Noob first tank question

[jahnje]

1 minute ago, ReiRei said:

Is the Nitrate level too high? 

For corals, I think so. For fish not really, but it could stand to come down a little. I wouldn't worry about it until your cycle is done though. Let the process finish fully before doing anything else. It's the actual hard part.   stability and patience...   

[ReiRei]

2 minutes ago, jahnje said:

For corals, I think so. For fish not really, but it could stand to come down a little. I wouldn't worry about it until your cycle is done though. Let the process finish fully before doing anything else. It's the actual hard part.   stability and patience...   

Yes. Patience...thank you, jahnje

[jambon]

Welcome Rei and Dad... your nitrates are doing as planned. Remember patience is a virtue. The nitrates will level out. Enjoy any little creatures that came in on your live rock. A few snails and hermit crabs for a clean up crew are a good place to start with for livestock. Hermits will outgrow there shells so a few empty shells are good for when they look for there new homes. You have a cool Father by the way!

Enjoy

[AshCom]

2 hours ago, jambon said:

The nitrates will level out.

This isn't true. You nitrates will spike once all other levels drop to 0. This is your final spike but will not drop on its own and will continue to rise. The only way to drop Nitrates is through water changes. Nitrates are consumed by Anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that doesn't like oxygen) found in deep sand beds or rock like Pukani. Needless to say, this shouldn't be something you consider. There are many tanks on here that do not do water changes, but I advise against it. It's good to do at least a 10% water change every week. I do 20% weekly on my tanks but I know many of my old customers and many people on here do not do the same.

[ReiRei]

19 hours ago, AshCom said:

This isn't true. You nitrates will spike once all other levels drop to 0. This is your final spike but will not drop on its own and will continue to rise. The only way to drop Nitrates is through water changes. Nitrates are consumed by Anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that doesn't like oxygen) found in deep sand beds or rock like Pukani. Needless to say, this shouldn't be something you consider. There are many tanks on here that do not do water changes, but I advise against it. It's good to do at least a 10% water change every week. I do 20% weekly on my tanks but I know many of my old customers and many people on here do not do the same.

I discussed with my dad and we agreed to do a weekly water change in the beginning. So 10% is easy. I am also thinking of maybe using a bag of Sachem Purigen. That might help with the nitrate level. 

 

My problem now is the Eheim Heater that could not be turned off!!! My temperature now range between 24 deg to 27 deg but that is only because my dad has to manually switch on and off the heater.

[seabass]

3 hours ago, ReiRei said:

I am also thinking of maybe using a bag of Sachem Purigen. That might help with the nitrate level. 

It will help clean your water, but won't have a significant effect on nitrate.  It's a popular filter media.

 

3 hours ago, ReiRei said:

My problem now is the Eheim Heater that could not be turned off!!! My temperature now range between 24 deg to 27 deg but that is only because my dad has to manually switch on and off the heater.

Aw, sorry to hear that.  Take (or send) it back for a replacement.  I don't know why, but heater problems are pretty common.  That's why having a spare is a good idea.

[jahnje]

3 minutes ago, seabass said:

It will help clean your water, but won't have a significant effect on nitrate.  It's a popular filter media.

um, I thought that was the whole point of Purigen was to reduce nitrates? 

[seabass]

1 hour ago, jahnje said:

um, I thought that was the whole point of Purigen was to reduce nitrates? 

It's basically a synthetic (and more effective) version of activated carbon (and it's rechargeable).  It adsorbs organic compounds from the water column.  And in doing so, it does have an impact on nitrate (ammonia and nitrite); but that's not its prime function.  I look at its nitrate reducing capabilities as being somewhat similar to running a protein skimmer (a byproduct of organic reduction, but not its main function).  I could be wrong, but I don't believe that Purigen can directly remove nitrate from water.

[jahnje]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

It's basically a synthetic (and more effective) version of activated carbon (and it's rechargeable).  It adsorbs organic compounds from the water column.  And in doing so, it does have an impact on nitrate (ammonia and nitrite); but that's not its prime function.  I look at its nitrate reducing capabilities as being somewhat similar to running a protein skimmer (a byproduct of organic reduction, but not its main function).  I could be wrong, but I don't believe that Purigen can directly remove nitrate from water.

ok, I can buy that. Won't reduce nitrates, but will keep them from elevating in the first place.  Subtle but understandable.  That does seem to jive with what I was reading on their site.

 

So some water changes followed by Purigen will have a reasonable effect on nitrates by never letting them loose in the water column in the first place.   So protien skimmers function the same way?  They're not a straight nitrate reduction system, but more of a proactive, get them out first before they can decay and cause a problem?  

[seabass]

53 minutes ago, jahnje said:

They're not a straight nitrate reduction system, but more of a proactive, get them out first before they can decay and cause a problem?  

Yes, essentially.  However, they will not eliminate the production of nitrate (just reduce it).  Your aquarium is producing ammonia all of the time.  This ammonia still gets processed by your biological filter (resulting in nitrate).  What protein skimmers, Purigen, and other chemical media filters do is help remove organics before they get broken down into ammonia.  I don't want to discount the effectiveness of these filters, because they can be important components of our filtration systems.  However, they cannot directly reduce nitrate, nor will they prevent the production of nitrate from ammonia in our aquariums.

[ReiRei]

Just did another water test.

 

Ammonia 0.1

PH 8.2

Nitrite 0.05

Nitrate 45

 

So my Nitrate level is rising...

 

And here is my modest looking aquascape. I didn't know that Live Rocks can be so expensive. I just used up all my pocket money on them. 

 

I think there might be a bit of coral growing, I'm not sure. I'll try to take a picture of it.

 

 

[seabass]

44 minutes ago, ReiRei said:

And here is my modest looking aquascape.

  Nice start.

 

If you want, you can supplement your live rock with some less expensive dry reef rock (also called base rock).  If you think you would like to add some dry rock, I would add it prior to adding any livestock, as some types of dry rock contains organics and will spike ammonia again.

[Clown79]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

It's basically a synthetic (and more effective) version of activated carbon (and it's rechargeable).  It adsorbs organic compounds from the water column.  And in doing so, it does have an impact on nitrate (ammonia and nitrite); but that's not its prime function.  I look at its nitrate reducing capabilities as being somewhat similar to running a protein skimmer (a byproduct of organic reduction, but not its main function).  I could be wrong, but I don't believe that Purigen can directly remove nitrate from water.

You are correct.

 

Purigen doesn't effectively reduce nitrate, it may help control it or reduce it by small amounts but there is no significant difference in nutrient levels when you add it or even change out old for new media. 

 

It polishes water nicely.

 

The best nitrate reduction: waterchanges

[ReiRei]

On 11/12/2017 at 8:11 PM, seabass said:

  Nice start.

 

If you want, you can supplement your live rock with some less expensive dry reef rock (also called base rock).  If you think you would like to add some dry rock, I would add it prior to adding any livestock, as some types of dry rock contains organics and will spike ammonia again.

That's a good idea! I'll go down to my LFS this weekend and see if I could get some dry rocks.

[ReiRei]

On 11/12/2017 at 8:21 PM, Clown79 said:

You are correct.

 

Purigen doesn't effectively reduce nitrate, it may help control it or reduce it by small amounts but there is no significant difference in nutrient levels when you add it or even change out old for new media. 

 

It polishes water nicely.

 

The best nitrate reduction: waterchanges

My dad just brought home another 10L of saltwater so I have 15L standing by for the water change. 

[ReiRei]

On 11/12/2017 at 2:17 PM, seabass said:

It will help clean your water, but won't have a significant effect on nitrate.  It's a popular filter media.

 

Aw, sorry to hear that.  Take (or send) it back for a replacement.  I don't know why, but heater problems are pretty common.  That's why having a spare is a good idea.

My dad sent back the Eheim heater today and brought back a Aquael Easy Heater 100w. Hope this one will work properly...

[ReiRei]

Hi friends! Found these brown spots in the tank today.

 

My water parameters are: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0.05, Nitrates 50ppm.

 

[seabass]

That's a pretty good picture of it.  Still, it's hard to tell for sure what it is.  Most likely it just some diatoms.  Sounds like things are progressing nicely.

[ReiRei]

Water test before water change (25%)

 

Ammonia 0

Alkalinity 7.14

PH 8.1

Nitrites 0

Nitrate 50

 

Hope the Nitrate level will go down.

[seabass]

2 hours ago, ReiRei said:

Hope the Nitrate level will go down.

It most likely won't on its own.  In order to get it down, you would do water changes.  So if the current nitrate level is 50, changing half of the water will lower the nitrate in half (down to 25).  A larger water change will produce a larger drop.  You can do a series of water changes or one big one.  I'd just change out as much water as you can siphon out and fill it with new water,  That would take out, let's say, 90% of the water (which would result in a nitrate level of 5 ppm in your tank, which is perfect).

 

The test results indicate that your cycle is done.  Have you noticed any life in the tank yet?

 

If you plan on adding any more rock (live or dry), you should cycle (cure) it separately (like in a 5 gallon bucket).  That way, if it spikes ammonia, it won't hurt any of the beneficial life that came on your live rock.  After it has fully cycled, you can add it to the rest of your rock.

[ReiRei]

5 hours ago, seabass said:

It most likely won't on its own.  In order to get it down, you would do water changes.  So if the current nitrate level is 50, changing half of the water will lower the nitrate in half (down to 25).  A larger water change will produce a larger drop.  You can do a series of water changes or one big one.  I'd just change out as much water as you can siphon out and fill it with new water,  That would take out, let's say, 90% of the water (which would result in a nitrate level of 5 ppm in your tank, which is perfect).

 

The test results indicate that your cycle is done.  Have you noticed any life in the tank yet?

 

If you plan on adding any more rock (live or dry), you should cycle (cure) it separately (like in a 5 gallon bucket).  That way, if it spikes ammonia, it won't hurt any of the beneficial life that came on your live rock.  After it has fully cycled, you can add it to the rest of your rock.

Dad tested the saltwater from my LFS which we are using. Turned out that the Nitrate level is around 40 ppm!!!

[Clown79]

30 minutes ago, ReiRei said:

Dad tested the saltwater from my LFS which we are using. Turned out that the Nitrate level is around 40 ppm!!!

It's possible they are selling you RO water.

 

Ro water is not the same as RODI.

 

Ro water is reverse osmosis

 

Rodi is reverse osmosis deioniazation- it has additional filtration to make the water pure.

 

 

[ReiRei]

2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

It's possible they are selling you RO water.

 

Ro water is not the same as RODI.

 

Ro water is reverse osmosis

 

Rodi is reverse osmosis deioniazation- it has additional filtration to make the water pure.

 

 

Oh no! Dad's gonna test the RO water tomorrow just to confirm.  Our next option is to drive farther to look for another water supplier/LFS. Unless, dad is ok with making our own RO/DI water at home.

 

We were discussing if we should use something like Sachem Matrix or Red Sea NoPox.

 

I really hope to complete the cycling of my aquarium soon.

[Clown79]

26 minutes ago, ReiRei said:

Oh no! Dad's gonna test the RO water tomorrow just to confirm.  Our next option is to drive farther to look for another water supplier/LFS. Unless, dad is ok with making our own RO/DI water at home.

 

We were discussing if we should use something like Sachem Matrix or Red Sea NoPox.

 

I really hope to complete the cycling of my aquarium soon.

You can use distilled water as well.

It is pure water. You can buy it in most stores.

 

I wouldn't use products at this point. 

 

During and after a cycle it's normal for nitrates to be high. 

 

Once the cycle is done, one large or 2 waterchanges are done to lower them.

You want to get them to 20 and under.

 

nitrate lowering products need a very good skimmer for them to be used.

[seabass]

10 hours ago, ReiRei said:

Dad tested the saltwater from my LFS which we are using. Turned out that the Nitrate level is around 40 ppm!!!

Your nitrate level sounded high, especially since you didn't have a massive ammonia spike.  When I first started, I couldn't figure out why my nitrate wouldn't drop below 40 ppm (no matter how much water I changed).  Like you, I was buying water with 40 ppm of nitrate.  I switched to distilled, then finally got a RO/DI unit (which saves money in the long run).