okay, get your water tested by a LFS that does saltwater. So you can compare their results and yours at home.

Do that 20% water change ASAP though. Just as a preventive measure.

 

[Keeks09]

I am going to get the water now to do a water change but thought id share i got a new api test kit and my nitrates are now reading 40

 

[CodyRVA]

I am going to get the water now to do a water change but thought id share i got a new api test kit and my nitrates are now reading 40

Solid move, but I would definitely consider upgrading your kits in the near future, especially if you want to house coral.

 

[Keeks09]

Solid move, but I would definitely consider upgrading your kits in the near future, especially if you want to house coral.

Which ones would you recommend?

 

[CodyRVA]

Which ones would you recommend?

Salifert is sufficient, cost effective and accurate. I upgraded from API to Salifert and have been slowly replacing Salifert kits with Hanna; not really necessary, but more of a personal preference.

 

[Keeks09]

Salifert is sufficient, cost effective and accurate. I upgraded from API to Salifert and have been slowly replacing Salifert kits with Hanna; not really necessary, but more of a personal preference.

Okay awesome! And what salt do you use? I was looking into fritz

 

[CodyRVA]

Okay awesome! And what salt do you use? I was looking into fritz

Red Sea

 

[Celbrise]

i would suggest a new skimmer. had the same exact one and it's a piece of ****. worked for maybe like a week then stopped forming bubbles. if you look at many reviews on them as well they get a lot of bad reviews i only know of one person who got his to work but he had to modify it

 

[Keeks09]

i would suggest a new skimmer. had the same exact one and it's a piece of ****. worked for maybe like a week then stopped forming bubbles. if you look at many reviews on them as well they get a lot of bad reviews i only know of one person who got his to work but he had to modify it

Any recommendations?

 

[Celbrise]

Any recommendations?

sorry im not experienced with skimmers. ever since i bought that one i just stopped using one for now. it seems like the better ones are mostly for your sumps rather then HOB. the other one i was looking to buy was a reef octopus HOB one but the price was just too much for me at the time. idk how good those ones are never used anything but that seaclone one you have.

 

[PAXpress]

Any recommendations?

Think I hear reef octopus recommended a lot good price for the quality. I have skimz and probably would try something different next time.

 

[CodyRVA]

I've used Reef Octopus HOB skimmers with great success. I'm currently running a Skimz Monzter in sump skimmer which is an absolute beast.

 

[Keeks09]

I cant drill my tank but may do an hob overflow to sump and look into getting something like that then