Looking for Beginner Advice

jofost1216 · May 11, 2015

Do hanna checkers give you an accurate reading or do you have to take an average of 3 readings?

glb · May 11, 2015

jofost1216 said:
Do hanna checkers give you an accurate reading or do you have to take an average of 3 readings?

I think their accuracy is +\- 5ppm. I never test more than once. I think that would drive me crazy! I know the calcium Hanna checker has had some problems with accuracy so I never bought it. You are right that the best measure would be an average of more than one test. I check Alk, temp and ph daily, salinity every couple of days and phosphates and nitrates weekly. My mg and ca are always high so I check them less often. But keep in mind that I have corals. You don't need to be this fussy with fish only.

jps1981 · May 11, 2015

Thanks for the advice, GLB. I wrote that down in my notes.

On the sad side of things, I decided to excavating for that beat up fish in the earlier pictures. He didn't make it. I took the opportunity to move some stuff around and I'm going to try to reintroduce the 3rd yellow-tail back into the tank with a significantly smaller yellow-tail that he had ignored previously. Hopefully with things moved around and no established territories, they can work it out. I'll be monitoring them very closely.

I kicked up a little sand and the filter was choking so I guess I'll turn the filter and powerhead off until the dust settles.

glb · May 12, 2015

jps1981 said:
Thanks for the advice, GLB. I wrote that down in my notes.

On the sad side of things, I decided to excavating for that beat up fish in the earlier pictures. He didn't make it. I took the opportunity to move some stuff around and I'm going to try to reintroduce the 3rd yellow-tail back into the tank with a significantly smaller yellow-tail that he had ignored previously. Hopefully with things moved around and no established territories, they can work it out. I'll be monitoring them very closely.

I kicked up a little sand and the filter was choking so I guess I'll turn the filter and powerhead off until the dust settles.

Sorry about your fish. I wouldn't add any more fish until the cycle is over. Actually, if you could take out all the fish, you could continue the cycle by adding pure ammonia. I've used that to cycle and it worked great. You just have to use pure ammonia, not the kind you get at the grocery stores with soap in it. I got mine at Ace Hardware. Then you could complete the cycle without stressing out the fish and when you returned them, the system will already be stable.