Water Parameters

kathya0321 · Nov 29, 2021

Just wanted to post my water parameters and get some feedback. Still waiting for my Calcium and Magnesium tests. My 16 gal Bio Cube tank has been up for 9 weeks, 2 clown fish and 1 blenny for fish. Snails and crabs for CUC.

Salinity 1.026
PH 8.0
KH 8.8
Phosphates 25
Nitrate 20ppm

I'm a little worried about having phosphates, but just did a 2 gallon water change yesterday. What are your thoughts on the Phosphate readings.

blaxsun · Nov 29, 2021

What kind of test kit are you using? I'd maybe have your LFS test both the phosphates and nitrates to see what their results come back with for a comparison.

Lavey29 · Nov 29, 2021

Water changes don't really do anything to lower phosphate just nitrate. Do you mean .25 phosphate not 25 right? Numbers aren't to bad for 9 week tank. Any corals yet? You can lower both nitrate and phosphate with limited feeding of fish. Phosguard works good to bring it down to or a small bag of chemipure too.

kathya0321 · Nov 29, 2021

Lavey29 said:
Water changes don't really do anything to lower phosphate just nitrate. Do you mean .25 phosphate not 25 right? Numbers aren't to bad for 9 week tank. Any corals yet? You can lower both nitrate and phosphate with limited feeding of fish. Phosguard works good to bring it down to or a small bag of chemipure too.

I used the Hanna test and it said 25 I believe, I do have Chemi Pure but probably needs to be replaced.

kathya0321 · Nov 29, 2021

blaxsun said:
What kind of test kit are you using? I'd maybe have your LFS test both the phosphates and nitrates to see what their results come back with for a comparison.

API for Nitrates and Hannah for Phosphates.

polyppal · Nov 29, 2021

What are you planning on keeping in it? The fish are likely fine

Gtinnel · Nov 29, 2021

For phosphate was the Hanna checker the one that measure in ppb phosphorus? If so 25ppb is around .08 phosphate which is good. I don't think there is a chance it is 25ppm phosphate.
Everything else looks reasonably good, nitrates are slightly high but not too bad.

Lavey29 · Nov 29, 2021

kathya0321 said:
I used the Hanna test and it said 25 I believe, I do have Chemi Pure but probably needs to be replaced.

Check it again, it's either .25 or 2.5. The latter is very high but .25 is manageable.

Lavey29 · Nov 29, 2021

Gtinnel said:
For phosphate was the Hanna checker the one that measure in ppb phosphorus? If so 25ppb is around .08 phosphate which is good. I don't think there is a chance it is 25ppm phosphate.
Everything else looks reasonably good, nitrates are slightly high but not too bad.

Thank you for clarifying. I did not consider that measurement.

Gtinnel · Nov 29, 2021

Lavey29 said:
Thank you for clarifying. I did not consider that measurement.

I could be wrong but my guess is it's the HI736 checker being used, I can't image its actually 25ppm

PeterEde · Nov 29, 2021

Lavey29 said:
Water changes don't really do anything to lower phosphate just nitrate. Do you mean .25 phosphate not 25 right? Numbers aren't to bad for 9 week tank. Any corals yet? You can lower both nitrate and phosphate with limited feeding of fish. Phosguard works good to bring it down to or a small bag of chemipure too.

Just had Phosphate at .3 in my tank. Added Phosguard a came down next day.

kathya0321 · Nov 30, 2021

zatch said:
What are you planning on keeping in it? The fish are likely fine

I plan on keeping soft and SPS corals. Right now I have a Duncan, Goniopora and Zoa's.

kathya0321 · Nov 30, 2021

Gtinnel said:
I could be wrong but my guess is it's the HI736 checker being used, I can't image its actually 25ppm

Yes that's correct, I probably read it wrong, will check it again tonight. Thanks.

Gtinnel · Nov 30, 2021

See if yours looks like this with "ppb" above the screen and "Phosphorus ULR" below it.

If so to convert to ppm phosphate (the standard measurement) you have to multiply the result by 3.066 to change to phosphate then divide by 1000 to convert from ppb to ppm. Or just use the handy Hanna conversion table.

kathya0321 · Nov 30, 2021

Gtinnel said:
See if yours looks like this with "ppb" above the screen and "Phosphorus ULR" below it.

If so to convert to ppm phosphate (the standard measurement) you have to multiply the result by 3.066 to change to phosphate then divide by 1000 to convert from ppb to ppm. Or just use the handy Hanna conversion table.

Ok so that is my checker, so my phosphates are at 0.077 ppm, not 25. Not so bad after all. Thanks alot, the directions weren't clear at all about the conversion, and I didn't get a chart.

gbroadbridge · Nov 30, 2021

kathya0321 said:
Just wanted to post my water parameters and get some feedback. Still waiting for my Calcium and Magnesium tests. My 16 gal Bio Cube tank has been up for 9 weeks, 2 clown fish and 1 blenny for fish. Snails and crabs for CUC.

Salinity 1.026
PH 8.0
KH 8.8
Phosphates 25
Nitrate 20ppm

I'm a little worried about having phosphates, but just did a 2 gallon water change yesterday. What are your thoughts on the Phosphate readings.

If the test is accurate, which I doubt, more water changes and less food.

Sorry, just saw your last post. 0.08 is fine unless you are planning on keeping acropora.

I wouldn't change anything.

Gtinnel · Nov 30, 2021

kathya0321 said:
Ok so that is my checker, so my phosphates are at 0.077 ppm, not 25. Not so bad after all. Thanks alot, the directions weren't clear at all about the conversion, and I didn't get a chart.

I've nevered used the Hanna that requires the conversion but you'd think they'd include the chart and an obvious explanation of how and why to do the conversion. I use the ULR Phosphate so I don't have to do the conversion, but the one you have is supposed to be better at lower phosphate levels.

kathya0321 · Nov 30, 2021

Gtinnel said:
I've nevered used the Hanna that requires the conversion but you'd think they'd include the chart and an obvious explanation of how and why to do the conversion. I use the ULR Phosphate so I don't have to do the conversion, but the one you have is supposed to be better at lower phosphate levels.

Truthfully I didn't know there were different options of Hannah phosphate checkers, but yes a chart would have been a big help. At least my KH test says how to convert.

Gtinnel · Nov 30, 2021

kathya0321 said:
Truthfully I didn't know there were different options of Hannah phosphate checkers, but yes a chart would have been a big help. At least my KH test says how to convert.

I believe here are 4 different phosphate checkers.

vetteguy53081 · Nov 30, 2021

Phos extremely high. You want < .04
API may be false reading. If youre testing right after water change- will be false for sure.

You want:
Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .5
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-10
CA 440