Blue linckia stars are gorgeous, good luck with it 
Well, I'm a moron. Yup, it's official, I said it, apparantly somewhere between here and the LFS my brain fell out. Let's see if I can explain: using tap water seemed so easy, and I haven't had any algae problems beyond new tank blooms, but my 65g has been plagued with a recurring NO2 spike of ~0.1ppm and I haven't been able to sort out why. Tonight, I nailed down the cause and afterwards gave myself a big slap on the forehead...
Our tap water tests 0 for NO3, PO4 and NO2. I checked today and it tests 0.3ppm for ammonia. So that means the water plant is using chloramines, not chlorine, and I've never checked it fresh out of the tap. After adding Prime, the NH3 test shows zero; I assume that means that any time I test for NH3, my tank will always show a result that's essentially false.
Tonight I checked the NO2 level in the 65g and was frustrated to still see a hint of pink in the test vial; it's below 0.1ppm, but it's still measurable. I had a brainstorm - why not check the water that's mixing right now, it's been in the tub for about a week. Sure enough, there was the problem - I've gotten in the habit of mixing water ahead of time (usually I do the water change and immediately make up another 20g) and some of the equipment must have built up a bacterial population that's converting the NH3 in my water's chloramines into NO2. The water in the Rubbermaid measures 0.3ppm NO2. I can't check the NH3 level because I've used Prime, but I have no doubt there is/was a measurable level there that would have gone into the tank.
I can't even believe it - my water changes are making things worse, not better! So for now (I don't want to waste 20g of SW) I've added some LR rubble to the tub and will wait until I see NO2 hit zero before using the water. I figure with 0.3ppm the resulting NO3 will be minimal and it will still be worth using.
We're looking into an RO unit but it's a really bad time for a large expense; the college faculty just went on strike, which means my husband and I (as support staff) are temporarily without work.
I'm glad the levels are low and the tanks are fine, but I guess it was a dumb idea to use tap afterall. We don't use RO at work and so many people told me I was being paranoid, but I think I was actually just lucky. My 30g shows consistant zeros across the board, even after a water change, but it's a more mature tank with an established biological filter and gets smaller water changes, so I guess it just takes the extra ammonia in stride. I'm kicking myself, as I type (don't try that at home, it's tricky)
*Sigh* I'll tell myself what I tell customers who berate themselves for making mistakes with their tanks - as long as you learn from it, it's okay to mess up. Thankfully I haven't hurt anything but I do feel like an idiot. [/rant]
Well, I'm a moron. Yup, it's official, I said it, apparantly somewhere between here and the LFS my brain fell out. Let's see if I can explain: using tap water seemed so easy, and I haven't had any algae problems beyond new tank blooms, but my 65g has been plagued with a recurring NO2 spike of ~0.1ppm and I haven't been able to sort out why. Tonight, I nailed down the cause and afterwards gave myself a big slap on the forehead...
Our tap water tests 0 for NO3, PO4 and NO2. I checked today and it tests 0.3ppm for ammonia
. So that means the water plant is using chloramines, not chlorine, and I've never checked it fresh out of the tap. After adding Prime, the NH3 test shows zero; I assume that means that any time I test for NH3, my tank will always show a result that's essentially false. Tonight I checked the NO2 level in the 65g and was frustrated to still see a hint of pink in the test vial; it's below 0.1ppm, but it's still measurable. I had a brainstorm - why not check the water that's mixing right now, it's been in the tub for about a week. Sure enough, there was the problem - I've gotten in the habit of mixing water ahead of time (usually I do the water change and immediately make up another 20g) and some of the equipment must have built up a bacterial population that's converting the NH3 in my water's chloramines into NO2. The water in the Rubbermaid measures 0.3ppm NO2. I can't check the NH3 level because I've used Prime, but I have no doubt there is/was a measurable level there that would have gone into the tank.
I can't even believe it - my water changes are making things worse, not better! So for now (I don't want to waste 20g of SW) I've added some LR rubble to the tub and will wait until I see NO2 hit zero before using the water. I figure with 0.3ppm the resulting NO3 will be minimal and it will still be worth using.
We're looking into an RO unit but it's a really bad time for a large expense; the college faculty just went on strike, which means my husband and I (as support staff) are temporarily without work.
I'm glad the levels are low and the tanks are fine, but I guess it was a dumb idea to use tap afterall. We don't use RO at work and so many people told me I was being paranoid, but I think I was actually just lucky. My 30g shows consistant zeros across the board, even after a water change, but it's a more mature tank with an established biological filter and gets smaller water changes, so I guess it just takes the extra ammonia in stride. I'm kicking myself, as I type (don't try that at home, it's tricky
)*Sigh* I'll tell myself what I tell customers who berate themselves for making mistakes with their tanks - as long as you learn from it, it's okay to mess up. Thankfully I haven't hurt anything but I do feel like an idiot. [/rant]
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