Maybe you should drop back by one of our great LFS and confirm your results.
help with red sea PRO nitrate kit
- Thread starter russ-iv
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i did. at sea atlanta.
it's ok though. i dosed 50ml more of acro power, 10 ml of oysterfeast, 5 healthy scoops of nutricell, 1 unrinsed cube of cyclops. mixed it in a shot glass and dumped it in.
6 hour mark and im at .35 ppm nitrate.
still no phosphate. i may get seachem flourish and do some math to get it to .005 - .01 ppm.
ironically the only algae growing noticeably is purple coralline
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I've used the Red Sea pro several times, and in the first photo, I've seen nothing out of the ordinary. It looks like a test reading close to, or no nitrates. It appears that your API kit confirms it, unless the light here is playing tricks with me. Coraline growth is good, no nuisance algae is good. From the looks of it, you've got a good thing going, unless I have missed something. Great job!
well. i was getting very stunted green coralline growth and everything was paling due to lack of nitrates and possibly even phosphates.
im still dosing flourish in this tank. if phosphates get to .02 - .03 ill turn the gfo on slowly. im gonna dread a diatom bloom though
Just a couple thoughts: Generally a milky white appearance in your tank indicates a chemical imbalance. My other thought is your tank is fairly new, so you really shouldn't be experiencing a drop in alkalinity at this stage of your tank. Your water changes should be able to compensate for any minor losses in Alkalinity. However, GFO consumes Alkalinity among other Trace metals. Here is a good read on GFO, I found it on the advanced chemistry forum.
Bcavalli;1040493 wrote: Just a couple thoughts: Generally a milky white appearance in your tank indicates a chemical imbalance. My other thought is your tank is fairly new, so you really shouldn't be experiencing a drop in alkalinity at this stage of your tank. Your water changes should be able to compensate for any minor losses in Alkalinity. However, GFO consumes Alkalinity among other Trace metals. Here is a good read on GFO, I found it on the advanced chemistry forum.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/2/chemistry">http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/2/chemistry</a>[/QUOTE]
my dkh has dropped .25 within the last 12 hours let alone 24 hours. (.5) thats with the gfo off. ime alk can drop when there is a lot of activity in the tank. (rightfully so considering me playing reef scientist). while the young tank theory holds some weight. there are many things you can do to get it on the right track.
eg: how many tanks you know are growing purple and red coralline 60 days after cycle?
while i do agree young tank does come in to play, it is not the end-all-be-all of an explaination. it is just that it hasnt balanced itself out yet. (which is another thing im sure to fight after dosing)
nothing good happens quickly to a tank. however i do need a unit of measure to go by. 0 across the board is a sterile tank, and somewhere i got too careful with nutrient export and ended up with a curse disquised as a blessing.
ill check out the gfo link, but alk is declining as normal, gfo on or off.
dear lord advanced aquarist again. if i had a dollar every time. n/m.
all i can say it is hard to blanket every tank with golden rules. especially when comparing iron ferroxide to sodium carbonate/bicarbonate
[I]edit:
Also... please note that after the initial 24 hours of introducing rowaphos, that a plateau occurred in each of the samples. Im hypothesizing that rowaphos "soaks up" whatever it is going to do within the first 24 hours and then be not as potent..... this is just me speculating.</em>
I'm not trying to discount advanced aquarist, they have brought many great things to light in the hobby, but it would be wise not to take everything you read from there as gospel
[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/35iox1i.jpg alt="" />
nevermind the angry hammer. he got a ton of food today
although a lot changed in the tank as well
I was just offering an explanation for your apparent issues. Your right just about every tank is different and operates accordingly.
hey brett,
thanks for looking out. we can all speculate my new tank. when u start another new tank ill even speculate. we all have this combined awesome experience based on what we observed or learned. so i thank you.
however i havent communicated certain things about my tank that i had observed. eg: purple coralline receding after 3 weeks of growth. polyp extension for 2 days and then a coral wasting away. me renting a par meter and determining my sps are getting 300 par at current lighting levels. or even currently... my nitrates are dropping like a rock for no reason.
sometimes we dont think it is pertinent, or i am at fault at communicating these things but ill say this. the best test kit around can give you whatever numbers. but the livestock and how the tank is performing to your specific setup is the best indicator.
thanks for the gfo link though. i was fighting cutting it off for a week and in the end i still did. i do know i will turn it back on to balance this lil guy's behaviors. just like you guys remedy yours
i know a lot of you have a ton of knowledge, and your experiences prevent me from doing stupid things.
eg: ringo warning me about my bloom. thats why i only dosed 5ml of flourish to get it in the water column instead of dosing until some kit told me it was detectable. i know there is some phosphate in there, but i wont go overboard and screw myself.
anyway thanks all for sharing your experiences and sometimes the most obvious ones i forget
