help me get my water pristine!

illal

illal

Active member
im trying to get my water as good as possible before the frag swap comes next month so i can get some sps :D my nitrates were pretty bad but since i got the new skimmer for christmas theyve defintly dropped alot but are still present.... i had phosphates present but i got the new phos reactor setup today with rowaphos so im pretty sure at least my p04 will be good by than but ive been doing 30g water changes at least every other week and 15g's in between but no matter what i still cant seem to get them below 10ppm and i even tried dosing sugar but it didnt seem to make much of a differance.... any ideas or suggestions?? i think ima pick up some carbon tommorow as well to help improve the water quality but im also open to any suggestion that will make sps a success! the only sps ive had luck with is pocillapora ..ive had a few caps and a few pieces of digita that didnt work out ( sry reefwreck :p )
 
sugar or vodka take a while to make a difference. I convinced someone to start vodka and at 2 months he was ready to quite.... then came in the following week and stuff started getting better.... I had been dosing for over a year but stopped when I changed tanks... need to get my system stable then start over..... If digi's dont work something is weird they are one of the simpler things....
um water parameters?
do you test your own or just trust the LFS?
 
Either you have to many fish and not a big enough skimmer or you are over feeding if you have nitrates.

What are your parameters?

Calcium
Alkalinity
Magnesium
Nitrate
Nitrite
pH

???

-Matthew
 
Much more info would be needed to even begin to diagnose the root of the problem.

At this point it could be anything from the use of bio-balls in a trickle filter to the salt mix you are using.
 
alright for starters im using what ever salt big al's uses which i belive is instant ocean, i do belive i was over feeding a bit but i have cut way back, no bioballs or any of that crap,
nitrates 10-15
nitrite 0
ammonia 0
calcium 400
sg 1.024
ph 7
and thats pretty much all i test for ( i test on my own )

for skimmer i have the tunze 9010
stocking list:
hippo tang, naso, foxface, sixline, pair of percs, watchman goby and neon goby
 
first thing I see is ph should be closer to 8 not 7... mine runs about 7.8 but I run a reactor so that lowers it a bit....
do you buy the bucket and make your own water or buy big al water?
if making your own how is your ro or ro/di running?
 
i get the pre made stuff from big al's ... i bought an r/o unit 3-4 months ago and just havnt got around to hooking it up lol and on the ph ill test it this afternoon when the lights turn on ( not sure if it was 7 that was just off the top of my head :p )
 
Last edited:
Do you use a filter sock? If so, how often do you change it?

Test the water you are buying for nitrates. You would think it "should" be zero but you never know.
 
no filter sock but i do plan to pick up some carbon today.... i ran my tank for almost 6 months with no skimmer so i kno thats where my nitrates came from but im just having a hard time getting them to zero.... im hoping once i get them to zero between the skimmer and my biweekly water changes it will be enough
 
a weird way of thinking about your water quality is
for the first 6 months your sand and rock have been a sponge for all the nasties that no skimmer and poor tank maintenance ( not implying anything) have been producing.
now you are making the effort to clean things up. the water is getting better but until you remove most of the nasties from the sand and rock the water will still be questionable.
 
IMO - I'd add a filter sock and clean it regularly. You will be amazed at what it can manually remove from the water before it even has a chance to break down.

Carbon - Rinse well with RO/DI water. Let soak in RO/DI water for several days changing the water everyday before you use it. This should pull out the phosphates that would have ended up in your tank otherwise.

10-15% water changes weekly would be better than 20-30% biweekly. Less shock - more stable parameters.

I would still check your water source for nitrates as well.
 
I may be wrong about this so someone please correct if I am but I would also suggest that you siphon your sand when you do WC's at least 2-3 times...if it's a DSB try not to disturb it too much but siphon the surface as much as you can......if it's a shallow sand bed you shouldn't have to worry about it and just go to town with the siphon tube.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
Help: SPS peeling strangely.
Replies
5
Views
242
griss
griss
D
Wavemaker placement in my Waterbox 25 gallon peninsula
Replies
10
Views
815
DiscoHobbit
D
D
Help with high nitrate
Replies
2
Views
173
kfisc
kfisc
J
Back into the Hobby
Replies
15
Views
550
griss
griss
C
Help
2
Replies
23
Views
1K
griss
griss
Back
Top