[Holly]

Tank is cycling beautifully and no algae bloom *knock on wood

Ammonia's been zero for five days, nitrites have been zero for three days, and nitrates have been stuck at 20 for five days. Shouldn't it be going up or down after five days? I expected it to climb since the nitrites went to zero, but it stalled at 20.

I LOVE my tank, even empty. Cujo, my accidental tourist (sole snail that hitched a ride in the live sand), was still going strong this morning. =)

[BubbaWPB]

The nitrates are metabolized by bacteria in the deeper parts of the sand bed. It will take a while for your "NLS" sand to get populated well and process the nitrates. Meanwhile, you can do water changes to keep the nitrates down.

Keep up the good work! It sounds like it's doing great!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Holly

Tank is cycling beautifully and no algae bloom *knock on wood

You may still get a diatom bloom. That's usually part of a normal cycle. If so, it will pass in about ten days.

Ammonia's been zero for five days, nitrites have been zero for three days, and nitrates have been stuck at 20 for five days. Shouldn't it be going up or down after five days?

It doesn't necessarily have to go up, or down. It all depends on the condition of your live rock. If there is something that is still dying inside your live rock, then your nitrates will probably go up some. If the die-off has stopped or levelled off, then the nitrates will stop rising. The nitrates may not fall below 20 ppm for a few weeks. That's nothing to get excited about.

In any case, it's safe to add your detritivore kit now.

[Holly]

Nitrates have been basically zero for several days. Started getting algae on sand and tank. Got 10scarlet hermits, 4trochus, 6astrea, 10turbo. Doing great! Got a little watchman goby and he's been doing great--all over every inch of the bottom like a little watchfish. Last night, added a small purple pipefish, who darted into the rocks, and I've seen not a glimpse of him again. I know he's prob hiding, but I really can't find any evidence that he even still exists! How long do they usually hide and not eat?

That's all I'm adding for the next week-to-10-days, except the detritovore kit/4 spag worms/refug macroalgae from Inland Aquatics, which arrives tomorrow morning.

pH 8.2, temp 79.9, ammonia/nitrites 0, nitrates 1-2, SG 1.022 =)

[Ninong]

Your specific gravity is really too low for a reef tank. I would recommend raising it to 1.025.

I think you're rushing things by adding fish this soon. It would have been better to wait at least another two or three weeks before adding any fish at all. As far as your "purple pipefish," I'm not sure which species you're talking about but ALL pipefish are considered very difficult to keep.

[Holly]

I meant purple FIREfish, not pipefish. (I'm a stay-at-home mom and my two young kids began a Deathmatch during the last post, so I was a bit distracted.) Nemateleotris decora

The firefish finally came out of hiding and is checking out the rockwork. YAY

About the SG: I think I'm topping off too much, because it was at 1.025 when they did the initial set-up. The range I had as acceptable was 1.022-1.026 (with the ideal at 1.025), so I didn't think being at 1.022 was detrimental. I'm laying off on the dosing for now.

They sent the detritovore kit to the wrong address so I've gotta find out if the truck's back at FedEx and go pick it up.

[Ninong]

It isn't possible to top off too much. All evaporation has to be replaced with pure freshwater (R.O./D.I. water or limewater). The salt doesn't evaporate. The only way you lose salt is by salt creep and wet skimming and both of these methods would take a very long time to drop your specific gravity from 1.025 to 1.022.

For a reef tank, you need to keep it between 1.025-1.026. And it is important to keep it stable. No up and down. Some people prefer to keep fish-only tanks at 1.022 to 1.023 but that's not really a good idea either. I wouldn't keep a FOWLR tank at anything lower than 1.024 SG.

The reason a lot of LFS people recommend 1.022 is because that's what a lot of stores keep their fish holding tanks to save money on salt mix.

Fish do better at natural seawater salinity and many invertebrates will not even survive long-term at 1.022 SG. Natural seawater salinity varies but in the area of most coral reefs it ranges from 34.5 PSU to 35.5 PSU. (PSU = practical salinity units or ppt - parts per thousand). The Mediterranean is a little higher at 36-36.5 PSU and the Red Sea is much higher at 37-39 PSU, depending on which part of the Red Sea you sample. The Northern Red Sea can reach 40 PSU at times.

The only place you're going to find 1.022 SG in nature would be in very shallow lagoons or tide pools after a heavy rain or areas like the Gulf of Thailand during the monsoon.

[optical]

speaking of wich....
the past week i procrastinated on topping off the tank. i went in yesterday to get buckets filled and i brought in a little tank water for testing.
i test the water only about once a month but i figured i'd see what their results were compared to mine.
so everything came out perfect except the sp.
it was at 1.029!
i new it was high but not that high. i slowly added 10 gallons in a matter of 4 hours and brought it back down to .26.
the thing is, all my corals looked exceptionally expanded during the high salinity time. why? seems like they liked the higher levels more than the normal levels. how bad is it for the corals for the water to fluctuate this much? i know, im a bad reefkeeper...