Need Advice!

Well I think I'm going to just use the distilled for right now, but I'll look into it for sure. I don't actually have a pet store in my area much less a fish store haha, I have to actually travel out of state (it's only like an hour, but still) to actually get to somewhere that has pet stores. And even then, it's like petsmart (they don't have saltwater fish but they may have rodi), pet food center, and there's an exotic pet store but they don't do saltwater either.

 

Make your own.
This is a screaming deal on a top notch unit.
http://spectrapure.com/Refurbished-90-GPD-RODI-System

 

I appreciate it, but my wallet is still crying from my last purchase haha, the rodi will have to wait a little.

Today's parameters:

Ammonia: 3.0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 8.4
Alk: 180
Hardness: 300

 

Ok, back to asking about the alk measurement. There are two different measurement systems. One is measured in Meg/L. Normal range 3.2 - 3.93. The other system is dKH. Normal range is 9-11 dKH. Most folks go by dKH.
Here's a link that goes into more detail:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/2/chemistry

 

That was beyond me at first read. Lmao. I just finished a math final exam, and my brain was shot. So a couple of rereads and I think I may have grasped the basics of that. My test measures it as (KH) ppm. So if my tank's Alk is 180 ppm, and 1 ppm is equal to 0.056 dkh then it measures...10.08 dkh. I think? I'm probably way off haha.

 

Sounds about right to me.

 

yes, that does sound about right given that you're using the nsw.

 

Well I'm glad I did my calculations right! Lol

Today's update: the water kinda stinks but I imagine that has more to do with the fact that there's a decomposing shrimp in there.

Parameters:

Ammonia: 3.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: 8.4
Alk: 10.08 dkh

 

you've definitely got ammonia! I'm thinking it is probably the shrimp - once you have ammonia, you can probably take the shrimp out if it's decomposing and smelly

 

Can you? I read that if you disturbed the source of ammonia, it could reset the entire cycle. I'm not sure if that's correct or not though because I read it in a forum somewhere.