First Water Qual Test
 

Hey,

So my tank has been up and running for I think about 2 weeks in which I've added about 40lbs of Live cycled Rock and 20lbs of base rock. The last week i've seen brown Diatoms forming on the sand and glass which have decreased and gone pretty much away.

Values as follows

Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - .5
PH - 8.3
Ammonia - 0?
Alk - 6 < Is this too high? WC?

Salinity is 1.024

Correct me if i'm wrong but I believe the tank went through a Small cycle not having good test kits and finally having them I wasn't able to watch for the Swing in Nitrites and Nitrates but Diatoms are clearing up at the end of that cycle as I've read.

Any comments?

More than likely did go thru a cycle
I keep my alk at 8dkh 6 is a little on the low side
I'd also bump your salinity up to 1.026

alk is too low
salinity 1.026
go slowly, everytime you add or change something the tank will need to adjust, i doubt you have completely cycled yet

why??? i prefer to be at 1.024 am thinking i may even go lower to 1.023 if theres no auto top off installed its prob best to stay a bit lower so evaporation doesnt effect to high.....not a fan of higher salinity:)

its possible that your tank is finished cycling if you used cured rock and new sand....may just have went through a mini cycle, if you want to be sure just add a cocktail shrimp and see how long it takes for any amonia to show or dissappear:)

Huh? can you explain this a little better.

I have no problems with a 1.024 Salinity as I don't have an Auto Top off. Alk of 6 is too low?

take a small piece of shrimp and let it decay or use flake food at feed the "ghost tank" theres also other things you can do to start a cycle.

alk of 6 is too low between 7-8 is ideal

are you testing for alk and calcium or dosing for either??:)

No I'm not dosing anything -.- There is nothing in the tank apart from a clean up crew.

I will Ghost feed and see what happens.

Thanks.

give it a shot worst case scenario the shrimp will start the cycle for you best case scenario your cycle is completed and whatever amonia the shrimp gives out will be converted quickly enough:):)remove the shrimp as it starts to decay and some amonia appears no need to leave it in there forever;)

Sounds good, as for the Alk - I'm going to retest in a few days see if there is any changes. After night shifts Bleh...

what are you using to test your alk?? are you testing for calcium and mg as well??:)

It's just a Marine Basic Test kit I had laying around. No I will hae to get the Calc and Mag test kits here soon.

then it ain't finished cycling!

Reasoning behind stating this? Because my Am is 0? or what

please feel free to elaborate??

whats a mini cycle?, until the tank is completely cycled it will go through a phase of unstability, like a wave, a bloom of this, a bloom of that, whatever can take hold during the ups and downs of the cycle will appear.
once the tank is cycled the wave will subside and the process will stabilize.

a mini cycle is basically when you have a slight rise in amonia its not as strong as a full cycle starting from scratch but is still noticable, it wont take as long as cycling with alot of dieoff or uncured rock. it can be caused by releasing debris under rocks, not rinsing sand enough or simply adding an unusual or high bio load or amonia source. sometimes even though we keep the rock in water during transit or maybe were only moving across the house to a different room but the upset in the balance can release a small amount of amonia.cured rock should quickly turn the amonia and may not even be noticable or missed all together:)