New Aquarium Water Quality-Salt-3reef Forums

Steelers7 · 05-02-2005, 01:05 AM

Whats up everyone. I set up my tank on Thursday night, it took a few days for the water to clear from the sand, it looks alot better but still a little cloudy. I ran some tests on my water, and wanted to know if these readings are good for a tank that is a few days old. The only thing in the tank is sand, and my only filteration is my Emp 400 until I get my protein skimmer in a few days. Anyway, here are the readings, let me know if these are good for a new tank.

Gravity: 1.023
PH: 8.2
Nitrites: 0 or Non Detectable
Nitrates: Under 10.0
Ammonia: .025

Jason McKenzie · 05-02-2005, 10:49 AM

Steeler7,
Sounds about right. Are you planning any Live Rock (LR)? If so, when you add it you will then begin your cycle. So until then you shouldn't add any livestock. Once you add the LR you will see the Ammonia spike and then the Nitrite. After that both will be zero and you will get your first algae bloom. It tends to last around 3 weeks but going longer doesn't mean somethings wrong.
I tend to keep my SG around 1.026 but if your going fish only that should be fine.

Good luck and keep us posted

Jason

Steelers7 · 05-02-2005, 12:14 PM

I think I am going to get some baserock at my LFS, and order 45lbs of Fiji Live Rock from live aquaria.com. Will baserock turn live after I have it in with the Fiji Rock for awhile?

Yea, I won't be adding any livestock until 3 weeks after I add the LR. Thanks for the help.

condiman · 09-25-2005, 07:17 PM

Your SG is a bit low but the rest look about right. Just be pacient and keep testing every so often.

Country · 09-26-2005, 05:42 PM

Yes, the 45lbs of Fiji Live Rock will seed the dead base rock and make it live. The cycle time is when the ammonia and nitrite hit zero and not just in three weeks.

the_h2o_guru · 10-01-2005, 10:29 AM

Hi ,
I see you are interested in tank water quality . I would like to jump in here and give some tap water , R.O. D.I. advise.
When you first set up a new R.O.D.I. please record the following tds reading.
D.I. tds
R.O. membrane tds
Tap water water tds
Drain water tds
Rate of production gallons per hour .
Water temperature .
Now you have a system history save it , compare this to your current readings.
If you supply this information in an e-mail with questions I can give you better answers .
The simple way to determine if your membrane is up to par .
Tap water tds ____ X .05 = your R.O. membrane tds.
Example 300 ppm tds tap water times .05 equals 15 ppm . The reading from your membrane should be very close to this . Less is better, a reading of 30 just means you are eating up D.I. cartridges twice as fast as you should.

Thanks for letting me butt in

Walter The HO Guru