stumped on my parameters

[Barnabie Mejia]

ok did some testing last night and they are as follows:
PO4 - .021
NO3 - 5ppm
Ammonia - 0
pH - 8.0 (new Salifert Kit)
Alkalinity - 7
Calcium - 440
Mag - 1340

Tank is looking like its doing better, I sat and watched my Acan move around a little last night! cant remember the last time I saw the heads slightly move with the flow. everything got fed as well and they all gave me an imaginary high five thanking me for everything! (at least in my head that's what happened.....)

thanks for all the support, and hopefully this can be used as reference for someone in the future!

ill keep y'all posted on this with hopefully daily updates!

 

[Bleigh]

ok did some testing last night and they are as follows:
PO4 - .021
NO3 - 5ppm
Ammonia - 0
pH - 8.0 (new Salifert Kit)
Alkalinity - 7
Calcium - 440
Mag - 1340

Tank is looking like its doing better, I sat and watched my Acan move around a little last night! cant remember the last time I saw the heads slightly move with the flow. everything got fed as well and they all gave me an imaginary high five thanking me for everything! (at least in my head that's what happened.....)

thanks for all the support, and hopefully this can be used as reference for someone in the future!

ill keep y'all posted on this with hopefully daily updates!

lol... I totally talk to my corals like a pet sometimes. Like, the frogspawn caught a giant piece of food and i said, silly, you'll have a tummy ache if you ate all that! The clownfish stole some from him, so it wasn't an issue... lol

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

alright everyone, I am at 7.5 dKH now! moving on up! I did get my hands on a dosing pump to help manage the dosing and spread it out through the day instead of the majority of the dose either in the morning or the evening when I get home. My sons were helping me spread the dose during the day, but They're back in school now so I think this will help the stability of the tank. pretty excited about the pump. and I won't feel stressed on firday nights when I cant dose cause were at my oldest sons Football games.

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

did a water change last night (small 3 gallon). before I did the water change I checked the Alk in the water and it was at 6. so I added 3ml alk to it to bring it up to about 7-7.5 and then did the water change. I didn't want to raise it up any higher because I still needed to dose after the WC. I let the tank run for about 2 hours and then tested and it was at 7 dKH, added 10ml and stared at the tank for a bit and then hung out with my wife and kids gave a last look at it said good night then went to bed.

Woke up and tested and we are at 8dKH!! so happy about that!

already mixing up another 5 gallons for a water changed scheduled for Friday night.

On a side note I had my nitrates climb a bit and noticed a little bit of algae coming back and don't want another bloom, that is the reason for the close WC. want to bring the nitrates back down.

I will be getting the doser set up tonight (I had a brain fart and thought I had line for the doser, but didn't) gonna stop by the LFS for some supplies. Also going to get the last few things at the hardware store to finish up the stand for the 75g.

I guess its time to start the tank build thread for the 75g as well! I'll be sure to post a link here for those that want to follow it.

 

[W1ngz]

Congrats on getting where you wanted to be with the Alk!

Be careful though, large alk changes in a short time can be lethal to some corals. Best to limit to a max change of 1dkh per day. Personally when I decided to move my target alk from 7 to 8, I wanted to keep it under 0.5 a day, so I spread my addition over 3 days. That way my routine daily maintenance dosing, along with my addition, wouldn't put me over 0.5 change in a single day.

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Congrats on getting where you wanted to be with the Alk!

Be careful though, large alk changes in a short time can be lethal to some corals. Best to limit to a max change of 1dkh per day. Personally when I decided to move my target alk from 7 to 8, I wanted to keep it under 0.5 a day, so I spread my addition over 3 days. That way my routine daily maintenance dosing, along with my addition, wouldn't put me over 0.5 change in a single day.

i get what you're saying, this was a process that was spread over days of testing... I was keeping the increase of .5 - 1 dKH per day. typically I was seeing .5 increase per day. I still want to be around 9 - 10.

 

[W1ngz]

I think I misunderstood your previous post. Re-reading it now, I missed the part that it was the new water that was at 6. I was thinking you pushed the tank from 6 to 8 all at once with the water change plus some extra.

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

I think I misunderstood your previous post. Re-reading it now, I missed the part that it was the new water that was at 6. I was thinking you pushed the tank from 6 to 8 all at once with the water change plus some extra.

oh I see, yeah I kinda was thinking that my alk was staying low because I was adding water changes with low Alk and got to testing. now its going to be done before every water change so we know exactly what is going in to the tank so we don't have parameter swings.

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

Update****

Alright everyone, got my parameters in order and the tank is looking good for the most part! the doser has worked wonders on the tank, having it on a solid schedule makes stability awesome!!! doing a water change today (5gallons) and going to keep on trucking.

Alk 9.5
Calcium 440
Mag 1400
Phosphate .02
Nitrate 5ppm (want to bring it down a little more, water changes will help this since I don't have a fuge or skimmer on the tank)
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0ppm
Salinity 1.0255
Temp 78*

on a side note, i don't know if i figured something out or not, but i was having a little trouble with my temp staying 80* and not coming down during the day. so i put a fan in the room and it seemed to help tremendously! The fan that I am using is for my racecar haha. I don't know if you all have seen one like it before but it moves tons of air and i usually place it in front of the car and it blows air below the drivetrain cooling off the radiator and oil pans for the motor and transmission.
after i put the fan in the room to move air i placed it near the front window and opened the window. i guess its pulling in air from the outside to bring the pH up in the tank for gas exchange. before i put the fan in there it was at 7.6 - 7.8 and now i'm sitting around 8.2-8.3 area. lastnight it was at 8.2 when i tested at 9:00pm. not sure if the fan is to blame but its staying in there for now. i just need to find a way to disguise it from my wife cause i kinda think that its an eye sore for her haha

Here is a link for the fan that i'm talking about. i know its not ideal, but i'm hispanic and we always find ways to overcome things.