Next newb question. Water change or leave it

[Adzyhany]

Ok. My tank has been cycling since the beginning of this post. I got carried away with work and never bought any fish. I have settled in and will be going to get some dwellers here. I’ve tested the water quite regularly and the ammonia doesn’t seem to drop any lower than .25. It’s sat there for over a month. Nitrite has been 0 for well over a month. Nitrate was up to 40 last week and I just topped up the tank from evaporation (maybe 300-500ml) and the nitrate is down to 20 but the ammonia seems to be closer to .50. How can this happen with an empty tank? (New crushed coral substrate with cured live rock, new filter and everything else). Coralline algae just started spreading in the last 4-5 days

[rough eye]

seems like your test kit might be faulty. adding a pint of water to (what size tank?) should not cut nitrates in half, unless it was a 1 quart tank that was half empty due to evaporation.

[RaymondNoodles]

What test kit are you using? I had a similar situation where I started with wet/live/established rock and could never really tell if my tank was cycled. The API test showed what appeared to be between 0 and barely greener than 0; I was constantly doubting if it was truly 0, testing 3+ times/week, “ghost feeding”…my nitrites and nitrates remained at 0, according to API. I recently started using the RedSea test kit along side the API; RedSea seems more accurate for nitrates. I consistently see 5-10 nitrates with RedSea but the API color chart has been very difficult to distinguish and appears to be closest to 0. So in the beginning I was scratching my head thinking “I have some ammonia and 0 nitrates” so my tank must not be cycled yet. I started using the RedSea test which shows 0 ammonia and 5-10 nitrates. So my system is cycled. My gut tells me your system is cycled but if you tell us what test kit it may help. If your system is truly creating nitrates (especially 20-40) and shows 0 nitrites that’s a good sign. I’d run another test for ammonia to be sure. 

Don’t change water until you are sure it has cycled. 
 

As “rough eye” has also asked, how many gallons is your tank?

[mcarroll]

On 9/15/2021 at 7:52 PM, Adzyhany said:

I got my first saltwater tank 2 days ago and am cycling it with liverock. PH 8.2, ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0 and nitrate 20 now. My gut feeling is “it’s been two days, just leave it” but should I do a water change and see if everything levels out?

 

On 11/13/2021 at 7:41 PM, Adzyhany said:

Ok. My tank has been cycling since the beginning of this post. I got carried away with work and never bought any fish. I have settled in and will be going to get some dwellers here. I’ve tested the water quite regularly and the ammonia doesn’t seem to drop any lower than .25. It’s sat there for over a month. Nitrite has been 0 for well over a month. Nitrate was up to 40 last week and I just topped up the tank from evaporation (maybe 300-500ml) and the nitrate is down to 20 but the ammonia seems to be closer to .50. How can this happen with an empty tank? (New crushed coral substrate with cured live rock, new filter and everything else). Coralline algae just started spreading in the last 4-5 days

That was about 62 day ago....your tank has cycled any ammonia that was in it.

 

Test your testing AND test your test kits!

 

Run a test in triplicate to see if your testing process is introducing any errors.  You should get three VERY similar test results.  If not, you're doing something wrong with the test.

 

Run a test on tap water (or RODI) if you think the kit might be delivering bogus results...or if you have trouble seeing zero.  You can run a test on you tank water and look at these two tests side by side...the RODI will give you a solid visual reference for "zero" so you'll be able to see color difference in the tank sample more clearly.  (Hope this makes sense.).  Obviously if you get a result the than zero from the kit on RODI water, then something is wrong....possibly expired reagents.

 

I wouldn't act on any of the test results you just reported until you've done these checks to assure your results.  👍  (It sounds like your tank is doing great, BTW.   Folks notice this often after ignoring their tank for a while....they usually kinda like it.)

 

Consider getting some Salifert brand test kits for your next round of testing gear.  Hanna Checkers and other photometers like that are nice too and make things like nitrate and phosphate reading less hassle (let the computer read it!)....but the test itself is more complicated to run, in some cases a lot more complicated.

[W1ll]

On 11/14/2021 at 11:41 AM, Adzyhany said:

Ok. My tank has been cycling since the beginning of this post. I got carried away with work and never bought any fish. I have settled in and will be going to get some dwellers here. I’ve tested the water quite regularly and the ammonia doesn’t seem to drop any lower than .25. It’s sat there for over a month. Nitrite has been 0 for well over a month. Nitrate was up to 40 last week and I just topped up the tank from evaporation (maybe 300-500ml) and the nitrate is down to 20 but the ammonia seems to be closer to .50. How can this happen with an empty tank? (New crushed coral substrate with cured live rock, new filter and everything else). Coralline algae just started spreading in the last 4-5 days

I'm going to make a guess here and say you're using the API ammonia test kit. They have a reputation of detecting minute levels of ammonia and displaying it as 0.25. As others have mentioned, I suggest maybe trying a different brand of test kit to clarify, but my guess is your ammonia levels are lower than you think. 

[Adzyhany]

Ya I have the api test kit. It’s a 16 gallon cube. My hydrometer is junk as well. Getting readings from 1.025- off the charts high (id guess 1.036 if that was even on the scale) when testing back to back with no changes to the water. After 2 back to back 1.025 readings I gambled on that being accurate. I added a small clean up crew and a few small soft coral and everything looks happy. I’ll pick up better testing gear before I add fish

[Adzyhany]

Also I guess I should add I have been using pre mix saltwater so far with small amounts of tap water to compensate for evaporation and I know I’m doing the tests correctly

[mcarroll]

(In the long run you'll want to do away with the tap water.)

[Adzyhany]

10 hours ago, mcarroll said:

(In the long run you'll want to do away with the tap water.)

I am on a well with a good filtration system and no water softener so it’s not bad water

[mcarroll]

11 hours ago, Adzyhany said:

I am on a well with a good filtration system and no water softener so it’s not bad water

I'm not anti-tap water, but there are issues to be aware of simply because it's not pure water – it affects the saltwater (which is a supersaturated solution) you mix.  In general well water has high TDS, meaning there's already a LOT dissolved it before you even start mixing.  

 

Have you tested a freshly mixed batch of seawater and compared the results to reference numbers for the brand of salt you're using?

 

Have you tested a batch of raw tap water for it's ca, alk and mg levels?  I would also test at least seasonally (at least for the first year) for ammonia, nitrate and phosphate.

 

Depending on your well water's mineral configuration this can be a big deal and cause precipitation issues or make them more likely.

 

Check out:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php

[Adzyhany]

I took some of my tap water to the LFS to be tested for everything I can’t test for myself and they said it was excellent water, just low on PH so I add marine buffer to bump it up

[mcarroll]

Hm.

 

Do you know for sure that they tested the specific ones were are curious about?   pH is kind of a secondary or computed number and I wouldn't make any chemical changes to your tap water based on just pH.  We wanted alkalinity....pH = alk + CO2...so our data is in the pH number, but unless they also tested CO2 (they didn't) we can't back-figure what the water's alk is.  calcium and magnesium levels are also somewhat important to know...there is no "excellent" number for these parameters, there's just whatever number it is.  We (you) need these numbers to be able to compare with the post-saltwater-mixing tests you're also going to do at some point.

 

Mostly a curiosity for me, and even for you there would be no rush since things seem to be going well...but in your shoes I would still work on getting more specific numbers on your tap water and a feel for how your well water changes seasonally.  pH might change, and who knows what else you may notice.  After you've kept close track of things for a whole set of seasons, you should have a decent idea of how everything goes.  Get a cheapie set of dip test strips for something like this – it'll make the testing a lot faster, easier and probably cheaper too.  It's lower accuracy than other test kits, but that should be fine for this purpose.  👍   If you happen to find something in your tests that makes you want better test results on tap water you can always get a better kit for just those things.

[Adzyhany]

I appreciate all the help