Chemistry out of whack

Brian mcguirt

New member
I have a 75 gal tank with about 100lbs rock in main and 40lbs in sump. I'm confused on my tank parameters. Yank has been up and going for 2 weeks, I've added a bottle of turbo start 900 per directions as well as nitrocycle from algae barn. I've done one 15 gal and one 40 gal water change during this time using rodi water. However my water chemistry has not changed, even after water change.

DKH 8.6
CALCIUM 520
SALINITY 35PPM
PHOS 0.27
AMMONIA 2.50PPM
NITRITE 0.2PPM
NITRATE 75PPM
TEMP 78
The numbers never changed even after water changes which isn't making since. I am using hanna checkers and then used another brand new set of hanna checkers as backup and got same readings and have been testing daily.

Why is this happening?
 

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Everything looks fine like a cycle started with really high ammonia. What was the target for ammonia dosing? Personally I wouldn't do a water change until ammonia and nitrite were zero.

Where did the phosphates come from? Were you ghost feeding? What kind of rock was it? If it was real live rock with die off, that would explain a lot.

Really nice rockscape btw. Welcome to Reef Central!
 
Everything looks fine like a cycle started with really high ammonia. What was the target for ammonia dosing? Personally I wouldn't do a water change until ammonia and nitrite were zero.

Where did the phosphates come from? Were you ghost feeding? What kind of rock was it? If it was real live rock with die off, that would explain a lot.

Really nice rockscape btw. Welcome to Reef Central!
Rocks were from a 180g tank and was dry for several weeks and washed in rodi prior to use. Used a quarter cube of frozen mysis, and the two bacteria supplements mentioned above and that was all. Uts been reading exact same parameters for just shy of 2 weeks now with a 15 and 30 gallon water change. I just tested freshly made salt water hoping it was the tester but got a reading of 0.13.
 
Rocks were from a 180g tank and was dry for several weeks and washed in rodi prior to use. Used a quarter cube of frozen mysis, and the two bacteria supplements mentioned above and that was all. Uts been reading exact same parameters for just shy of 2 weeks now with a 15 and 30 gallon water change. I just tested freshly made salt water hoping it was the tester but got a reading of 0.13.
Established rock sitting dry for 2 weeks will be loaded with breaking down organics regardless of a RODI bath. I think you should ignore the tank completely and measure everything in 2 more weeks.

What item measured .13 on fresh salt water?
 
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