Newbie here... what's not okay

ShoniNikki

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Okay so I have a 29 gallon bio cube with live sand and 25lbs live rock with nice coralline build up that has been up and running since early June, everything has been great in it for the most part (other than the parasite outbreak that got brought home from lfs)... I ran my water tests 2 days ago because my long tentacle anemone kept deflating and balling up, sure enough there was a slight increase of ammonia, everything else was great, when I woke up this am my leather coral, lta, Duncan and coco worm all look "sad" so I ran more tests and everything looks normal except my nitrates which are reading at 5.0 ppm and my high range ph which is reading between 8.0 and 8.2 I added eight.four to help with the ph and my coco worm is back out of his tube! The only other corals in my tank that don't seem bothered is my green riccordea mushroom, he is as big and beautiful as ever today and my green star polyps!
As for the tank stock, I have my clean up crew which consists of a skunk shrimp, a fire shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, a porcelain crab, an emerald crab, some nassarius snails, some cerith snails, a few ninja stars, some blue leg hermits, a couple red hermits, there's a million bristle worms that hitch hiked in and a banded serpent star! And obviously the corals and anemone mentioned above!
There is also 1 chromis as a guinea pig to test if the parasite is gone yet and we are so far so good on him!

I'm just curious as to the levels in which my tank should not go above or below?!
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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pH won't cause any issues for you if it is between 7.8 and 8.55, so don't make any changes to adjust pH.

The eight four boosted the alkalinity. Do you know how high? Alkalinity is the most important water variable (IMO), aside from salinity. The alkalinity may be too high now, depending on how much you added.

The nitrate at 5 ppm is also not responsible for the problems.

This has more:

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/re...-coral-reef-aquarium-randy-holmes-farley.html
 
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ShoniNikki

ShoniNikki

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I Remeasured levels this morning and everything is good except the ph and the nitrates, I added the recommended dose of eight.four after I tested the waters this morning, I need to get another test kit that will test alkalinity I don't have one of those?! Everyone seems normal now except the coco worm who comes out for a second then retreats back to his tube after a second?
 
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ShoniNikki

ShoniNikki

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No metal parts exposed to the tank and yes I do use tap water as of now but treat it with prime hours before the change
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I Remeasured levels this morning and everything is good except the ph and the nitrates, I added the recommended dose of eight.four after I tested the waters this morning, I need to get another test kit that will test alkalinity I don't have one of those?! Everyone seems normal now except the coco worm who comes out for a second then retreats back to his tube after a second?

Forget any recommended dose, which is simply not useful.

Either the tank needs alkalinity (in which case the dose is the amount needed to boost the alkalinity to your target level), or it does not (in which case it is not appropriate to dose any, regardless of the manufacturer claims) :)

You need an alkalinity kit more than any other kit.

Coco worms often do not survive long term. It may not be a specific problem in your tank. But, perhaps something is frightening it, such as a passing fish.
 

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