Need help understanding Ph-Alk-Temp read inside............

[rockdiver]

Hi
I have a 125g reef with a 30g sump runing for about 9 Months. Stock is 1 Lg Naso Tang, 4 Med Clowns, 4 Cardinals, 4 Blue Chromis, 1-Lg. Blue Devil and 1 Med. Sailfin Tang. @ 130lbs of LR and 3-4 inch of LS. Crabs, Snails, 5 Cumbers, And stars lots of little cridders. Some rock is purple @30%. All fish are doing great, One Lg. Devils hand Doing great had since the beginning.
Just started to try some softie corals and was wondering if my readings are OK ?
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: @80
PH: 8.4
Alk: @3.0
Cal: ?
OK I know the Nitrates are high also what should the Alk be?
Tried to measure the Cal with a Seatest Kit but never got it to turn blue dropped 100 drops into the tester and then gave up. BAD KIT?
Also another thing is my temp is always around 80-83. I have 2 250W metal Halits that I run for about 5 hours a day and 2- 5 foot VHO's running on a Icecap 430 Ballast they run for about 13 hours 7am till 8pm. I do have 2- 4inch fans running 24-7. 4 Maxie 1200's in the tank. What effect does the temp have on all of this like the corals and Nitrates? Any? Cant afford a chiller Any ideas on cooling would be cool

I also feed them 3x a week with Liquid Life USA Bio-Plankton
and was using B-Ionic 2 part stuff.
Is all this OK? Just want to keep the corals alive.
Any help or advice would be GREAT.
Diver

 

[reefman123]

Well i hope my experience will be of some help to u. I would immediately initiate some water changes of 10-20 pct over the next few days using a good quality salt. In a reef tank ideally nitrates should run at 0 , but against that u do have a high bio-load ( ie number of fishes ), a reading of between 0-10 nitrate is acceptable. High nitrate levels are detrimental to both fish and especially corals over a period of time. You must make sure that the new water being used is nitrate free, RO water is undoubtably the best.
Calcium levels of NSW run at about 420. I have read lots of times that reef tanks should be run at a level of 440-450. Buy a new test kit because there is something very wrong with either ur calcium levels or the test kit. The water changes will help to correct the imbalance if that is the problem.
temperature should be 25 deg C ( sorry u will have to convert urself, we use celsius over here). temperatures that reach 30 deg C in the wild are the main cause of coral bleaching and obviously a stable temperature is most important in our aquariums. I have no chiller but in high summer here i have been using 2 litre cocoa cola bottles filled with frozen water placed in the sump and this has helped, but its certainly not as good as a chiller.
Your alkilinity level ( i am presuming that you are referring to the gKH level ) is only very slightly over the normally accepted level ( 2.8 ). This indicates that your water has a high buffering capacity and your ph should remain relatively stable.
I hope this helps a little
paul

 

[pez]

Alkalinity levels should be around 3-3.5 meq/L or 150-200ppm CaCO3.

Calcium levels should be around 400pmm Ca++.

Sounds like your calcium kit is bad. I'd also recommend some water changes with some RO/DI water to bring your nitrate levels down.

-Tom

 

[pez]

Any parameter outside what a coral would experience in nature is generally considered bad. However, it is nearly impossible to determine where your corals came from exactly, so you will never really know what their natural environment was. The problem is exacerbated by having corals in the tank from different areas, all of which have different parameters.

If I remember correctly, the "average" temperature of coral reefs around the world is around 80F. I personally think >82F is too close to the upper threshold, but I know many people
who keep their tanks there with great success.

-Tom

 

[rockdiver]

thanks guys will take measurments again and post
diver

 

[jazzyreef]

I just read the temperature article a few months ago--good stuff, but I got more confused--its often pretty hard to tell where certain species are from, and what their tolerances might be.

I'd be interested to know the arrangement of your ballasts and fans in relation to the tank--I had a temperature problem in my 75g reef tank, 4x110w vho's, 2 cpr skimmers, 3 rio 800 ph's on wavemaker, a rio 1700 on a spraybar, and a quiet one as my return pump. All of these were adding heat. I solved my problem by pointing fans at my sump water-evaporation cools the water. I was at a midday average of 82-83, and 79-81 afterwards. I will say, however, that I lose about 2 gallons or so on a dry day, which is really annoying. It is convenient for making me diligent about kalkwasser additions, but I can't afford a dosing pump, let alone a chiller.

 

[jazzyreef]

clarification---I already had 2 4" fans (at each end of my hood), but added a (xxx-mart floor-stand)fan blowing across the sump. There are clip-on fans available, I'm just a poor musician, and this works fine.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think there's anything wrong with 80-83F temps--Dr Ron advocates using higher temps than have been previously been considered acceptible. Take a look at his article here.

Ty