CUC dieing, some advice please, newbie on board

[horteco]

Originally Posted by don.ald

i wouldd say hermits are reefsafe, with caution. if you have a heavy feed tank they do well most times and leave corals alone. they do cause trouble, turning everything over and make a mess.

your doing great. wait until you find the hitchhikers. i bet you will have crabs in your system--wait and see

donald

thanks for the encouragement. Hitchhikers!!! Hope their friendly.

[horteco]

Originally Posted by fishytime

you posted that you were getting nitrite readings?.....what test kits are you using?

fishytime

sorry it took so long to reply. I'm kind of scrambling to get as much advice as I can and neglected to look here.

I bought the hagen master test kit. I have never liked the color charts on these things it seems that you ask two people what color match they see and more often than not you get two different answers.

I have been picking up some better testers like Aqua Test KH and Hanna phosphate checker.

What do you think about the hagen test kit? I just took some more tests
with the hagen kit.
NH3 = 0
NO2 = less than 0.1
NO3= less than 5
pH = 8.6 Yikes That seems high

The pH has been fluctuating alot between 8.1 and 8.6 everything looks happy.

I better get a better ph tester. any suggestions?

[horteco]

Originally Posted by Myka

Hey Doug...nitrite isn't toxic in a marine environment even at super high levels. unless you're onto something else??

Myka

Back to the books for me. I thought NH3, NO2, and NO3 were all toxic. I thought short term memory was all I had left. Guess not. Oh well I'll keep reading and hopefully something will stick.