Red Sea no2 test question

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi Randy, I did use your write up to troubleshoot, CO2 was not the problem..the house has an air exchanger that runs 45 mins out of the hour plus I left a window in that room open all day. I was going to buy an air stone becauae I figured maybe there just wasn't enough aeration in general even though I have a skimmer and the water surface is turbulent.

Anyway, for now the pH is better after the 40 percent water change..maybe the cycle wasn't completely done at first?

pH is still determined mathematically by alkalinity and CO2, regardless of cycling or not. If the alk is not low and pH is, the answer must be CO2 in the water (but that doesn't prove the air must be elevated, just the water).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I Just compared it to the Drop test which said ph was in between 7.8 and 8.0 ..the SenEye says 7.87 and my Electronic PH tester says 7.79 ... not sure which to believe lol

Perhaps you are being sarcastic, but those all agree.

 

[Montu]

Thanks!

My pH seems better now..not ideal but definitely within range, yes they are all pretty close, for now I am still relying on the SenEye for pH readings and if it were to claim a serious problem the plan is to confirm it with one or more of the other methods.

Nitrates are still a problem..I know it takes a long time of frequent water changes so wish me luck..any tips are appreciated.

 

[kingston.buck]

As long as your nitrates come down after each water change your doing good. 90 won't kill fish for a short time, its long term that it will harmful, and most corals will probably tolerate it and lose thier color for a short period unless you have sps they more then likely would already have died though. Sounds like your on the right track though with water changed, just keep up on the changes and cleaning and it'll come down pretty quick.

 

[kingston.buck]

Also what are you using for water changes, are you using ro/di, lfs, or treated tap?

 

[Montu]

That's what worries me they aren't coming down with the water changes, after a quick search here I found I needed to try and get any extra food up, so my last water change I used a turkey baster to stir up the very top of the sand and live rock and tried to siphon that out...unfortunately it didn't make a big enough dent on the nitrates to be detectable.

So far I did a 40 percent water change and nitrates stayed the same (20 percent from the sump, 20 from the display) a few days later I did 20 percent from the display as described above.

I'm using water I make my self using my RODI. (0 TDS)

 

[kingston.buck]

Are you getting the same results on your different test kits? With a 40 percent water change you should see a 40 percent drop in nitrates right after water change. Have you tried doing a nitrate test on your fresh made salt water before it goes in the tank?

 

[Montu]

Yes I am getting the same results, red Sea maxed out at 50+ and API at about 90

I just did 20 percent last night, tested right before starting and about 10 minutes after and I saw no drop.

 

[Montu]

From what I understand this is telling me I was over feeding and there is left over food in the tank, so I need to try and get it out correct?

I was just using a self priming hose and turkey baster to do the water changes, I just ordered a vacuum type hose that I hope will work better at picking up uneaten food than my current method.

 

[kingston.buck]

I would test your new salt water before you do a water change, even if there is food in your tank it's not turning into nitrates that fast. Also how much ammonia did you dose to start your cycle and what kind of rock and sand did you use?

 

[Montu]

Alright,

I just tested my salt water (same batch I've been using) it did have 0 Nitrates.

I used Live Rock from the LFS and the sand was the non live Carib Sea stuff. (I'm having a hard time remembering the sand I used)

I dosed 99.9 percent ammonia chloride, when I declared the tank cycled it was able to process about 3 heaping tea spoons of it in under 24 hours. Most of the time I dosed 2 Tea Spoons a day which made the seneye read about .250-.300ppm free ammonia which was way beyond what the RedSea Kit could measure (2ppm NH3/NH4)

 

[kingston.buck]

I think you may have way over dosed the ammonia. Just keep up with the water changes and stirring your sand bed. I would do as big of a water change as you can as often as you can till it comes down.

 

[Montu]

Thank You, I will mix up more Salt water and do a series of 4o-50 percent water changes every few days if that sounds like a plan to you?

 

[kingston.buck]

Ya, that should work but if you can do bigger changes do the biggest you can. 50 percent leaves 50 percent of the nitrates. If you can do 80 then your leaving 20 percent of the nitrates. Bigger is better in your case right now.

 

[Montu]

Okay, I'll shoot for larger changes..I'll see how much I can get without having to remove fish from the tank.

 

[Montu]

I'm down to about 40ppm ...after 2 water changes back to back..a 50 percent and about a 70ish percent.

It doesn't seem to be going down as you would guess..but it IS going down.

I'll be doing another water change tonight.

thanks.

 

[kingston.buck]

Man 40ppm is way better then 90. I wonder if it was higher then 90ppm and was messing with your test and that's why it took awhile to come down to testable levels. Sounds like a few more water changes and your going to be in a good spot. Glad your getting a handle on it.

 

[Montu]

What should my target be?

Currently only fish but I want to start with softies as soon as my parameters are good and stable.

 

[kingston.buck]

Around 5ppm is good but lower is better I keep mine around 2-3ppm and I have mostly lps and zoas and they all are happy and have really good color. The two pieces of sps I have are growing well and have decent color. I don't have any algea problems at those levels either.

 

[Montu]

Awesome, thank you..I didn't get to the water change last night because I had to make more water but I'll continue to tonight.

Thanks for all the help.