Trying to balance out my new reef tank, questions on the best approach.

Toddah · Jun 30, 2021

So my IM 40 has been running for 35 days now while I have been building the ATO and getting the APEX system setup and stabilizing temperature control.
I have about 28 lbs. of live rock that was bleached rinsed and dried along with about 10 lbs. from a running tank, I have 20 Lbs. of Agra live special reef sand in the tank.
I dosed 1 bottle of Dr. Tim's one and only starter culture over 5 days and have been ghost feeding Rods reef food a couple of times a week for the last 30 days. skimmer is turned off just the return pump and 2 8055 Tunze in the display and running with no lights except basement room ambient lighting.
No livestock or corals!

I started testing and here's where I have landed today.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.1
Nitrate 25

My PH has been low like 7.5
Started dosing Soda Ash liquid 2 days ago
PH is currently 7.9

Tested Calcium ad it was maxed out at 500 on a Salifert test kit
Tested Alkalinity and it was at 15.6 with Salifert test kit

Question is should I do a water change to get these two things back to a more acceptable range or is there something else I should do to get these back in line.

Its been 10 years since I had Reef tanks and I am looking to begin again assuming I know nothing and want to learn the right way to do this and not start a yo-yo dosing/testing routine chasing numbers.

Tank is a IM40 Nuvo AIO.
I have 30 gallons of water made up and ready to go.
Any advice for a returning aquarist?

ChaosAquaculture · Jun 30, 2021

the most important question is why are you dosing soda ash? That will raise the alkalinity especially if you dont have any coral. - kali

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 30, 2021

Stop all alkalinity supplements, such as the sodium carbonate (aka, soda ash). Your alk is too high.

Let is decline on its own.

The nitrate is likely not as high as you report, because if the nitrite is real, it confounds the nitrate test.

Toddah · Jul 1, 2021

Thank you very much, I appreciate the reply's.
I was not testing for calcium or alkalinity because there was nothing in the tank to using anything up,
I started dosing the soda ash in an effort to raise the PH (erroneous thinking I guess

) which is not working long term anyway.
Evidently I need a lot of refresher courses to get back on my feet. Glad I have nothing but copepods in the tank !

Randy can you help me understand your statement so I have a better understanding of the test results.

"The nitrate is likely not as high as you report, because if the nitrite is real, it confounds the nitrate test"

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 1, 2021

Toddah said:
Thank you very much, I appreciate the reply's.
I was not testing for calcium or alkalinity because there was nothing in the tank to using anything up,
I started dosing the soda ash in an effort to raise the PH (erroneous thinking I guess ) which is not working long term anyway.
Evidently I need a lot of refresher courses to get back on my feet. Glad I have nothing but copepods in the tank !

Randy can you help me understand your statement so I have a better understanding of the test results.

"The nitrate is likely not as high as you report, because if the nitrite is real, it confounds the nitrate test"

Sure. With many nitrate kits, a tiny fraction (say, 1%) of the nitrate is converted into nitrite, then that nitrite is detected. Nitrate itself is not easy to detect directly.

Thus, if you have 1 ppm nitrite already, that can falsely read as 100 ppm nitrate.