High nitrates after water change?

[Tamberav]

10 hours ago, banasophia said:

Well if you can just drain out all the bad water and add new totally different water without shocking everything, then why do we even bother to acclimate our new additions? Why not just pop em out of the bag, put em in some of our water with the reef dip, then pop em in our tank?

 

I do not acclimate corals or fish (unless the fish come from a tank that has a very large salinity gap). I only drip things like shrimp/starfish, ect. 

 

Corals have ways of dealing with most changes and really the big thing they need to be acclimated to is different lights.

[xiaoxiy]

On 5/2/2018 at 2:34 PM, banasophia said:

Well if you can just drain out all the bad water and add new totally different water without shocking everything, then why do we even bother to acclimate our new additions? Why not just pop em out of the bag, put em in some of our water with the reef dip, then pop em in our tank?

I don't acclimate my corals, fish, or invertebrates either. At most I float the bags, dip and transfer. However, a majority of the time (if I got the livestock locally), I just dip and transfer without even floating.

[banasophia]

Tamberav and xiaoxiy:  Wow, I’ll try that next time... so many different ways to do things in this hobby, I’m thinking many of these organisms are much hardier than I thought! 

[anniebanana267]

update: so I bought rodi water, tested it, it was fine. I tested my tank water again, still 180. I’m thinking to myself, it can’t possibly be 180 because my entire tank would be filled with algae like I had my other tank. So I bring a sample of my water to my lfs, and the guy tests it with his brand, which is Salifert. He says it came up barely at 10. I’m relieved but confused. Should I believe his brand or my api? It makes more sense to me that it would be 10 being that I just did a water change but I’m still unsure.

 

 

( side note: I was so frustrated and nervous that I accidentally dropped and shattered one of my api test tubes. Does anyone know where I can get another? ) 

 

 

[Asureef]

24 minutes ago, anniebanana267 said:

update: so I bought rodi water, tested it, it was fine. I tested my tank water again, still 180. I’m thinking to myself, it can’t possibly be 180 because my entire tank would be filled with algae like I had my other tank. So I bring a sample of my water to my lfs, and the guy tests it with his brand, which is Salifert. He says it came up barely at 10. I’m relieved but confused. Should I believe his brand or my api? It makes more sense to me that it would be 10 being that I just did a water change but I’m still unsure.

 

 

( side note: I was so frustrated and nervous that I accidentally dropped and shattered one of my api test tubes. Does anyone know where I can get another? ) 

 

 

 

Buy a salifert or Red Sea.  Those will prove more accurate and easier to read than the api.  

[ReefGoat]

I am cycling right now and I currently have an API test giving a high reading as well. Not that high lol but higher than I expected.....I expected to see some nitrates because my ammonia tested at 0 after I peaked it at 4ppm with Dr. Tim's. I am not too worried about it though. I did a 2 gallon water change in a 10 gallon tank and then did another 2 gallon water change later on that day. It did change to a lighter shade of orange but still a little high. I just went ahead and ordered a Salifert kit off of amazon for like 15 bucks and I'm just going to let the tank chill out until it comes in. I have a feeling I'm going to trash ALL of my API test kits and get a couple Hanna's and some salifert kits for the things the Hanna's don't cover. I'd say trash the API, get a salifert as well. I have been using Microbacter7 to establish mine as well because I used dry rock (Life Rock) and sand.