Why do LFS people have to lie

Discussion in 'Coral' started by dinkanber, Oct 12, 2011.

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  1. dinkanber

    dinkanber Skunk Shrimp

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    Ok so i have been taking my water up to my LFS for the last 8 weeks during cycle. Finally he said im good to go after the last 2 weeks have been high nitrate. Last Sunday all was perfect i can get a fish and start off with a few coral. So I go to another LFS and get three corals. A little mushroom,pulsing xaina,and a kenya tree.Nothing major but still costly. And i went ahead and picked up a marine lab test kit so i don't have to worry about taking water up to the LFS. Well i did my testing and my nitrates are still way too high and my ammonia is a tad high. So i went ahead and put some "Prime" stuff in it it says it will help nitrate nitrite and ammonia and im going to do a water change today but my question is. Are my new coral that i just spent $60 on gonna make it? And is it possible those things could go up like that in 48 hours? Sunday he said everything was good Tuesday nitrates were VERY high
     
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  3. amcarrig

    amcarrig Super Moderator

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    If you added a fish to a cycled tank, it's perfectly normal for your parameters to spike and then drop. The fish is producing ammonia in its waste so the bacteria in your tank have to basically grow a bit more to compensate for the newly added bioload. I wouldn't worry about your coral for the time being but if your water parameters don't drop relatively quickly, then you may have other issues.
     
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  4. dinkanber

    dinkanber Skunk Shrimp

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    should i go ahead with a water change....it is a 20 gallon and i do a 5% change every week.I just did it sunday
     
  5. map95003

    map95003 Bubble Tip Anemone

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    What do you mean by 'high', what are the numbers ? Was this test performed before or after adding the new livestock? Also, make sure the new test kit you bought is not old/expired.
     
  6. nc208082

    nc208082 Zoanthid

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    LFS = bottom line is a business,in there to make money, and not every employee is friendly and knowledgeable. that being said there still are tons of great lfs and great employees who have helped many tanks.

    you did your first best thing in buying your own test kits. +1 on what amcarrig said about the spike. If you dosed with prime then yes you should do a water change.
    *Prime does not make ammonia go away but puts it in a form that doesn't harm our fish, but still needs to be removed via water change.
     
  7. Blooper

    Blooper Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    +1 for the good choice of buying your own kits!

    Doing small water changes during spikes has always worked for me. If you are changing out 10% of the water, you're removing 10% of the toxin in question. Do it every other day for a week(assuming for days, and no biological change up or down) and you've taken out 34.39% of the bad stuff and haven't shocked your new tank with too large of water changes. If things look like they are going down hill fast, bgbthat I mean fish gaping and coral all but melting away, then it's massive water change time.
     
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  9. pink4miss

    pink4miss Panda Puffer

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    instead of prime look into microbater7 by brightwells or one of the other live bateria products. add it weekly or each time you add an item. it will help you threw this beginning of the tank.

    i don't really think that the fish stores lie, i think that a lot of the times the workers just don't know. and think they are giving good advice. thats why its always best to test for yourself and do your research on line. and when in doubt with your test readings that take a sample to the fish store for a second opinion and figure it out from there
     
  10. scadsobees

    scadsobees Fire Shrimp

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    I curious what you have in your tank that would cause high nitrates? 3 corals shouldn't do it, and you didn't say that you actually got the fish yet.

    An 8 week cycle (water and live rock with a dead shrimpy for the first few weeks ??) with water changes since should have everything really low.

    Did you perform the nitrate test more than once? If you aren't too familiar with your new test kit that can introduce some error too.

    On a different topic, see if you can find some local aquarists...here or on a local forum. Not to take business from a store, but $60 is really high for some corals that you can usually get really cheap or free (especially if you aren't 100% they are going to survive, that's what I usually do starting out :) ).
     
  11. dinkanber

    dinkanber Skunk Shrimp

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    Yes i have a clown fish that was put in on sunday when he told me all was well.And i have crabs and snails
     
  12. mikejrice

    mikejrice 3reef Affiliate

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    I wouldn't be quite that fast to chalk this up to the fish store lying. Test kits all work differently and some almost always read just a little bit of ammonia or nitrate. There is always going to be some margin for error when it comes to water testing which could have been on the LFS employees or on you. There's a big difference between lying and simple human error.

    Also like some others have said, a new tank is going to see some swings when first adding livestock. It should stabilize quickly and not cause too much of a problem.

    Michael Rice
    Marine Engineers
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