Please no flaming. I feel so bad, I am such an irresponsible reefer. So a little history first. I bought my tank about 4 yrs ago, came with a test kit, never used it much, was for fresh water, had salt water about 20yrs ago, still had old hydrometer from that. So here goes the bad part....... Been running my tank basically empty since about early Feb. Had frags in tank since early March, just got a few fish about 3 weeks ago. Was maintaining salinity at 1.025 for the whole time. Had used the test kit recently to show I was showing some ammonia in tank, did some research and found that my test kit was made in February 2000 so I wasn't convinced my results were actuate so I ordered a new set of test kits that arrived today, I got an ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, ph, and phosphate kit for now along with a new refractometer, figured I get more test kits for reef specifics next. I set up and begin my testing with my refactor only to find that my salt was at 1.031. I did the rest of the tests showing no ammonia, lowest level of nitrites but high nitrates, something like 80? I expected that as I only have access to well water currently, ro/Di system is in my future. I also have a very low level of phosphates in my system. So now that I have proper test kits I will work diligently to get things back to proper levels with water changes and filtration. I have already replaced with approx 15gals fresh water and got the salinity down to 1.029, I will remove another 10 tomorrow and again on Sunday until I get it back to .025.
Now I have a question, I plan on getting a copper test kit I am wondering what other kits I should get? I'm thinking KH, and Cal but not sure what else I would need for reef keeping. Again I feel so bad that I let this happen, but fortunately I haven't lost any critters as of yet, maybe some copepods or a snail or two but that's all I hope.
Now I have a question, I plan on getting a copper test kit I am wondering what other kits I should get? I'm thinking KH, and Cal but not sure what else I would need for reef keeping. Again I feel so bad that I let this happen, but fortunately I haven't lost any critters as of yet, maybe some copepods or a snail or two but that's all I hope.