Getting into the aquarium maintenance business

[Floyd R Turbo]

Phosphates are high...

Yeah the Phos is in the tap water in this area, what's weird is that in my 55g FW they jump from low (0.5ppm in tap) to 2ppm within a week, but in my 10g fry tank they go away to the lowest reading. Only differences in the tanks is the 55g has plain gravel substrate and C-360 Marineland canister, 10g has sponge/HOB and Flourite.

I'm guessing it might have something to do with feeding frequency and substance.

...and the Nitrates are ridiculous.

Overly ridiculous. I'm going to have to do a diluted test, mixing 1/2 (or 1/4) tank water with freshly mixed & salinity matched SW to get an accurate reading. Then again, I could just do a PWC and then use leftover new water to check the new levels.

PH also needs to come up a bit.

I agree, it should be at 8.2 to 8.4 to match natural seawater conditions, so I'm guessing that one thing is probably throwing other things off.

You also need to check his ALK, SIL, MAG and Cal.

dKH is 6-7 (started to change over color at 6, did full changeover at 7) so it could be slightly higher. I'm guessing using a marine buffer during PWC will assist. I ran out of time and couldn't do Silicates or Calcium but I'm sure that's high, it's in the tap here, and I don't have a Magnesium test kit yet.

So the bottom line here is that I'm going to suggest doing a 20% PWC and a sump/skimmer cleaning and let it mix for a couple days and test again.

With regards to the Nitrate levels, since they are so seriously high, it would take months to get it down to below 5-10ppm without doing a major water change. I'm thinking that I need to add something like Purigen or De-nitrate to the sump to get this under control without adding chemicals directly to the water.

And I think it goes without saying that there will be no adding fish or corals for quite some time.

EDIT: Started another thread addressing the high Nitrates:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/reef-tank-w-nitrates-over-160ppm-121921.html

 

[match55]

that goby isn't really a goby/blenny, its the only kind in its species.
its call convict goby/blenny or engineer goby.
they can grow up to 18inches.