Water quality

API master test kit is what I have.

The tank is a 20 high 8 weeks old. I have a clown and an engineer gobie. ( taking him back cause I found out after I was told he was fine he was too big for the tank. Right now a baby. Only a few inches long). Crabs and snails. Kenya tree, mushroom, xenia. About 10lbs of live rock. My water test say

Nitrate 160
Nitrite.25
Amonia .25
Ph 7.8

I know my nitrates are way too high but how is everything else. What numbers should they be

 

You really want your ammonia and nitrites to be 0. Nitrates as close to zero as you can get them. How long have you had the livestock in? Do you have sand? Was the tank fully cycled before you added livestock?

Also, what kind of equipment(skimmer, filter, etc..) and are you using RO/DI water?

 

imo, ph is kinda low but i wouldnt raise it until ur ammonia and nitrites are 0. wouldnt stress too much about nitrates although its always best for it to be 0 across the board.

 

having a reading of ammonia & nitrites makes it look as though your tank is still cycling. You might have jumped the gun on adding anything, you should have a 0 on AM and NI and maybe a little NA to be ready to add anything.

The NA level is very high I would do a water change to try to get it down and think about removing any live stock until the tank is done cycling. If the live rock is good it will provide the seeding for the cycle to finish.

PH is not an issue as long as it remains steady and constant at the same level. When PH swings is when things can go wrong.

 

I added the fish when the lfs guy said my water was fine. I had been taking the water to him to test every week after week 4. I got a test kit myself and tested and saw that my stuff was high. Right now all I have is Hob filter. Skimmer is in the mail and on it's way. I have two compact 50/50 bulbs. I went that way with light cause I'm a reptile person and already had the spare fixtures. I have 1/12 of sand. Amd no I didn't do the ro water. I was told by lfs guy that it's not nessassry with a small tank. I see now that that's not the case I guess. I really know nothing about this.

 

Sadly in this & many hobbies, the stores are out to make $ so not sure why he said it was good to go if there was a reading of NI or AM. But who knows I'm just speaking from past exp. AM I can understand if you had losses that spiked the level, but you should never have a reading of NI in a cycled tank.

Success in SW tanks has a lot to do with prior research & a good amount of patience, I'd like to believe the LFS is looking out for us, but I would only trust my own tests, etc. Good you bought your own & it seemed like you were trying to do the right thing, unfortunate your levels are so out of whack.

 

Like MoJoe said, good you got your own tests. I only used the LFS once to make sure I was testing correctly with my own. You are kind of in an awkward spot since you already have livestock. It is difficult because to keep the livestock relatively healthy you are going to have to do water changes to get the levels down. The downside to this is that you are going to slow down this "cycle" because instead of allowing more bacteria to build up and take care of it, you are going to be removing the am and ni, reducing the amount of bacteria needed to take care of it on its own. They will still build up, its just going to be a little slower. I would do a 20-30% water change now with RO water and a good salt mix. Then recheck your levels. If it were me, I would check daily and do water changes accordingly. Not necessarily daily water changes, but often enough to keep your levels down. Hopefully by doing this, your livestock can survive the rest of the cycle. Also, your pH is about as low as it should go. I wouldn't worry about it for now, but if you get below 7.8 you will need to bring that back up. Most keep there pH around the 8.3 area. Also, make sure you are monitoring your SG, that should be in the 1.025 area. Good luck, I hope this helps.

 

Should I get the ro water already salted or do it my self. Will the corals I have survive this?

 

im surpised they are currently surviving this but i would try to get your levels in the right place for now and see how they ride it out

 

it's your preference but I have always done it myself. before I had my RO unit, I was buying from the LFS and it was cheaper to get the water and mix it myself. Also the store I use mixes their SW with instant ocean and I wanted Red Sea Coral Pro.

As for the corals, it's anybody's guess, but they have made it this far. The sooner you can get your params inline the better chance they have though.