New to the hobby, but I read too much and now I'm paranoid

dedragon

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Yep, you dont want to overfeed and then have nitrate and phosphate jump at once, i do suggest frozen foods over dry food when feeding fish, I and many on hear use LRS reef frenzy or make their own foods (i dont have time for that anymore). Best thing to do is watch some
bulk reef supply videos on youtube, they cover a lot of information
 

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When we set up tanks we are creating a closed ecosystem. The species of denitrifying bacteria reach an equilibrium with the available nutrients until we get to our desired outcome of zero ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. When we add new livestock that balance goes out of whack briefly as we add food and the fish (and much lesser extent the invertebrates) create waste. If the system is healthy and the amount of livestock appropriate (yours are good for your tank) and we don’t overfeed, the bacteria will adjust and handle the increased bio load. As stated by Scott it may take a bit for the nitrates to increase. You should test periodically until everything is stable again before your next fish addition.

fun fact: a screening tool for a human urinary tract infection tests for nitrite. There is ammonia in our urine just like fish and people can get infected with types of denitrifying bacteria which convert that ammonia to nitrite! Science CAN be fun!
 
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painfullycurious88

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As of 2am tonight I just topped off my tank gave it a couple hours and did a test due to the fact I'm using API here are my results: Salinity: 1.025, Ph: 8.2, Ammonia: 1.0-2.0 It's in between in colors, Nitrite is reading 0, Nitrate between 10 and 20 ppm.
 

Scott Ulrich

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You are either feeding super heavy or experiencing some die off from your live rock if it went from 0 to 20 ppm nitrate in a few days... The ammonia reading is not great either. I would recheck your levels in the morning.
 

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Im also new to saltwater side of hobby ( like 10 weeks new since tank had water in it) also done lots research and got paranoid all fish will be diesesed/tank crashes are common/all bad things happenning in the tank the list is endless but i put it down to people usually poat more often on forums or wherever if got a problem rather than just say " everything is fine"
So what i decided is just do whats recommended and do it to best my ability and research will help me if come across a problem then i will try fix problem if problem arises,and lots experienced guys and gals on here to help if i get stuck.
Anyway hello and you doing great so far and as you say with that star fish your tank can support life so your ok.good luck
 
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painfullycurious88

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You are either feeding super heavy or experiencing some die off from your live rock if it went from 0 to 20 ppm nitrate in a few days... The ammonia reading is not great either. I would recheck your levels in the morning.
Small pinch twice daily. they eat it all in like 20 seconds. The two hermit crabs have been working on my live rock like crazy. If I don't see a change in the morning I'm going to do a 25% water change I think.
 

ying yang

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Ok you posted just before i posted.if that amnonia is really 1- 2 ppm then thats not good and if got life in your tank i would do a water change to remove some of the amnonia.
But i also used api tests and my amnonia readed 1- 2 ppm for about 1 month at the 1- 2 month stage of my tank.i got told by some very knowledgable people on this site that because i added bottle bacteria then my tank is cycled due to fact of time water been in tank and bacteria added.you used live rock that was wet and if wet for good length of time at lfs then you classed as skip cycle but depending how you transpoted rock hone and how long out water = how much die off from rocks you have if any
 
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painfullycurious88

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Ok you posted just before i posted.if that amnonia is really 1- 2 ppm then thats not good and if got life in your tank i would do a water change to remove some of the amnonia.
But i also used api tests and my amnonia readed 1- 2 ppm for about 1 month at the 1- 2 month stage of my tank.i got told by some very knowledgable people on this site that because i added bottle bacteria then my tank is cycled due to fact of time water been in tank and bacteria added.you used live rock that was wet and if wet for good length of time at lfs then you classed as skip cycle but depending how you transpoted rock hone and how long out water = how much die off from rocks you have if any
Went to the LFS and took it our of their water tub straight into a bucket drove maybe 15 minutes home in total it was *out* of water while I was placing it and pouring it in maybe 45 minutes but it stayed at a minimum damp in the bucket. The fish are showing no signs of being lethargic or stressed they keep trying to trick me into feeding them. Clownfish are worse than my dog.
 

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Im also new to saltwater side of hobby ( like 10 weeks new since tank had water in it) also done lots research and got paranoid all fish will be diesesed/tank crashes are common/all bad things happenning in the tank the list is endless but i put it down to people usually poat more often on forums or wherever if got a problem rather than just say " everything is fine"
So what i decided is just do whats recommended and do it to best my ability and research will help me if come across a problem then i will try fix problem if problem arises,and lots experienced guys and gals on here to help if i get stuck.
Anyway hello and you doing great so far and as you say with that star fish your tank can support life so your ok.good luck
If that reading is correct, no one would say 2 ppm ammonia is "everything is fine". My tank doesn't generate 20 ppm nitrate in 1 month and this is in 4 days.

Regardless, I'd double check the reading and do a 20% water change like you mentioned.
 
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painfullycurious88

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Just retested everything
 

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JumboShrimp

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That ammonia in post #32 is high, as I’m sure you know. But at the same time, heads-up, you’ll probably never see a true “0” ammonia reading with an API test kit. They tend to skew towards 0.25 ppm at the low end— don ask me why. Best wishes on your Biocube journey; they are a lot of fun.
 

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Even if your nitrite says 0 - your nitrate readings is falsely because of nitrite in the water. Nitrite in the water affect the readings of nitrate - often between 50 - 100 (differs between brands)

Just stop feeding so much - read this for some ideas


Sincerely Lasse
 
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painfullycurious88

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That ammonia in post #32 is high, as I’m sure you know. But at the same time, heads-up, you’ll probably never see a true “0” ammonia reading with an API test kit. They tend to skew towards 0.25 ppm at the low end— don ask me why. Best wishes on your Biocube journey; they are a lot of fun.
This is day 5 of Biocube. I run the tests every night and tonight it finally showed me something new.
 
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painfullycurious88

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Even if your nitrite says 0 - your nitrate readings is falsely because of nitrite in the water. Nitrite in the water affect the readings of nitrate - often between 50 - 100 (differs between brands)

Just stop feeding so much - read this for some ideas


Sincerely Lasse
So don't let the clowns guilt me into dropping some pellets and that will help. I didn't realize the tests were a bit of a crap shot. I have two redleg hermits presently so you advise to go ahead and drop in snails and more hermits?
 

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My first advise in this situation is to stop (for a new aquarium) the heavy feeding of dry pellets. Just get some frozen adult artemia and use the feeding schedule I suggest in that article. Start with a feed paus of three days. My general idea is that most test is not useful as a management tool in the start - it much better to control the input of ammonium/ammoniac with the feeding regime. In a new aquarium - the main source for these species is the leftover of ammonium from the gills when the fish feed - mostly coming out the first hours after feeding. The fish will handle a light starvation during this time if they was in a good shape when introduced.

Sincerely Lasse
 

ying yang

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If that reading is correct, no one would say 2 ppm ammonia is "everything is fine". My tank doesn't generate 20 ppm nitrate in 1 month and this is in 4 days.

Regardless, I'd double check the reading and do a 20% water change like you mentioned.
Think you missunderstanding what im saying buddy.
The " everything is fine" remark i made was not about the. Op but about people in general post more often that they have a problem rather than post saying " everything is fine in my tank " was about the title of this thread as said " read to much and now paranoid " so with me being new to saltwater and i also reading lots bad horror stories at first i thought wow every saltwater fish is diesesed and most tank always crash so whats point even starting a saltwater tank kind of thing but then realised more people post about the bad and not the good.
Then seen op post his reading of 2ppm amnonia same time i posted so then posted ovbiously if 2ppm reading is correct thats not good ^_^
 

Scott Ulrich

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That ammonia in post #32 is high, as I’m sure you know. But at the same time, heads-up, you’ll probably never see a true “0” ammonia reading with an API test kit. They tend to skew towards 0.25 ppm at the low end— don ask me why. Best wishes on your Biocube journey; they are a lot of fun.

Agreed, but I read that ammonia reading as 0.5, which is much better than 1-2. I'd still do water changes every couple of days until that is lower.

Is this this tank getting flow? I think I remember the op asking about wavemaker placement, but nitrifying bacteria require water movement.
 

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