3 week of nano addiction

[wnuk]

So here it is

my nano has been stable for the last 3 weeks

I have 24 lbs of live rock on 15 lbs sand that is , in my opinion, alive

 

things are going fine so far, but I am expecting things to continue at a snails pace(no pun intended)

 

My only concern with my levels so far, are my pH is a little low....7.6, I am guessing that I need to continue to cycle before this will raise to an acceptable level

Also I have been looking around for a way to raise my alkalinity

There doesn't seem to be one preferred method to do this from searching the boards

so I will continue to search......

 

Any comments are appreciated!!!!

 

here are some vitals about my tank

 

20G High

24 lbs LR

15 lbs LS

4 blue legged hermits

3 striped legged hermits

1 red legged hermit

7 turbo snails

 

a whole gammut of various soft corals found on the live rocks

2 X 15W NO (my 55W PC lights are sitting in UPS waiting to be delivered)

aqua clear 150

aquaclear 201 power head

100W heater

 

HERE IS A LINK TO SEE MORE PICS

 

http://members.rogers.com/reef/

[DogfacePuffer]

My pH never falls below 8.0 at the lowest pt. Your pH is very low for a saltwater tank and I suggest u using some Kent superbuffer to bring it up...Mine was about 8.4 when I started but after the addition of lifestock, it fell to 8.2, then 8.0, so I used some of the superbuffer to bring it up. It works fast, just dissolve it in the water. No mess.

Cycling alone is not going to bring up pH naturally. In fact new tanks will tend to have falling pH levels over time before being established. That's why I always have my Kent buffer handy...

[Vijay]

Another Torontonian wher do you buy your corals and Lr i cant seem to find any good places for corals

[printerdown01]

Don't buffer!!! TRUST ME!!! WAIT until your tank stops cycleing, or at least gets close... Expect everything to be up and down at some point. Water changes are you best bet for keeping pH up at this point... You will find that most salt brands make their salt with a high pH. This is because pH falls as time goes on, so they make salt mixes with high pHs to help counter this... I use CoraLife and I can tell you that it is true with my salt. But I wouldn't recommend trying to raise or lower levels of ANYTHING durring cycle, otherwise you will find that you will either a)prolong the cycle (if you keep ammonia and nitrate levels down) or b)over correct the problem (which is often WAY worse than just leaving the problem be). Water changes are safe however, although I wouldn't recommend anything more than 20% a week TOTAL (especially durring cycle otherwise you will face problem "a)" ).

[cmoreash]

What is your alkalinity level? If that's low, the pH will drop a lot.

 

great looking live rock though, I wish i could get hitchhikers like that.