I am starting a new saltwater aquarium. I kept a 49 gallon for a couple of years, but when I bought it used, I took the water with it. I never had to start from scratch. It crashed after I used some RO water from a local pet store, and it was heartbreaking. I couldn't bear to go through it again then, so I got rid of it all. Now, 7 years later, I am ready to take the plunge again. I got a 24 gallon aquapod. I mixed Instant Ocean with distilled water, and I put crushed coral before I knew any better. When I began testing water quality, I couldn't get above about a 7.2 pH reading. I used baking soda to try to raise it, and I couldn't get it up high enough. I live about 50 miles from the nearest marine aquarium supply. I finally got some buffer, and I got pH readings of 8.3. I bought some live rock and also a piece of tufa rock, and I put that in. I put five damsels in (my Martin Moe book's instructions). They died that day. I continued to let the tank run with nothing but live rock in it. No evidence of nitrogen cycle. I got three more damsels about three weeks later, they died in about an hour. This whole time, I had zeros in ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. I put a little more live rock in, and a crab that was on the rock died, and I have left him in , and am finally now in my nitrogen cycle. When can I try fish again, and what in the world must have happened up til now?
I am stuck
- Thread starter noctilucan
- Start date
First off....Really glad that you decided to venture back into keeping saltwater tanks again...
After reading through your quandry...it could of been something that has leached from the liverock or tufa rock. Depending on the type of test kit, the water parameters may of been sky high and gave you a false reading? its also possible that Ammonia poisoning killed off the live stock you put into your tank...which is why i always stress to people to use fish to cycle a tank, it is very cruel on the fish and no need for it really...not having a go at you by the way there, just wanted to mention it...
The point now is that you now have a nitrogen cycle going and i am sure you are testing your water regularly for Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate..What are you current results so far??
realisticly, you dont want to be putting any fish in at all untill the nitrogen cycle has been comleted...I.E no ammonia, no nitrite and probably a slight reading on the nitrate. That is when your cycle will be complete...
Hope this may help a little
Niko
After reading through your quandry...it could of been something that has leached from the liverock or tufa rock. Depending on the type of test kit, the water parameters may of been sky high and gave you a false reading? its also possible that Ammonia poisoning killed off the live stock you put into your tank...which is why i always stress to people to use fish to cycle a tank, it is very cruel on the fish and no need for it really...not having a go at you by the way there, just wanted to mention it...
The point now is that you now have a nitrogen cycle going and i am sure you are testing your water regularly for Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate..What are you current results so far??
realisticly, you dont want to be putting any fish in at all untill the nitrogen cycle has been comleted...I.E no ammonia, no nitrite and probably a slight reading on the nitrate. That is when your cycle will be complete...
Hope this may help a little
Niko
Are you setting up a Reef tank or a Fish tank?
I ask because the salt you used instant ocean will not raise ph as well as other and it does not have trace elements that other salt mixes have init... in other words ok for fish only tanks, not the best for reef tanks...
I use reef crystal and I like that salt mix.. Keeps my ph at 8.3 on the dot in my 90 gallon... and has all the trace elements in it for replenishment...
hope that helps also
I ask because the salt you used instant ocean will not raise ph as well as other and it does not have trace elements that other salt mixes have init... in other words ok for fish only tanks, not the best for reef tanks...
I use reef crystal and I like that salt mix.. Keeps my ph at 8.3 on the dot in my 90 gallon... and has all the trace elements in it for replenishment...
hope that helps also
Also, forgot to mention, you should not be using distilled water for the tank. The idea of distilling water is that it goes through copper pipe's, and we really don not want to introduce ANY copper into the tank..Unless its via medication where we can control the ammount..
Niko
Niko
First of all, I have API Saltwater Master Test Kit. I also bought Jungle Labs 5 in 1 Test strips for quick backup checks. I have been using, primarily the API test kit. My current parameters are:
SG - 1.022
pH - 8.4
ammonia - 0
nitrate - 10
nitrite - this one is weird it shoudl show robin's egg blue at 0, which is what it did when it was 0, but, by the color chart, it should progress to bluish lavender, to lavender, to pinkish-lavender, to fuschia, to deep rose. For the past two days, it shows this sick gray color. I retested with kit, same thing. I tested with a strip, and I get different readings for both nitrate and nitrite. It shows 20 ppm for nitrate and 5.0 ppm for nitrite. I am getting a little frustrated. Should I just start over again?
SG - 1.022
pH - 8.4
ammonia - 0
nitrate - 10
nitrite - this one is weird it shoudl show robin's egg blue at 0, which is what it did when it was 0, but, by the color chart, it should progress to bluish lavender, to lavender, to pinkish-lavender, to fuschia, to deep rose. For the past two days, it shows this sick gray color. I retested with kit, same thing. I tested with a strip, and I get different readings for both nitrate and nitrite. It shows 20 ppm for nitrate and 5.0 ppm for nitrite. I am getting a little frustrated. Should I just start over again?
I had planned on fowlr tank at first, keeping with fish and inverts that would be compatible for some easy to care for soft corals or mushrooms later in the future.
First off, throw the test strips away, they are nasty nasty nasty...bad test strips, bad....
Ok, i would say the your nitrate colour is fine to be honest, if i am picturing in my head the kind of colour your describing..
Is it possible for you to take a photo ( colour obviously ) so i can confirm the colour your seeing?
Bear with it a bit matey, i know it can be frustrating sometimes and your certainly dont need to be starting over again..
Niko
Ok, i would say the your nitrate colour is fine to be honest, if i am picturing in my head the kind of colour your describing..
Is it possible for you to take a photo ( colour obviously ) so i can confirm the colour your seeing?
Bear with it a bit matey, i know it can be frustrating sometimes and your certainly dont need to be starting over again..
Niko
1) My 1st guess is that your pH readings were off - not so sure w/ NO2 being (possibly) way high - (5ppm) would certainly kill damsels etc.
2) Distilled doesn't necessarily=Cu pipes. Find out, though. RO, DI, Distilled - the goal any way you do it is to get high purity, low/no ion water. If the resistivity is at least 10M-Ohm-CM, you're fine (although higher is better, 18 being about the max that a water system's meter can possibly read with any accuracy).
2) Distilled doesn't necessarily=Cu pipes. Find out, though. RO, DI, Distilled - the goal any way you do it is to get high purity, low/no ion water. If the resistivity is at least 10M-Ohm-CM, you're fine (although higher is better, 18 being about the max that a water system's meter can possibly read with any accuracy).
You are going to think I am dumb. I took picture of nitrite test tube, and I can't figure out how to post it in reply.
well, you must do distilled water different in your country, its is all commonly processed through common copper pipe work here in the UK, that is a fact over here matey. The water reports here back that one up...that is why i suggested it...i am very water concious here and even i do not have a way of measuring waters resistivity..
Its is my understanding of water chemistry, with testing anyway, that a high level of nitrITE would send the water colour to a different part of the colour spectrum. Blue / grey being the lowest part and dark purple being at the other end of the spectrum...
Of course, i may totally wrong about how i interpret nitrITE on the measuring scale...See what other people's responses are...
Niko
Its is my understanding of water chemistry, with testing anyway, that a high level of nitrITE would send the water colour to a different part of the colour spectrum. Blue / grey being the lowest part and dark purple being at the other end of the spectrum...
Of course, i may totally wrong about how i interpret nitrITE on the measuring scale...See what other people's responses are...
Niko