First Water Qual Test

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by HaZRaTTy

Sounds good, as for the Alk - I'm going to retest in a few days see if there is any changes. After night shifts Bleh...

what are you using to test your alk?? are you testing for calcium and mg as well??

[HaZRaTTy]

Originally Posted by reefwars

what are you using to test your alk?? are you testing for calcium and mg as well??

It's just a Marine Basic Test kit I had laying around. No I will hae to get the Calc and Mag test kits here soon.

[Cal_stir]

Originally Posted by reefwars

why??? i prefer to be at 1.024 am thinking i may even go lower to 1.023 if theres no auto top off installed its prob best to stay a bit lower so evaporation doesnt effect to high.....not a fan of higher salinity

its possible that your tank is finished cycling if you used cured rock and new sand....may just have went through a mini cycle, if you want to be sure just add a cocktail shrimp and see how long it takes for any amonia to show or dissappear

then it ain't finished cycling!

[HaZRaTTy]

Originally Posted by Cal_stir

then it ain't finished cycling!

Reasoning behind stating this? Because my Am is 0? or what

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Cal_stir

then it ain't finished cycling!

please feel free to elaborate??

[Cal_stir]

whats a mini cycle?, until the tank is completely cycled it will go through a phase of unstability, like a wave, a bloom of this, a bloom of that, whatever can take hold during the ups and downs of the cycle will appear.
once the tank is cycled the wave will subside and the process will stabilize.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Cal_stir

whats a mini cycle?, until the tank is completely cycled it will go through a phase of unstability, like a wave, a bloom of this, a bloom of that, whatever can take hold during the ups and downs of the cycle will appear.
once the tank is cycled the wave will subside and the process will stabilize.

a mini cycle is basically when you have a slight rise in amonia its not as strong as a full cycle starting from scratch but is still noticable, it wont take as long as cycling with alot of dieoff or uncured rock. it can be caused by releasing debris under rocks, not rinsing sand enough or simply adding an unusual or high bio load or amonia source. sometimes even though we keep the rock in water during transit or maybe were only moving across the house to a different room but the upset in the balance can release a small amount of amonia.cured rock should quickly turn the amonia and may not even be noticable or missed all together