170 Gallon Moonview Library set up

[canar]

Many nitrate test kits are prone to amine interference. This can give results much lower than actual.

The Salifert nitrate test does not suffer from such an amine interference. The very special ingredients allow a very fast and precise measurement.

The range spans from very low to a very high nitrate concentration (approx. 0.05 â€"œ 20 mg/L as Nitrate-Nitrogen or 0.2 â€"œ 100 mg/L as nitrate ion).

The kit can perform approx. 60 measurements.

 

[BlakDuc]

Jim, I honestly don't test my water unless I see a problem. I do however change about 30-40% or water weekly. I also have a low bioload and feed light-moderate. I run carbon sometimes, skim and change my filter sock about every 2 days. I would bet my nitrates are under 2 at the end of the week. The tank is still pretty young though also and the sand was rinsed pretty well before it was put back in. I will test with my cheapie IO test kit this evening and see what I come up with. I think if I recall it has gradients of 2 ppm. I haven't tested my water since my original tank came out of the cycle except for occaisional Ca, Alk, Ph, and Mg tests and of course SG. My PH tested out pretty low all summer(I think it is because I run the AC at about 70* to avoid buying a chiller ). I would just be interested to see what an accurate test of things would be. With all of the things flying around lately about how batches of test kits are so inconsistant lately, is it really worth dropping $25 on a salifert kit? That isn't why I don't test, It is honestly faster for me to mix 30 gallons of water wheel it out to the tank and do a water change than sit in front of test kits to tell me that I need to mix 30 gallons of water and wheel it out to the tank for a water change.
Here is a question for you, I see in most of your tests you run at the lab, your ph is usually testing out kinda low(lower than 8.2). How much of this do you think is due to the transit time and possible oxygenation(sp) on the way there. Am I wrong to assume that the most accurate way to test Ph would be directly from the tank to the tester asap?
I am going to Sharky's Sessions in a couple of hours, I think I will ask Dr. Steve! Man Jim, you are making me feel like a noob. If I weren't at work, maybe I would go test my water right now. :lol:

 

[jglackin]

I will see you there. We can discuss further in person.

My pH is low because I take my water sample at about 7:30 in the morning. If I take a sample at night, it would be much higher.

 

[glassbox-design]

jim i believe the IO kits are made by hach or merck. i've never used them, but hear good things. the D&D merck po4 kit is among the best and is the only "true test kit" that i know of thats accurate for po4...

besides a hanna, othery hobbyist po4 tests are a joke.

 

[PSam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11109583#post11109583 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Flint&Eric
jim i believe the IO kits are made by hach or merck. i've never used them, but hear good things. the D&D merck po4 kit is among the best and is the only "true test kit" that i know of thats accurate for po4...

besides a hanna, othery hobbyist po4 tests are a joke.

I agree. I;ve used Salifert, Seachem, and the DD Merck for kits, and the Salifert & SeaChem always read 'zero' when Merck would read 0.12 or something. (I'm down to 0.02 now, hooray!)

On the NO3 front, my surprise wasn't in like 'wow, 8.8 is crazy'. Sure they could come down, I've had much higher NO3 than that - but just surprise that it has more than doubled since your previous results posted in this thread were usually 2 or 3ppm pretty consistently, iirc?

 

[jglackin]

You've heard of Jimmy Neutron, right? Well, I am Jimmy Nitrate.

I don't know what the deal is with my nitrates. The nitrates definitely shot up, but, if anything, I am feeding less. This Sunday will be the big day because I am feeding considerably less and, when I test them in the lab this Sunday, if no changes or it goes up, I fear I have a bigger problem somewhere else. In all honesty, I hope it is overfeeding, because I can easily control that.

 

[BlakDuc]

Jim, I know you have been kind of doing pieces 1 by 1, but have you considered just taking everything offline for the day and just cleaning everything? Leave a couple of powerheads on in the tank of course. This would be a good time do do a largeish water change also. There has to be something in there fouling up the water. It needs to be found or esle it will continue to get worse. Good luck, Joe.

 

[jglackin]

When I do water changes, I do them by taking the sump offline, leaving the powerheads running and then draining the sump and skimmer. I did this yesterday with a 15% water change. The sump and skimmer body were completely drained and wiped down.

*IF* my nitrates are still up this Sunday, I will have no choice but to tear the pipes down. It's a good thing that everything was made with unions and ball valves!

 

[jglackin]

Here are the water parameters from today:

PO4 - 0.24
pH - 8.15
NO2 - .0074
NH3 - 0.00
<b>NO3 - 8.2</b>
Sal - 31.8
Alk - 120.8
CA - 419

As you can see, the nitrates are still up over 8. Since my last check, I have cut down on my feeding considerably and I did a 15% water change last Sunday and a 15% water change last night. I also harvested a large amount of algae out of my scrubber.

My tank is now 4 months old, I would think that the DSB and plenum should be matured enough to process the nitrates of my tank. I only have two blennies, two clown, a 4" trigger, a 4" yellow tang, and a 4" hippo tang in a 225 gal system. It's not like I have a huge bioload.

I am at a loss.

 

[glassbox-design]

before tearing everything apart, i'd suggest dosing vodka (i prefer vodka over sugar, jmo). read up on it it's not for everyone.

 

[jglackin]

Thanks. I am not sure if I am going to do anything right now. I have everything doing fine. My shrooms are growing, frogspawn is growing, brains are doing well, acans are doing well, favias are doing well, my sps have full polyp extension and new growth, so I am not sure I should try to fix anything at this point. Vodka may be an option, but 8 is not not enough to freak me out. It's just enough to p--- me off.

 

[jglackin]

Here are the water parameters from today:

PO4 - 0.22
pH - 8.30
NO2 - .0057
NH3 - 0.00
NO3 - 7.2
Sal - 31.2
Alk - 174.4
CA - 440

I am very pleased with all of the readings, but nitrates. I have cut WAAAYYY down on my feeding and my nitrates are still up higher than I want them. I did a 20% water change last night or I fear that the reading would have been even higher today.

Most days I am not feeding the tank at all other than what the two doses of flake and pellet from the auto-feeder adds (small doses). I am certain that my nitrate issues are not from over feeding, but then something has to be causing the high nitrates.

I fear that I have no other choice but to dose some vodka. Any tips/suggestions?

 

[Ladipyg]

Is your nitrate test old? Everything else looks good, so I'd double check how you are doing the test and the expiration date of the chemicals. It happened to me when I changed test kits and still fell into the old habit of adding the # of drops from the old kit instead of the new. Now I've got it down and the tests are coming out fine. I'll be doing a WC this morning and running out to Sharkeys...see if anything is left....

 

[matt & pam]

Jim, has your turf scrubber started growing yet? Are you able to harvest from it? I run a turf scrubber (eco-wheel) which is coated with a mat of red turf algae x 2 years and no detectable nitrates yet. Of course, I still have algae growing in the main tank so it certainly isn't a panacea. I seeded my scrubber when it first started with a sample from inland aquatics, FWIW.

Would you mind posting a pick of your scrubber?

Thanks.

Matt

 

[jglackin]

LP, I test my water on the spectrophotometers at the Shedd. I volunteer in the water lab. 7.2 is nothing to freak over, but it is enough to irritate me. I would be happier if they were under 5.

As far as the turf scrubber, it is growing well. I have harvested my algae 3 times in the 4.5 months my tank has been up. I got my starter culture from IA, also.

 

[sellout007]

I definetly wouldn't go dosing vodka in the tank.

You said everything seems happy. So why mess with it? Just because you irritated?

Good way to destroy your reef, if you ask me. Just keep with the low feeding and give it time.

 

[BlakDuc]

Sellout, have you researched dosing vodka? Some have actually had good sucess with dosing it.

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11253492#post11253492 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GrandeGixxer
Sellout, have you researched dosing vodka? Some have actually had good sucess with dosing it.

I'm sure they have, but if his tank is doing well why risk it? Why does everyone have to tinker with everything? It usually just leads to problems.

 

[jglackin]

This article discusses vodka dosing: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/eb/feature/index.php

The net-net of the article is: Save the vodka for your drinks.

 

[jglackin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11253366#post11253366 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sellout007
I definetly wouldn't go dosing vodka in the tank.

You said everything seems happy. So why mess with it? Just because you irritated?

Good way to destroy your reef, if you ask me. Just keep with the low feeding and give it time.

I draw the line at the difference between surviving and thriving. My tank may be surviving, with some more hardier species showing growth, but is it thriving?

I got a squamosa clam at the swap. I came downstairs yesterday to witness the finishing touches of a hermit crab and nasaurius snail feast. There is nothing left but a pretty shell. What could cause a clam to die off so fast? It would be different if it was showing stress and was showing decline over a few days, but this clam was open and siphoning like normal the night before and dead and a door knob the next morning. I have now lost three clams.

Something isn't right.