Urgent Test

Hi

This is the results of my water test for my aquarium, what can I do to correct the results.

Saltwater test
Nitrite(No2-) 0.50ppm
Ammonia (Nh3/Nh4+) 0.50ppm
High range pH 8.2
Nitrate (No3-) 160ppm

Marine reef test
Carbonate Hardness (Kh) 2 drops, 2 dKh, 35.8ppm Kh
Phosphate 1 10.0 ppm

 

Seems like your tank has not finished cycling. How long has it been running, what have you used to cycle it, and what do you have in the tank?

 

The tank has been running about 5 months. Im not to sure about the cycle. I have 5 small fish, 5 small crabs and about 3 sea plants.

 

How often are you doing water changes?

How big is the tank?

 

Those test results seem very unusual for a 5 month old tank.

You can start by doing water changes. I would not not do huge ones all at once, smaller more frequent ones is better IMO.

You're overstocked per this thread

http://www.3reef.com/forums/live-rock/black-mold-148149-4.html

So I would take many of the suggestion of the old thread and apply them to your current issue.

Start with water changes, improve your filtration and decrease your bio-load.

I would recheck all those value though.

 

How often should i do the water change? The tank is about 110 liters.

Thank you

 

A lot of people do 20% every two weeks. So you should have been doing 6 gallons every two weeks. I'm not very familiar with small tanks, so maybe 1 or 2 gallons daily for a while. Don't just rely on my advice, though, wait for more experienced reefers!

 

Thank you!!!

 

you shouldn't have that high of readings of all 3, did you recently add or have a fish die or go missing? I would do small water changes and add more live rock. consider a proteing skimmer (or a better one) or a sump for more water volume

 

Another thought occurred to me. When you finish your tests do you rinse out your test vials with RO/DI water and let them air dry? Maybe you're getting skewed results from tainted tests.