Nanoreefnewbie 2012 nano contest entry

[coolhandgoose]

I just read through the whole thread and have a couple questions.

1. Are you using RO/DI water?

2. On page one you said you were using 1lb of live rock and 39 of dead rock. Did you actually do this? If you did then there's no way that your tank would be biologically stable enough yet for any inhabitants. You should've had at the very least half of the rock live rock, especially if its a nano.

This can explain why your nitrates were high and stayed high.

[nanoreefnewbie]

Originally Posted by Enigma

Nanoreefnewbie, what nitrate test are you using. Also, can you post the rest of your parameters and what tests you're using for them? Honestly, I don't trust your test at this point.

If you did a 50% change, that would have brought your nitrates down to 20ppm. A 25% change the next day would have brought them down to 15ppm. 25% the next day would bring them down to 11.25ppm, then 8.43ppm, then 6.32ppm . . . on day six 4.74ppm. Of course, nitrate would be building at the same time, so it would probably take a week or more to get the nitrates below 5ppm. Only the first water change would have a huge effect on the levels, and the effect becomes less and less with each water change.

Have you recorded your daily nitrate levels? If so, can you share them?

I'm using the api saltwater mater marine test kit...i tested every second day and nitrates didn't lower a tad...maybe 20 ppm then shoot right back up in a few days...