Got the Package...few questions!

[mrothermel]

Our package came 5 days ago and the rock is beautiful! We have some clicking and we have yet to find a mantis...nor have we seen that shrimp that could make the sound. We have at least three porcelain crabs and 4 large snails along with 4 very small snails. We aren't good at naming things yet so I won't even try.

Our questions are as follows...we are testing twice a day. Started needing to do water changes on day 3. Since then we have done water changes each day and the ammonia level never goes below 1. We bought a new test kit because the first one did not specify between 1 and 2.5...but the new one still only goes 1 - 2. The pH is always 8.6 now. Hardly ever less and of course the alkaline is high. The PO4 is 1. We are using r/o water and not feeding the tank as Richard suggests. There are many areas of white on the sponge which we assume is dead sponge and may be what is driving the numbers...do you think?

Do you do water changes twice a day sometimes? Do we need to do more than changing 10 gallons at a time (tank is 48 gal...however with the rock it is probably only 42 or so).

Is the pH so high just because of that ammonia? We can't get it lower now. Do we need to be concerned?

More to follow...thanks in advance for you advice!

 

[flameangel88]

You should try to keep the ammonia under 1 and if the sponges are dying then you can use a brush to get them off. The ammonia only spiked for a day and the cycle completed in like 9 days. Test the parameters of your replacement water.

 

[HowardW]

Not sure what ammonia, PH, or alkalinity test kits you're using but you need to get some accurate ones like Seachem, Salifert, LaMotte, etc. so you know exactly what's going on with your water parameters. Some of the cheap test kits are inaccurate to say the least.

Dead and decaying sponges or anything else will definately raise your ammoinia levels and should be removed right away. That PH is on the high side at 8.6 and would be better at 8.1 - 8.3

If your free ammonia is really over 1.0 you will need to keep on doing partial water changes to lower it below 1.0 and check the PH of your replacement water as if it's 8.6 that's too high and is making the ammonia more toxic. Lower your PH by not more then .1 each day. You could also start using Seachem Stability and dose daily or twice daily which will help with your cycle.

 

[jezzeaepi]

Amonia becomes inreasingly toxic at higher levels of PH. I doubt your ph is really 8.6 thouh. Get a different test kit like salifert. Throw those other ones away they are 100% worthless.

 

[mrothermel]

Thanks for all the feedback...we do have good test kits. They are Red Sea. The pH is verified. We tested the r/o water before adding the salt in our prep water...and find the pH is high after adding the salt. So, we may have to change salt? We are using the Instant Ocean stuff.

There is a lot of white stuff on the rock...we are assuming that is dead sponge because under it or very near it is the orange sponge. We are doing water changes every day but possibly the salt is causing the problem. We are careful with the sp gr. It is staying 1.023-25. The temp stays 75-76 (we have a/c in the house because the heat here in the PNW has been terrible this last week). The PO4 is staying about 1. Can't figure that out because we are not feeding, using only r/o water and nothing that has been touched by soap or anything.

The tank looks great...everything is seeming to thrive...in spite of us, I guess! Do we need to do water changes more than once a day if the ammonia never seems to get less than 1? Or do we do more than a 10gal change at a time? Thanks!

 

[flameangel88]

I remember reading the instruction and it said to maintain ammonia under 1. If it's 1.25 then change 25% of the water. This way the cycle will complete faster.

HTH

 

[jezzeaepi]

Ive never heard of IO giving 8.6 ph water. Im still going to have to go with a no on that if your normal RO water PH is fine. You either have a bad test kit, a really bad batch of salt, or your jsut dumping kalkawaser in.
You have to SERIOUSLY try to get your PH over 8.6. Have it retested at the LFS with a different test kit.

 

[650-IS350]

Just keep on doing water changes, I'm in my 10th day or so.. with 100 lbs of coral rock from TBS. If you want the critters to live then keep on doing water changes. My ammonia was at 7.0 at one point now I am down to .25 almost there.. then do a 25-40% water change to take out the nitrates. after that you should be down to zero with all 3.

but most important.. scrape off all the dead sponges.... I had a crap load of dead sponges... Just pick up the rock, you'll know if something died on the rock... Horrible decomsed egg smell.
I scrapped the dead stuff off and rinsed mine with FW. ( bad ) but had to do it, couldn't stand the smell. Everything is going better now and Nitrites and Nitrates are now the dominant toxin.