Urgh seriously.

[Sarah24!]

Confidence comes from experience. Or Tequila, but that is a little different. :rolleyes:

The more you understand about your tank, and the more practice you get at testing, the more confident you will feel about everything.

Hello,

Your so correct on that, I just need to do it more. Just had bad experience with a different test kit. So since then I have relied on my lfs to do it for me :).

 

[norfolkgarden]

Sarah so sorry you are going through this.
Glad you have the kids. You are an awesome influence on them and they are very lucky to have you in their lives.

Hopefully your brother will get the help he needs.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

First off thank tou @norfolkgarden for the super kind words and thoughts, it means a lot to me. As some lol may think I’m crazy but with this I’m actually pretty shy and quiet especially with this issue. Should see me in real life, I’m overly shy and quiet even to people I know. But the point is the thoughts everyone has said to me, means the world and I won’t ever forget the kindness and lovely words.

This is also why I have been quite a bit more quite lately. Sorry, normally this makes me want to talk more and it still does, just haven’t done much with my tank other than your normal basic stuff.

I am learning how to test my own water and I know alk is suppose to be 8-9 and cal is 440. But what’s a good number for nitrates, and phosphates? Today when I tested I was at a 7 alk and 400 cal so obviously I dosed them. But my nitrates were about 10-15 ppm and phosphates maybe 2 to 5. I just did a 30!gallon water change maybe I need to do another 60. Any suggestions on this? I was told not to test ammonia or nitrites any other thoughts on this?

 

[NY_Caveman]

Hello,

First off thank tou @norfolkgarden for the super kind words and thoughts, it means a lot to me. As some lol may think I’m crazy but with this I’m actually pretty shy and quiet especially with this issue. Should see me in real life, I’m overly shy and quiet even to people I know. But the point is the thoughts everyone has said to me, means the world and I won’t ever forget the kindness and lovely words.

This is also why I have been quite a bit more quite lately. Sorry, normally this makes me want to talk more and it still does, just haven’t done much with my tank other than your normal basic stuff.

I am learning how to test my own water and I know alk is suppose to be 8-9 and cal is 440. But what’s a good number for nitrates, and phosphates? Today when I tested I was at a 7 alk and 400 cal so obviously I dosed them. But my nitrates were about 10-15 ppm and phosphates maybe 2 to 5. I just did a 30!gallon water change maybe I need to do another 60. Any suggestions on this? I was told not to test ammonia or nitrites any other thoughts on this?

I know your LFS tested your water historically. Do you know the numbers? For a mature system like yours, I would be more interested in the trend rather than any specific reading.

As far as Ammonia I only ever test that in new systems, or if there is a big change, or if I suspect a problem.

EDIT: BTW, I rarely test Nitrite on any system.

 

[Brew12]

Hello,

First off thank tou @norfolkgarden for the super kind words and thoughts, it means a lot to me. As some lol may think I’m crazy but with this I’m actually pretty shy and quiet especially with this issue. Should see me in real life, I’m overly shy and quiet even to people I know. But the point is the thoughts everyone has said to me, means the world and I won’t ever forget the kindness and lovely words.

This is also why I have been quite a bit more quite lately. Sorry, normally this makes me want to talk more and it still does, just haven’t done much with my tank other than your normal basic stuff.

I am learning how to test my own water and I know alk is suppose to be 8-9 and cal is 440. But what’s a good number for nitrates, and phosphates? Today when I tested I was at a 7 alk and 400 cal so obviously I dosed them. But my nitrates were about 10-15 ppm and phosphates maybe 2 to 5. I just did a 30!gallon water change maybe I need to do another 60. Any suggestions on this? I was told not to test ammonia or nitrites any other thoughts on this?

My personal preference is NO3 5ppm to 20ppm and PO4 0.02ppm to 0.08ppm.

What kind of salt are you using?

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

Sorry I have been quite (which is the normal me in person). I use the api test kits which is the same as my lfs. Usually I try for my alk between 8-9 and cal between 440-460. Usually phosphates are 2 to 5 but usually 2. My nitrates usually sit between 5 and 10 because I don’t want them too low.

I don’t seem to have any issues with my sps corals. But I have a few with my lps corals. Sometimes it’s acans and other times it’s my trac and wells. But those two always bounce back, the acans the bigger ones bounce back if I move them but smaller ones just go for great to gone in a matter of a day. I guess that’s the struggle with a mixed reef nothing can ever be a happy medium as much as we try.

So need about a month of sleep, you know your busy when making a bowl of cereal seems to take to long :).

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

Was curious as to how often people do water changes? I mean some do them every two weeks just to do them. Others usually do them if they see phosphates or nitrates creeping up etc. Others do them, to replenish the nutrients of salt water. In addition I use to test once a week, so who knows where the numbers go, but I always dosed every two days. Now that I’m testing every day, I’m starting to see a trend on how fast my nitrates creep up, and or how fast my calcium and alk go down. It’s still about every two days but not as much as I thought.

So where am I going with all of this lol, hey look squirrel. When I test my water I literally do it exactly the way they say. For example the bottle is straight up and down and I shake this and that etc. what I have noticed is most of the time when I had my water tested, it didn’t sit for the three or five minutes. The bottle was not always upside down etc. I’m curious if by doing this can actuslly skew a test result?

I’m curious as to how many people have relied on Tests, but what do we have in place to make sure these tests are accurate. As we all know if our alk says 7 but it’s really a 9, then we dose, ops. Yes I know there are dosing machines, but they fail just as much as the human does. Why, because we are the one who made said machines in like some other country. (Just saying we never know the exact accuracy of any said test). So with that said, do people test their water, then take it to their lfs and have the same water tested and compare results? Just curious is all.

 

[Brew12]

Hello,

Was curious as to how often people do water changes? I mean some do them every two weeks just to do them. Others usually do them if they see phosphates or nitrates creeping up etc. Others do them, to replenish the nutrients of salt water. In addition I use to test once a week, so who knows where the numbers go, but I always dosed every two days. Now that I’m testing every day, I’m starting to see a trend on how fast my nitrates creep up, and or how fast my calcium and alk go down. It’s still about every two days but not as much as I thought.

So where am I going with all of this lol, hey look squirrel. When I test my water I literally do it exactly the way they say. For example the bottle is straight up and down and I shake this and that etc. what I have noticed is most of the time when I had my water tested, it didn’t sit for the three or five minutes. The bottle was not always upside down etc. I’m curious if by doing this can actuslly skew a test result?

I’m curious as to how many people have relied on Tests, but what do we have in place to make sure these tests are accurate. As we all know if our alk says 7 but it’s really a 9, then we dose, ops. Yes I know there are dosing machines, but they fail just as much as the human does. Why, because we are the one who made said machines in like some other country. (Just saying we never know the exact accuracy of any said test). So with that said, do people test their water, then take it to their lfs and have the same water tested and compare results? Just curious is all.

I do not take a sample to my LFS but I do have at least 2 brands of each test kit that I use to compare one against another. I have my favorites which I tend to use, but I do use the alternate at least once a month.

 

[Fin]

The only tank I have running right now is my 15 gallon nano. I change 3 gallons per week - every week. I have this big water truck in my closet and I always have water on hand and not rolling around in the back of my car. :)

I don't think I have ever had a LFS test my water.

 

[cracker]

Miss Sarah, From the pics I see Your tank is doing very well. Please don't start changing parameters. A t least not too much. You start messin with this ,You could throw it out balance . This is where a lot of issues start showing up. Everyone looses Acros. I can't even keep one alive. so please ask the experts before changing parameters .

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

@cracker you always have words of wisdom among others (yes you know who you are). I’m not changing my parameters, just me testing instead of them. I still dose my every, Tues, Thursday, and Saturday. My question is more of their tests are always lower than what mine say, aka cal and alk and nitrates. For example today I was between 15-20 ppm nitrates, 420, cal and 8 alk. I had like 0.25 phosphates as well.

I have amazing success with acros, none of them have died on me, it’s more of the small colonies of acans like 3-4 heads and only others are that my wells and trac changed colors some. But I still think it’s do to the third light, yet at the same time the acros are growing insane.

 

[Bronc]

I would upgrade your test kits. The API test kits are known as being the cheapest and least accurate. I use a Hanna Checker for Alk and use Red Sea for all other tests. Not saying these are the best - but I am a fan of Red Sea. I also have stopped doing water changes for the most part. I dose BRS 2-part for Alk, Calc and Mag, and manually dose Red Sea trace elements daily.

You being the math wiz you are should easily understand why I think that trying to replace trace elements with water changes only can never keep up.

Say as an example that you are starting with 100% NSW and it has 100% of its trace elements. A week goes by, and your corals use 5% of the available trace elements. You do a 10% water change. Are your trace elements back to 100%? Nope, and thus the downward spiral begins..

So I believe in doing water changes if you need to reduce Nitrates or Phosphates, and dosing trace elements to keep them as close to 100% as possible.

Also, with your schedule I’d try to automate the dosing as much as possible. I use an app called Aquarimate to track all of my parameters over time and to remind me when to do certain tasks. I also have an Eheim autofeeder on the tank to automate that. I feed a blend of three different foods.

 

[Brew12]

The API test kits are known as being the cheapest and least accurate.

I like my API test kits. ;) I feel they get a bad reputation because of their low cost. I find their calcium test kit to be one of the most repeatable on the market.

 

[Erica-Renee]

I like my API test kits. ;) I feel they get a bad reputation because of their low cost. I find their calcium test kit to be one of the most repeatable on the market.

I agree..

not to get this discussion started.. but there seems to be this thing about Marine Aquarium Keepers (well some) If you do not pay top dollar for something what your buying is Junk , Does not work or inferior... I find this simply not correct for the most part.. You do not always get more by paying more.... Do not even get me Started on the refractometer debate..

You have to test the testing instrument before you test you water, but before you can test the testing instrument you have to test the testing water to test the testing instrument .MY LAB Grade GLASS Hydrometer is faster always accurate and Kewl to use...

oops sorry for the RANT..

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

So you all thought I didn’t know what an 8 track was right. My dad needed to borrow my Jeep so I had to use his 73 Chrysler and look he still has an 8 track in it. But who in the heck is south sea island magic lol. This is elevator music st it’s best.

 

[Erica-Renee]

^^^^ stuck in a time warp ^^^^^^

 

[Fin]

I have one in my 79 Corvette too. The number of functional tapes continue to decline though. Probably the worst music medium ever. Ha!

Can you actually see over the steering wheel of a 73 Chrysler???? :)

 

[Erica-Renee]

I have one in my 79 Corvette too. The number of functional tapes continue to decline though. Probably the worst music medium ever. Ha!

Can you actually see over the steering wheel of a 73 Chrysler???? :)

most little old ladies i see still driving those old cars cant, Why should she need to... and ohh she lives in Idaho... Not like anyone else is on the tractor path anyways.


time to hide now..

 

[Fin]

See.... :-)

 

[Fin]

That’s a lot of car for a little person. Might get pulled over by the police, thinking she’s a 10 year old that made off with her grandpa’s car. :-)