Establishing my pico tank

[ethans_aquatics]

My tank is about a week old. I added some fish flakes yesterday to get the ammonia going. On day 1 I established my biomedia by adding some Stability and live rock and live sand. The ammonia went to 0.2 ppm, nitrite and nitrate still at 0. I'm using premixed salt water I bought from my LFS and the pH of my tank is ~7.6. I added 0.25g of buffer to raise and maintain it. Temp is 26 C (I blame on the power outage last night, will be corrected by the heater with time). To me so far the scariest thing is my salinity (0.030). I've calibrated my refractometer and the other day my salinity was about a 0.26. There hasn't been that much evaporation, I have no idea why it's that high.

Any tips appreciated.

In the future I'd like to stock with:

Cardinal fish

Blenny or goby

Shrimp

Hermit crabs

[ethans_aquatics]

Update: I interpreted the results a bit wrong. Tested at LFS - ammonia is ZERO and salinity is 1.026

[ReefGoat]

So you said you added “live rock”
 

please elaborate. Was this rock you purchased wet or dry at the time of purchase?

 

also with a tank this young I think you’re playing with fire dumping stuff in there to chase PH numbers. 
 

dont overcomplicate your fledgling setup or you’ll be destined for failure. Keep it simple for now. The main things you should be keeping an eye on is stable temp and salinity and making sure your nutrients don’t ZERO out once you’re cycled. Once you start adding coral then start watching your alk and calcium.

 

 

focus on your maintenance schedule right now and perfect it. 

[ReefGoat]

When you calibrate your refractometer are you using distilled water or are you using proper 35ppt calibration fluid? 

[ethans_aquatics]

3 hours ago, ReefGoat said:

When you calibrate your refractometer are you using distilled water or are you using proper 35ppt calibration fluid? 

I used distilled water.

3 hours ago, ReefGoat said:

So you said you added “live rock”
 

please elaborate. Was this rock you purchased wet or dry at the time of purchase?

 

also with a tank this young I think you’re playing with fire dumping stuff in there to chase PH numbers. 
 

dont overcomplicate your fledgling setup or you’ll be destined for failure. Keep it simple for now. The main things you should be keeping an eye on is stable temp and salinity and making sure your nutrients don’t ZERO out once you’re cycled. Once you start adding coral then start watching your alk and calcium.

 

 

focus on your maintenance schedule right now and perfect it. 

Dry rock. Thanks for the tips. I think it was an issue with my last refractometer because it's really old and I tested it with a newer one and my salinity was fine.

[ReefGoat]

I know it says you can use distilled water. But I really trust and like using the 35ppt solution. It’s calibrating with something much closer to what you’re testing.

 

really keep an eye on that dry rock sterile setup. They’re notorious for bottoming out on nutrients and they present a Dino infestation almost like clockwork. Keep a close eye on your nitrate and phosphate balance for a good while as it’s going to want to stay bottomed out. Someone a little more knowledgeable in reef chemistry could explain. I can just speak from my experience with 3 dry rock setups with the same result every time. 

 

[BubbleTrouble]

Good luck, I hope this goes well!!!