Struggling to get quarantine tank ready

[RickLRMS]

I'm trying to get a 20g fish quarantine tank ready and it's been a struggle. My problem now is my latest measurements:

Nitrate: ~50ppm (NYOS)
Nitrite: 0.0 (Salifert)
Phosphate: 0.00 (Hanna Colorometer)
Ammonia: <0.15 (Salifert)
dKH: 3.1 (Hanna Colorometer)
pH: 7.8
Salinity: 35ppt

The nitrate and ammonia are explainable from my having added ammonia to continue cycling. It was cycling out ammonia in about 24 hours but I replaced the foam filter with filter floss and apparently that's where my nitrifying bacteria was hanging out, not in the Seachem Matrix in the HQB filter or the fifteen biomedia "sticks" I have in the tank. It now takes about two days to cycle out 3mL of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride so I'm trying to build up the nitrifying bacteria.

What's throwing me off is the dkH. I can't add fish with that, can I? Is the ammonia affecting the reading? I re-tested the dkH after starting this post, thinking maybe I just made a mistake. Got 2.9 that time. I haven't been testing dkH as I've been mostly working on the ammonia cycle, so no idea on trending but my invertebrate quarantine tank was 5.8 dKH when tested last Thursday (same water source, RO/DI system I installed), also low but not as low.

Any ideas that might help? Encouragement? This process continues to drag along; my display tank and Apex hardware are going to be out of warranty before the DT is even wet.

 

[Jekyl]

Setting Up A Quarantine Tank and How To Quarantine Fish; A Guide

This is a short guide on how to set up a quarantine tank for fish. Quarantining is a simple and easy way to help protect your display tank from diseases and parasites. This is also a great way to get your new acquisition eating frozen or prepared foods. A quarantine tank system is an individual...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[RickLRMS]

Setting Up A Quarantine Tank and How To Quarantine Fish; A Guide

This is a short guide on how to set up a quarantine tank for fish. Quarantining is a simple and easy way to help protect your display tank from diseases and parasites. This is also a great way to get your new acquisition eating frozen or prepared foods. A quarantine tank system is an individual...

www.reef2reef.com

Yeah I’ve read that, several documents and threads on humblefish forums, and watched some videos weeks ago.

 

[mdb_talon]

I have a very hard time believing those test results...just does not seem possible. First thing i would do is doublecheck with different kit(the kh)

 

[secret_reefer337]

Don't worry about nitrate but watch out for the ammonia.

When I set up my qt tank I seed them with biospira and never had a dead fish.

 

[RickLRMS]

I have a very hard time believing those test results...just does not seem possible. First thing i would do is doublecheck with different kit(the kh)

That's why I wondered about whether having ammonia in the tank could skew the test; it seemed (based on my reading) to be lower than I should ever expect it to get. I have ordered a Salifert test kit to check with. I also plan to check my saltwater mix today with the Hanna electronic tester, see what it yields.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[RickLRMS]

Don't worry about nitrate but watch out for the ammonia.

When I set up my qt tank I seed them with biospira and never had a dead fish.

I used Dr. Tim's One & Only on both quarantine tanks, which didn't kick-start things, then used ATI Quickstart, which did kick it off. I just apparently slowed things down when I changed out the foam filter.

 

[RickLRMS]

I have a very hard time believing those test results...just does not seem possible.

I used the Hanna meter to test my salt water mix tank and got a dKH reading of 6.8. That would be lower than I would expect Instant Ocean to mix to but not as bad as the 3.1/2.9 tank reading . The Salifert kit is supposed to arrive sometime tomorrow.

 

[mdb_talon]

Hanna meter to test my salt water mix tank and got a dKH reading of 6.8. That would be lower than I would expect Instant Ocean to mix to but not as bad as the 3.1/2.9 tank reading . The Salifert kit is supposed to arrive some

Definetely seems to be bad hanna results. Salt mixes vary a lot, but IO should be quite a bit higher than that in my experience (about 3 to 4 too low). If we applied an increase of 3.5 to your tank ready you are in the 6-7 range which is low, but a reasonably believable result. Not that I would trust that relationship exactly, but I believe with a new test kit you are doing to see much different results.

 

[RickLRMS]

Definetely seems to be bad hanna results. Salt mixes vary a lot, but IO should be quite a bit higher than that in my experience (about 3 to 4 too low). If we applied an increase of 3.5 to your tank ready you are in the 6-7 range which is low, but a reasonably believable result. Not that I would trust that relationship exactly, but I believe with a new test kit you are doing to see much different results.

The Salifert test kit showed 3.2dKH on my fish (currently fishless) quarantine tank compared to a Hanna reading of 3.1dkh. Mix tank reading was 6.4dKH with the Salifert compared to 6.8dKH with the Hanna. So it doesn't seem to be the meter. Even starting low at 6.4/6.8dKh saltwater, what would drop the tank to 3.2dKH in a tank that has seen no livestock and has had nothing put in it but saltwater and ammonia? At 5.8dKH, my invertebrate quarantine tank is lower than the salt mix tank but not that much lower; it has been running with livestock about two months. And, more importantly, in my attempt to get the fish QT ready, what do I do next?