How does the results my tests look?

Filled tank December 23, live rock on December 26th. I Have 2 crabs and 6 snails and 2 brittle stars. 1 damsel. biocube 14. salinity is 1.024 temp is 78.
Any advice is appreciated. Thank you
DatesNitrites Nitrates PHCalcium DKHphosphates Ammonium12/27/08320
400 304-170.5112/29/081407.8380 304-17
012/30/085808360 375-21

01/01/095208360 358-200.5001/02/095208360 358-200.5001/04/091208400 322-180.5001/05/091208 400 304-170.5001/06/09120 8 400 322-180.50

 

The test results above did not look like that before i posted, sorry. I will fix that.

 

That looks like a Tank Profiler copy/paste to me. I recently did same thing. If it helps you make this readable, you can see how I broke it down here:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/water-chemistry/lowering-mg-56759.html

In particular, I did my heading like this so that it would line up right:

Date..........dKH....Ca..pH..sg.....Mg

(periods instead of spaces).

good luck

 

hope this reads better

Dates Nitrites Nitrates PH Calcium DKH phosphates Ammonium
12/27/08 3 20 400 304-17 0.5 1
12/29/08 1 40 7.8 380 304-17 0
12/30/08 5 80 8 360 375-21
01/01/09 5 20 8 360 358-20 0.5 0
01/02/09 5 20 8 360 358-20 0.5 0
01/04/09 1 20 8 400 322-18 0.5 0
01/05/09 1 20 8 400 304-17 0.5 0
01/06/09 1 20 8 400 322-18 0.5 0

 

just wait until your nitrites level out to zero and you'll be golden...and you should shoot for a pH of 8.2ish

 

should go ahead and add buffer max

 

If I'm reading this right, looks like your dKH is in the17-20 range... that seems high to me and your PH seems low to me. Shoot for ph around 8.2-8.4 like mentioned earlier and a dKH in the 11-13 area. I might be reading your Alk wrong though :-/

You're testing for Ammonia (NH3), not Ammonium (NH4). But assuming that is what you meant, Ammonia looks good. I concur, wait for your nitrites to 0 out before doing anything else.

Your nitrate level is acceptable, hopefully it will continue to fall. In my case, it took a few months after Ammonia/Nitrites zeroed out before my Nitrates started to drop lower than 20.

 

If I add the buffer max will it increase my dkh its already real high

 

How do I lower the dkh? Water change? I was told not to do water changes while I am cycling.

 

thanks peredhil and ermano