Best testing choices?

[CStrickland]

ammonia block in the tank moving ammonia to deadly no2...I'll pass this time and save that for emergency/bind.

Sounds like a good plan overall. Just to be clear though, ammonia binders don't quite work that way. The ammonia is just buffered into a non-toxic form and then the bacteria do the normal conversion to nitrite and nitrate like they always do. It's a way for the biofilter to catch up.

If you mean nitrite by NO2 that's not harmful to marine fish like it is to freshwater ones. It's not cause for concern, especially compared to ammonia. So even if all the buffer did was turn it into nitrite, it would be an improvement. Especially since your nitrites are zero now so there probably plenty of bacteria waiting to eat it up. The brand I use also claims to detoxify nitrates and nitrates.

There's really no down side to dosing it. If heard people say it makes certain tests hard to read but in my experience with the seachem badge and API nitrate test that was not a problem.

Just food for thought, I don't think your in any kind of crisis where a wrong move will crash your tank, as long as you keep an eye on the levels. It can take months for things to settle down from a tank move even if you are really careful. Especially nitrates.

 

[SeaTila]

Sounds like a good plan overall. Just to be clear though, ammonia binders don't quite work that way. The ammonia is just buffered into a non-toxic form and then the bacteria do the normal conversion to nitrite and nitrate like they always do. It's a way for the biofilter to catch up.

If you mean nitrite by NO2 that's not harmful to marine fish like it is to freshwater ones. It's not cause for concern, especially compared to ammonia. So even if all the buffer did was turn it into nitrite, it would be an improvement. Especially since your nitrites are zero now so there probably plenty of bacteria waiting to eat it up. The brand I use also claims to detoxify nitrates and nitrates.

There's really no down side to dosing it. If heard people say it makes certain tests hard to read but in my experience with the seachem badge and API nitrate test that was not a problem.

Just food for thought, I don't think your in any kind of crisis where a wrong move will crash your tank, as long as you keep an eye on the levels. It can take months for things to settle down from a tank move even if you are really careful. Especially nitrates.

You definitely helped correct a misunderstanding about nitrites and the binders. I'll look into them and have some on hand. I was mostly concerned on why my ph was slipping when most of the test results appeared fine. I didnt have a good alk test and didnt have a mg test so there was no way to check if they were cause of ph lowering. Ive only ever dosed liquid reef so the kh, mg tie-in to ca hasn't appeared to be an issue yet.

Im getting a lot of microalgae hair for the first time but have changed from lfs water to ro w/o di and thats likely culprit. I have di on order and hoping I can get in front of the issue before too late. It grew so quick I can't believe it. I have a good amount if macralgae and was surprised how it appears the hair algae covers macro. I have five emerald crabs and they ate nonstop bubble algae for a month until erradicated when I first took over the 120g. I hope they eat this stuff. Fingers crossed.

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[gone fishin]

FWIW I checked on my excel spreadsheet and a couple months after restarting my tank after our move. the pH was 7.8. I decided to check it out of curiosity it is 7.84 today, it has been about 4 years between checks.