Finally got around to testing levels

Bryan47 · Mar 16, 2015

Ok guys I've been super busy and the tank got neglected for a while and some diatom built up. Weird thing is my corals and fish have never seemed better. Talked it over with Jeremy and Sean and we came to the conclusion it's likely that the levels have been stable at bad rates. Haven't done a water change in about two months and nitrates were only at 30ppm. Not sure what's keeping them down. Salinity was around 40 so just did a fresh water change of 5g. I think I need to adjust levels slowly as to not shock anything in the tank. So I was thinking 5G every day or every other to get levels back to safe levels. It's a 55 with a 15 G acrylic sump. I will post levels and take any advice you can give! Also had a trace amount of ammonia which is weird the tank has been going for 8 months now.

Temp: 79F
Salinity: 40 ppt
Ammonia: .25
PH: 8.2
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 30 ppm
Phosphates: 0ppm
Calcium: 450 ppm
Mag: 1600 ppm
KH: 7.7

Thank you!

GobyWanKenobie · Mar 16, 2015

How did the salinity get that high? I would never dump that much fresh water in my tank in the course of one day, especially not a 55 gallon. One or two gallons at a slow drip is the most I would ever attempt in 24 hours. They are still alive so they have already adjusted to your current parameters, it must be changed very slowly now. Just my opinion.

Triggreef · Mar 16, 2015

bringing the salinity down can go much faster than if you needed to bring it up. They say in months of heavy rainfall even on the reef it can drop fairly fast which makes sense IMO. However I still would take a week or more to bring it down. I would just let my ato do the work. as in fill ato, then drain some tank water and let the ato drip in to replace it.

the ammonia could just be faulty test.

pecan2phat · Mar 17, 2015

1.030 salinty is high but not deadly and bringing it down with a daily 5g fresh R/O water exchange is not a bad idea in my opinion. Without water changes, your calcium is at a good level but definitely not in balance with your lower alkalinity of 7.7 DKH. Your magnesium is also pretty high at 1600 ppm without dosing. Any trace amount of ammonia even at .25 ppm for an established reef tank is cause for concern though.