What do I do next?

[JMB]

Here are the facts: 65 gallon tank set up 3 weeks ago. 20 pounds live base rock, 60 pounds live sand, wet/dry sump type filter. The tank seemed to cycle in about two weeks. I did a 25 gallon water change and added 4 turbo snails and 2 dominos. We are now 3 days into the live additions and here are the conditions.

Nitrates, nitrites, ammonia all zero
Ph 8.5, maybe closer to 9
Kh 10
Calcium hardness 400
SG 1.024

Brown allege is growing and I see a little green starting.

Do I need to be doing anything or just let things continue to mature?

I have a protein skimmer on order, should be here soon.

 

[fishfreek]

Ph 8.5, maybe closer to 9

Thats kind of high. What kind of water did you use to start the tank with?

Everything seems to be normal except for that PH. The algae is fairly normal for a new setup. The skimmer should hopfully help export some of the excess DOC's in the water.

 

[JMB]

I started with conditioned tap water

 

[jackdp]

Get a FW test kit and test the pH of your tap water or test the pH of your freshly mixed SW. What pH kit do you use? 8.5 is a little high, but 9 is too high. Most tanks keep a pH of 8.0-8.3. You may find that your tap water has a high pH and you may have to seek out an RO water source.

 

[jackdp]

sry...double post

 

[JMB]

I use a sera brand test kit. The sera book says to use the sera co2 fertilization system to lower PH. What's that?

 

[jackdp]

I'm not familiar with sera brand kits...are you sure its for saltwater testing. Some kits will work for either FW or SW but some are FW only. I would check this as it could be giving inaccurate readings.