Please help! I am not sure what is going on with my tank. It seems to be doing some kind of weird cycle after I added two perc. Clowns and a frogspawn with 7 heads. Here is what is currenty going on level wise with my tank...
PH-8.2
ammonia- .50
nitrite- 0ppm
nitrate- 20
calcium- 920
phosphate- .5
KH- 161.1ppm

any advice would by greatly appreciated!
Jason

Sounds like you did too much too fast. Do some water changes to get that ammonia and nitrates down. If your calcium really is that high (which i doubt, sounds like a bad test kit or a mess up doing it), the water changes will lower that also.

Test it with another kit. Take some water to the LFS and have them test it (or if that's what you did, buy a kit yourself).

That calcium level must be impossible. It would be snowing in your tank I think.

i'd do a 50% WC asap just to be sure, then another 50% in 2 days. if you calcium was that high it would look like milk, so I doubt that reading. if you are dosing anything, STOP. Waterchanges can solve almost any problem, and replenish all elements in nano setups if done weekly. good luck

As long as its not SPS heavy that is. My tank sucks calcium like crazy, i have to dose every other day. And i do waterchanges every week!

Re: Calcium at 920 tank doing something funky please help!
Thanks for the reply guys. My tank has been setup with for three months with rock that had been dead for quite some time. The sand has been established for about three years. I put the coral and fish in yesterday and got the weird readings this afternoon. The test kits are about three years old.
I will try the water change and see if that brings the levels down. I have not started using any additives to the tank as I have just added the first livestock other than some hermit crabs and some snails.


No milkey clouds in the tank either. And my water is crystal clear. Maybe a bad test kit or user error??

If the kits are 3 years old i would lean towards old kits. But user error is always a possibility.

you need to get that ammonia under control in the near term. i agree with the 35-50% water change. Seachem Prime is also a great way to get those numbers under control immediately without damaging livestock.

as far as your other issues go, 3 years old test kit = probably expired, but 920ppm is ridiculous for Ca.

also, i've never heard of KH being measured in ppm? i've only seen dKH and meq/L.

you should probably re-read the directions and retest, and if it's still bad, have the LFS check it.

920ppm is what....the calcium content of drywall?

It's that ammo level that has me freaked out. Won't bother the clowns, but it can really stress the frogspawn.

Most test kits expire after 1 year. They may work slightly longer. But after two they definitely go funky usually

sorry it took so long to get back... New kits water change all levels good there is some brown algea starting to cover the rock though any thoughts??

Most reagents have expiration dates of one year so reagent companies can sell reagents. The reagents in the calcium hardness test are quite stable. The pH buffer should remain unchanged for decades. The indicator powder will be fine for many years as long as it stays dry. Only the EDTA titrant should go bad, and then after many years. If you can confirm that there's no precipitate in it, it's fine.

The most common problem in calcium testing is blowing by the endpoint, but 920 ppm is way by. Add EDTA very slowly when you get up around 400 ppm. Can you test total hardness? A lot of magnesium will slow the color change.

How long has the tank been set up? Pics would help too.

The tank has been setup for a little over three months now. The rock was all dead but the substrate has been established for three years. I put the coral and fish in the tank nine days ago, and the brown algae showed up about four days ago. . I have some pics of the tank and the brown algae on photobucket. Here is the link http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/b413/J662777. I did my first water change two days ago( one week after adding stock) and my levels nitrite and nitrate levels went from zero on the day before adding stock to on day two a nitrate level of 200 dropping slowly to 40 before I did the water change. I was playing with the live rock I have in my sump yesterday getting ready for my new polyfilter placement, and I found a one inch layer of muck under the grate. So I did another 5 gallon water change last night. Nitrate is still at 20:( Any ideas?