water parameters

[powderblue]

Are these good numbers during cycling?

 

Ammonia-0.4

 

nitrite- 0.2

 

Nirtrate-10

 

Ph- between 7.9 and 8.1

 

salinity-33

 

specific gravity- 1.024

 

Thanks:)

[powderblue]

forgot to mention I use a fastest seatesting system thought I'd let you all know.

[seabass]

Looks fine for a cycle; keep waiting until Ammonia reads zero and then wait some more until your Nitrites read zero. At that time your Nitrates should read higher than they do now. You’ll have to bring down your Nitrates with a series of water changes (I’d do 20% changes until your Nitrates are back under 10 ppm). Depending on how hardy the fish and/or cleaning crew you choose, you should then be ready to start slowing adding livestock. Continue to perform regular 10 to 15% water changes to maintain your Nitrate levels less than 5 ppm (ideally less than 0.25 ppm).

 

Water changes will probably get your Ph back up to 8.2 which is better than 7.9. I’d leave your lights on between 8 and 11 hours a day during the cycle (for the life on your rock). Algae will show up as your Nitrate levels increase; water changes will correct your Nitrate/Phosphate levels and your algae problems should become manageable.

[jdsabin1]

On the nitrates topic:

 

Any amount of investigation into "dreaded nitrates" with others will reveal an enormous amount of differing opinions on the importance/significance of their presence/concentration. Are nitrates important as sources of poisoning of marine livestock? By and large for most species of life, no. Can nitrate measure be useful as an overall indicator of system health, trends in water quality changes, wake-up calls for altering, enhancing methods of overall improvement? Sure.

 

Ideally you want your nitrates to be as low as possible. For invertebrate-containing reef tanks, up to five ppm is perfectly acceptable, and even up to a few tens of ppm for fish-only systems is fine. Just having "some" nitrate concentration present in the grand scheme of things that contribute to livestock health is not a real menace at all.

 

You can wind up spending too much time trying to get nitrates down to zero, and if you have livestock and are feeding the tank, you will always be disappointed and confused as to why they are never at zero. Mine are usually 5-10 ppm when I test for them and my nano-reef is one helluva happy, healthy and thriving tank.

 

HTH!

[seabass]

You should be able to maintain your Nitrate levels with a 10 to 15% water change once a week. If not, you might be overfeeding or have an overcrowded tank (or both).

 

Along with keeping your Nitrate/Phosphate levels down, water changes also serve to replenish buffers and trace elements, virtually eliminating the need to dose trace elements. Although many people still choose to dose Calcium.

[jdsabin1]

Seabass is right on. A water change ONCE a week after your tank has cycled should be all that's necessary to maintain your nitrates at an acceptable level. I believe in something closer to a 20% water change but others do smaller percentages than that and it works fine for them. I must say that all of my corals are happier after their weekly water change.

 

As far as the trace elements however, that's an entirely different story. In a reef tank with a few softies, water changes might work okay, in a tank with a lot of different corals like SPS, LPS or clams, water changes are simply not enough to sustain the tank from a calcium and alkalinity standpoint.

 

Here's a good link that explains this in more detail, and an excerpt that summarizes:

 

"Look in any reef tank or go for a swim on any reef and the one thing you will see everywhere you look (other than water) is calcium. It's all over. The live rock in the tank that holds up all the corals, the infrastructure of natural reefs, the skeletons of the hard corals, even some of the algae -- all of it is made of calcium. Calcium is the building material of the reefs, the bricks and the mortar that holds them in place. Reef-building corals actively pull calcium from the water and use it to build skeletons. These skeletons eventually become the infrastructure of the reef. Coralline algae uses calcium to turn your live rock purple. Clams use it to build their shells.

 

In short, without an adequate supply of calcium, your reef could only support limited life. Fish, of course, do not build with calcium and therefore need very little. Soft corals generally do fine without calcium supplementation as any decent salt mix provides natural sea water (NSW) levels of calcium, which is enough for these non reef building creatures. Stony corals, clams and certain alga, however, need much more.

 

It's not that salt mix does not provide enough initial calcium. Rather, with a tank full of stony corals and clams, the livestock actively pulls the calcium out of the water, necessitating constant supplementation."

 

http://www.thereefweb.com/calcium_and_alkalinity.htm

 

Once my tank was fully stocked, there was no way on God's green earth that water changes alone would keep my calcium at acceptable levels. In fact the corals were sucking it out faster than I could put it in. Once I started dosing with B-Ionic, I was finally able to keep my calc levels above 400. Even if I miss a day, my levels start to drop quickly.

[seabass]

You’re right about Calcium, but I’d consider Calcium a major element and not a trace element. Anyway, I’m sure powderblue was looking more for a thumbs up versus our dissertation on Nitrates and trace elements. Good info though.

[powderblue]

I'm taking it that I'm doing good? Thanks all!

[jdsabin1]

Originally posted by seabass

You’re right about Calcium, but I’d consider Calcium a major element and not a trace element.  

 

Semantics but calcium is considered a trace element in sea water.

[seabass]

Yes powderblue, you are doing good.

[powderblue]

Thanks

[powderblue]

just added some new live rock yesterday, I will check the parameters again tommorow to see any decrease in ammonia and nitrites.