Puffer Chick's 46 Gallon Bowfront Reef

hahah mmkkaayy..!!

 

haha

 

did a little cleaning and maintence todayl I used my sonic srubber and go all of the algae off the glass and i used it on the rocks and got some off. Tank is a bit cloudy, i accidently knocked Pokie off of his skimmer during the process but he's diong fine and on the rocks which is where i perfer him to be. Also did a 5 gall water change. I'll test parameters a little bit later once everything settles. So nice not seeing alage though

 

when am i going to click on this thread (that is always at the top my the way) and there be a new fish or coral in there??? ;D your doing a great job puffer chick, keep it up. Your progress in an inspiration

 

Thank you. I am very greatful that you think this is an inspiration. I have yet to think of that myself as it really doesn't seem like much at the moment. And i hope to get my first frag next weekend when i get more water so then it can officially be a called a reef

 

so i just checked my parameters. I don't understand how i can still have ammonia. It still reads 10 nitrates waere probably 20, i couldn't get an exact reading. Nitrite was 0 alkalinity was in normal range, 1.7-2.8. I've been dosing with stress-zyme every day to try to get things to 0 but it's not working. I do weekly maintenance. My urchin is supposed to be sensitive to nitrates but he's doing great.

I'm starting to think it's my test kits because they are a year old and are literally almost gone. My tank is now 3 months old :/

 

Have you taken some to a LFS to test it? I would try that first.... You using strips or solution? What brand?

 

i took some water to the lfs a while ago, havent done that any time recently. I use solution, Red Sea test kits. I will probably be able to buy a new test kit this coming week, looking into the API

 

I use API for ammonia and all the other zero readings. No complaints

I dont like their style for calcium mg and alk though. not exact enough from what ive seen. Never tried them myself though...

Just an idea, but i have heard from someone who put a bunch of GARF grunge in their tank (live sand activator) and their tank cycled really fast. 3 months is a loooong time. It might be worth a try. Its cheap enough....

 

yea i just need something to push everything to 0 just because it has taken so long, it's gone through multiple spikes in all paremeters. So it should have been cycled a long time ago. So thats why i bought the stress zyme, now i'll look into the GARF stuff or anything else that will get parameters to 0.