To all you newbie helping, chemistry lovin' guru's!

[revoran]

Ok last monday I put tap water into my tank (I know, I know, but its all I had) on last thursday I put the salt in the tank. and roughly 1 hr ago i hooked up the skimmer. Today I picked up an API test kit( they any good? btw) well heres how it went. please tell me what you think and what i can do to fix anything if i need to. I have quite a bit of live rock in the tank (not alot but enough)

PH - was somewhere between 8.2 - 8.4 color was soooo close!
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - somewhere between 2 - 5 ppm again color couldve gone either way.
nitrate - 0ppm


thanks
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[revoran]

Oh and the salinity is 1.028 (using a hydrometer )

 

[steve]

Get the hydrometer calibrated to a refractometer. And wait for the nitrite come down, once you see no ammonia/nitrite for a week then you can add stuff.

 

[tgray3]

Since you used tap water to fill it i would start running some GFO. Your phosphates are probably sky high. You are going to have awesome algae blooms.

 

[revoran]

tgray3;377132 wrote: Since you used tap water to fill it i would start running some GFO. Your phosphates are probably sky high. You are going to have awesome algae blooms.

HMMMM GFO????? and you say awesome algeblooms... like its a good thing?

 

[steve]

Granular Ferric Oxide.

 

[ralph atl]

do not use gfo..........yet. let your tank cycle for a few weeks. patience.

 

[hn1]

API is decent, but not great. Elos is top of the line, but pricey. Salifert seems to be the middle ground.

 

[ralph atl]

Elos by far for hobby grade test kits. Salifert number 2. Seachem last, IMHO.

 

[ralph atl]

API is fine for calcium, mag, alk, & ph, other than that..................................

 

[tokejr]

Hooray for you buying a test kit! You'd be amazed how many people don't bother to do that.

At any rate, your API test kits are perfectly fine, especially NOW. As you can see, they are sometimes hard to get a definite reading, but while cycling a tank all you need to know is that there ARE levels in the tank - that means it's cycling.

Before you put any critters in the tank, take a small bottle of water to the fish store and they will run a second test, confirming your numbers, for FREE.

Once you get the tank cycled and put livestock in the tank, you'll want to research test kits to get a little more accurate readings. By then, you'll have used up most of (or all of) the test reagents in your API kit and be looking for a new one anyway.

Personally, we keep 3 brands of test kits, including API. That way, if one test shows abnormal, we can re-test with another brand to confirm the results of the first test.

Again, congrats on the new tank and keep testing!

 

[fish scales2]

Please do not use GFO. I would not recomend anyone using it unless they are very experienced in this hobby and have done a ton of research, it can and will crash your system if used inccorectly. Your API test kits should work well for your basic params but get better test kits for calcium, magnesium or any thing else that you may be planning on dosing.

 

[jeep9783]

Agree all of my API test kits are in the process of being replaced with ELOS...salt is a bit high also

 

[ralph atl]

Fish Scales2;377318 wrote: Please do not use GFO. I would not recomend anyone using it unless they are very experienced in this hobby and have done a ton of research, it can and will crash your system if used inccorectly. Your API test kits should work well for your basic params but get better test kits for calcium, magnesium or any thing else that you may be planning on dosing.

:up: