Water levels help

[DaveM]

Ok guys as most know I purchased my 90 saltwater tank off of craigslist and it was in horrible shape and I knew that when I purchased but it was hard to pass up such a good deal. I did replace the sand bed and cleaned the live rock heavily due to an abundance of green hair algae. No skimmer what did he think would be growing right. Well I have successfully revived the tank but I am having some problems getting the water where it needs to be. I have done numerous 20% water changes over the last couple weeks. I will post today's water tests and hopefully get some answers from ya guys. Thanks
Calcium 560ppm
Kh 12 dkh
Phosphate .25 ppm
Nitrate 80-100 ppm
Nitrite 0
Alkalinity 300+
ph. 7.0
Salinity 1.026

 

[PrettyFishies]

What's your sand bed? Aragonite will take care of the PH. Keep changing water and your nitrates will come down, in time. You using RO?

Calcium is high. Don't add any, just let it come down on its own.

 

[mr_X]

those test kits aren't accurate. you can't get a 560 calcium and have 12dkh.
double check these against a second and third kit.
as far as the nitrates, water changes will lower them over time.
ph can be corrected with more surface agitation. you need more flow in the tank.

 

[DaveM]

I get what your saying x since calcium and dkh are connected in a way. I plan on retesting later. Question two is I have a standard 90 with 1 koralia 3 and two koralia 1. I have one in the back center on tank pushing forward while other two are at opposite ends of tank. Trying to get cross flows per Internet advice. How would you recommend positioning them.

 

[DaveM]

Yes I am using ro water and have a 3" sand bed. I will post complete system pictures tomorrow when lights are on. Also there is bio bale in my wet dry. Should I remove that

 

[PrettyFishies]

Bio balls do nothing but harbor nitrate. Get rid and replace with LR.

 

[mr_X]

just aim one of those k1's up towards the surface some. that should help. i think i would want more flow in your tank btw. the more flow you have the healthier it will be.

 

[DaveM]

Ok I retested my water today to see if maybe something tested wrong yesterday. I plan on taking some water to my LFS to see what they come up with.
Nitrates 60
Nitrite .2
Ammonia .5
PH 7.8
Phosphate .25
Calcium 560
KH 12
Salinity 1.023
Temp 79
I plan on pulling bio bale out a little at a time and putting in some live rock.

 

[mr_X]

sounds like the tank is cycling. are there corals in the tank? if not i would leave the lights off until the cycle is over. if there are corals and fish, i would be doing water changes until i got the ammonia and nitrite down to zero. don't worry about the phosphate right now. save the test kit.

 

[DaveM]

Tank has been up for a year. I have been adding balance blocks per LFS advice and recently started adding purple up. I only have four small fish and about eight corals but I also just added metal halides as well. Had power compacts before. A lot of changes in the last month

 

[mr_X]

it's been up for a year at your house?
skip the balance blocks and purple up. it's only adding extra nutrients to the system. everything you need is in your salt mix.

 

[DaveM]

Yes I had a lot of problems with corals and LFS recommend that stuff. Since then I added much better lighting. Been changing 20 of water weekly for last couple weeks. I believe most of problems seemed from poor lighting and bio bale in the wet dry filtration.

 

[mr_X]

so, have you figured out where the ammonia and nitrite are coming from? bio balls?

 

[DaveM]

I also added a bulk of snails and some crabs Friday along with a sand sifting star. Do you think I should just leave tank be for a week or two and just check water parameters

 

[DaveM]

I believe ammonia and nitrite and nitrate problems are coming from bio bale. It's is at least 2 yrs old

 

[mr_X]

no..i think you need to do some water changes. snails and crabs will not raise ammonia levels.


bio bale? what is that exactly? rip that stuff out of there.

 

[DaveM]

Bio bale looks like linguini noodles and goes in your wet dry. It has been in there a while. I plan on taking half out today cause I was told levels could spike taking it out all at once. I plan on doing at least 10 gallon water changes for a while. Cause we all know water changes get expensive. Especially 20 gallons a week.

 

[mr_X]

ahh..gotcha.

 

[DaveM]

Well bio bale came out Sunday and water is mixing for water change. Let you know parameters in a day or so. On a lighter note my RBA split yesterday

 

[DaveM]

Ok it has been a couple days since bio bale removal and I did not do water change yet. Here are my parameters as of today.
Nitrate 40 ppm
Nitrite 1.0
Ammonia 0
Ph 7.8
Phosphate .5
Calcium 540
Kh 12
Salinity 1.023
Temp 80.5
And I did aim a powerhead up to agitate water surface. Let me know what you guys think