Help with my tanks

[mahargster]

I've been keeping saltwater tanks for four years now. I have a 30g and 60g tank. In the past year or so, I sadly began to neglect my tanks (a combination of money and time issues), and they began to fall into disrepair. Long story short, I am now trying to correct my errors, and bring my tanks back to their former glory.
I just replaced all of my test kits, and bought a refractometer (long overdue). My results were fairly grim:
60g:
Nitrate 40ppm
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
pH 7.9
Alkalinity 7
Mag 1480
Calc 380
Temp 79
Salinity 1.029

30g:
Nitrate 70ppm
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
pH 7.8
Alkalinity 6 or 7
Calc 360
Magnesium 1450
Temp 79
Salinity 1.028

My problem is, that I don't know where to start. I recently started mixing my salt in a large trash bucket (heated and has a power head) in large quantities as a way of fixing my time issue. The hydrometers I was using screwed me over, and it turns out I was mixing 1.030 water. I believe that the high salinity is the cause of the magnesium concentration. The other problem is that my tap water has a pH of about 7.7 and a calc level of 340ppm so if I try to lower my nitrates, my already low pH and calc will drop. I am also cautious of dosing straight into my trash bucket. I am trying to limit the contents of it to salt and water, to limit the chance of anything going bad. My high nitrate levels are from my lack of consistent water changes over the past year. The 30g has a higher bioload, as well as i don't skim on that tank, leading to the higher levels.
I just wanted to reach out and get some opinions on how to restore my parameters safely before I kill off the rest of my fish.
Any and all help would be appreciated!
Mahargster

 

[mattgumaer]

You don't say whether your tanks or reef, fOWLR or something else. Assuming reef, I would say have a LFS double check your salinity and other numbers if possible. Before you go chasing the 'correct' numbers, you should be very confident in the accuracy of your current numbers.

It sounds like you're running tap water rather than RO/DI. Get an RO/DI filter if at all possible. You're probably going to be changing a lot of water and, with tap, you may be adding contaminants at the same time you're trying to dilute them in your tank with the new water.

In terms of order of trying to get things in the right ranges, I would start with salinity, then move on to magnesium, then alk and calc.

As far as nitrates go, I would try frequent (1 or 2 times a week) 20-30% water changes with gravel vacuuming and sucking up other waste as much as possible.

If few enough fish and other things remain and they are compatible with one another, you might try putting everything in the 60, completely cleaning the 30 completely and restarting it, slowly adding things back into from the 60 gallon. If there's room for everything in the 30 (which may well not be the case), you could then do the same thing again in reverse.

There are other more elaborate things you can do for nitrates, bio-pellets, carbon dosing, but, I wouldn't mess with those. I would start with getting a good, regular maintenance schedule going and targeting the basic parameters, salinity, magnesium, calc and alk.

Good luck.

Matt

 

[mahargster]

Techinically, yes they are reef tanks. However there isn’t much coral left. I did some research in my city water, and it claims less than 0.2ppm of nitrates, and 0ppm of other contaminents/ heavy metals. Thanks for the advice.