Darn API strips!

Aggie1978

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For the life of me I'm having a hard time reading the API Ammonia test strips. Does this look like its reading zero? Cycle began 1 November with Fritz Turbo 900. Ammonia accidently overdosed to .35 but it has dropped steadily to today's reading. Nitrite on Nov 4 was .25, yesterday and today is .1. Salinity has been a steady 1.027 and temp steady 79 since 1 Nov. I think my next step is to dose ammonia today to .2 again and then wait 24 hrs and check nitrate? Or should I let sit until nitrite is showing 0 (before dosing ammonia again). Advice? Thanks!

api.jpg
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I can't tell from the pic, but from the description you are done bc fritz is 2 day bacteria. tested in Dr Reef's thread to adhere fully to surfaces and be immune to water changes in two days, we're 11.

change out your current water and begin, so there's less algae fuel for the bright lights coming up.
I would be curious in seeing the nitrate.
 
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Aggie1978

Aggie1978

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I can't tell from the pic, but from the description you are done bc fritz is 2 day bacteria. tested in Dr Reef's thread to adhere fully to surfaces and be immune to water changes in two days, we're 11.

change out your current water and begin, so there's less algae fuel for the bright lights coming up.
I would be curious in seeing the nitrate.
Thanks, sorry I forgot the nitrates - that's been hovering at 50-75 every day for the past 5 days.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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that confirms done deal, the bottle bac was not dead so we'd revert to its known depositional times. ur set!

change water and begin, you paid nicely for the best bac and it gets ready fast. the only other variable that could sap this cycle call would be if you are not using rocks and or sand (surface area) to attach to

most all cyclers are, safe assumption?
 
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Aggie1978

Aggie1978

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that confirms done deal, the bottle bac was not dead so we'd revert to its known depositional times. ur set!

change water and begin, you paid nicely for the best bac and it gets ready fast. the only other variable that could sap this cycle call would be if you are not using rocks and or sand (surface area) to attach to

most all cyclers are, safe assumption?
Thanks, yes my tank has dry marco rock and Caribsea Special Grade sand - see pics. How much water change do you recommend - 30% - 50% OK? Then I can turn on my lights? I was going to start a 2 week quarantine for 2 clownfish and then add them in about 2 weeks. Not in any hurry, want to get this right (the best one can)!

tank2.jpg tank.jpg
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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it wouldnt even matter if you changed zero water its all safe now. Chg any degree you like it was just to keep nitrates as low as possible for lesser algae, in the end that may not even matter anyway to algae care/prevention just a little hedge we use. any degree changed is ok. in pico reefs we have them change 100% of it, that's too costly for a large setup so any degree is nice.
 
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Aggie1978

Aggie1978

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it wouldnt even matter if you changed zero water its all safe now. Chg any degree you like it was just to keep nitrates as low as possible for lesser algae, in the end that may not even matter anyway to algae care/prevention just a little hedge we use. any degree changed is ok. in pico reefs we have them change 100% of it, that's too costly for a large setup so any degree is nice.
Thanks, very very helpful!
 

brandon429

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in the chem forum they talk about nitrites causing false reads on nitrate tests, if that's happening here it doesnt matter.

if your ammonia was stuck at the same levels it was two weeks ago and there was zero nitrite or nitrate we could understand the bottle being bad

but any ammonia movement down from a prior plus either nitrite or false nitrate being present shows some active conversion, and once it starts it doesnt stall or stop. some readers might be wondering if expected nitrites here would confound the reading. it might, but not the start time. due to either trite or trate being present plus the wait time, this bottle bac seemed live so it meets a 48 hour timeframe.

nitrate is harmless to reef animals by and large. so is nitrite
 

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