ekean45
Aquarium Advice Activist
I have a question concerning a swing in PH / Nitrate drop.
Here is the set-up I have in a 60 gallon SW fish only tank started on 12/3/11:
Here are the results of the tests over the last 2 weeks. I did a water change just before adding the refugium on 3/10.
Date Salinity PH Amm Nitrite Nitrate
3/10/12 1.023 8.30 0.00 0.00 10.00
3/11/12 1.023 8.30 0.00 0.00 10.00
3/15/12 1.024 8.30 0.00 0.00 20.00
3/18/12 1.024 8.10 0.00 0.00 5.00
My questions on this is I can see that the 3/18/12 PH may have had a swing due to keeping on the lighting 24/7, but is it possible that my nitrate levels dropped this drastically without a water change from a small water change and adding the NPX Bioplastics?? Could there possibly be an issue that would mask or cause a nitrate level to drop like this?
Fish coloration look great and they are very active. When I come to the front of the tank, most of the fish come to greet me (obviously expecting food), and when I do feed them, they devour what I put in the tank within 2-3 minutes - I feed them 2-3 times per day with a mix of different foods - Nori, cyclops, mysis shrimp.
Is this too good to be true?
Thanks.
Here is the set-up I have in a 60 gallon SW fish only tank started on 12/3/11:
- About 2 1/2 inches of live aragonite sand
- About 20 pounds live rock and 40 pounds base rock (becoming live)
- Marineland Emperor 400 BIO-Wheel Powerfilter (made for a 90 gallon tank)
- Heater – Fluval M200
- Reef Octopus BH1000 protein skimmer
- AA Aquarium UV sterilizer – 24Watt
- 2-18” 50/50 Actinic bulbs - 1 per canopy
- 2 powerheads
- Small Refugium from useless Cyclone 100 - live rock, live sand, ½ lb calerpia - T8 18" full spectral bulb
Here are the results of the tests over the last 2 weeks. I did a water change just before adding the refugium on 3/10.
Date Salinity PH Amm Nitrite Nitrate
3/10/12 1.023 8.30 0.00 0.00 10.00
3/11/12 1.023 8.30 0.00 0.00 10.00
3/15/12 1.024 8.30 0.00 0.00 20.00
3/18/12 1.024 8.10 0.00 0.00 5.00
My questions on this is I can see that the 3/18/12 PH may have had a swing due to keeping on the lighting 24/7, but is it possible that my nitrate levels dropped this drastically without a water change from a small water change and adding the NPX Bioplastics?? Could there possibly be an issue that would mask or cause a nitrate level to drop like this?
Fish coloration look great and they are very active. When I come to the front of the tank, most of the fish come to greet me (obviously expecting food), and when I do feed them, they devour what I put in the tank within 2-3 minutes - I feed them 2-3 times per day with a mix of different foods - Nori, cyclops, mysis shrimp.
Is this too good to be true?
Thanks.