Questions on Marine Chemistry.

firstly, would wanna apologise to the recent noob threads spam by in this forum . just started out my on my tank and did some measurements. these are the results

ammonia = 1
nitrite = <0.3mg/litre
nitrate = 12.5mg/litre
ph 7.6

the tank is just setup ytd with filter media including phosguard, carbon, purigen, lots of biohome.

am i right to say that eventually ammonia nitrite, nitrate will decrease over weeks of cycling ?

is the pH suitable for marine tank ? or should i increase it ? any ways to do it ?

[daybreaks]

Yes,your ammonia will slowly drop to zero,whereby you can safely say that your tank is rather "clean",but not until nitrite drops to zero,when it is "officially cycled". However, it would be rather safe to add fishes around 5mg/L mark(I understand the anxiousness of a beginner marine aquarist)

Best parameters would of course be zero for all three wastes. IMO,the pH is abit on the low side. I would add some buffer. Either in the form of LR, or additives( which i advise not to,cause it can be easily overdosed,and you wouldn't want any overdosage in a marine aquarium(disastrous results) )

Originally Posted by daybreaks

Yes,your ammonia will slowly drop to zero,whereby you can safely say that your tank is rather "clean",but not until nitrite drops to zero,when it is "officially cycled". However, it would be rather safe to add fishes around 5mg/L mark(I understand the anxiousness of a beginner marine aquarist)

Best parameters would of course be zero for all three wastes. IMO,the pH is abit on the low side. I would add some buffer. Either in the form of LR, or additives( which i advise not to,cause it can be easily overdosed,and you wouldn't want any overdosage in a marine aquarium(disastrous results) )

thanks for the speedy reply !! hahah yayy fishes & corals !! should i be cycling the tank tgt with my corals or wait until everything else is stabilise ?

ohhh yes most probably i'll be shopping for somemore liverocks to fill up the tank. just dont want any sudden dip and crash my whole setup.

another problem i'm facing is the salinity. ytd when i finished setting up the tank the reading was at 1.024 but today when i test it it was hitting 1.027. should i add more water ?

[daybreaks]

Salinity is another impt factor,if your salinity is high enough,you can have a wider range of buffer(if i'm not wrong on this aspect of chemistry) as you will tend to have a higher kH value.Something around 1.025 is probably good. Are you using a hydrometer?

And,no, don't cycle the tank with corals/sessile inverts/marine fishes.A better way would be to use some mollies(the black ones,but do consider a slow acclimatisation for them) or nothing at all.

Another way to kick start the BB culture is to place a piece of MP into the tank. The existing organisms inside the LR should be able to break down the NH4 and NO2 which is produced by the decomposing MP.

Originally Posted by daybreaks

Salinity is another impt factor,if your salinity is high enough,you can have a wider range of buffer(if i'm not wrong on this aspect of chemistry) as you will tend to have a higher kH value.Something around 1.025 is probably good. Are you using a hydrometer?

And,no, don't cycle the tank with corals/sessile inverts/marine fishes.A better way would be to use some mollies(the black ones,but do consider a slow acclimatisation for them) or nothing at all.

Another way to kick start the BB culture is to place a piece of MP into the tank. The existing organisms inside the LR should be able to break down the NH4 and NO2 which is produced by the decomposing MP.

yup using a hydrometer. now i totally understand the cons of using a swing arm but many had no such problem. not sure why the sudden jump in salinity.

mollies the freshwater feeders ? wont they die under that kinda salty situation ? oh yes i just came across this thread here, put it inside until the mp completely be broken down. just scared that it will foul my tank 24g only and on top of that the tank is inside my room =x.

[daybreaks]

Try recording your water level.Evaporation leaves the water "saltier".Therefore,it is always important to ensure that your evaporation rate don't go way off,resulting in a sky-high rise in salinity.

I have read threads on people using that to cycle,but i don't think it is very humane either,so to speak

[xersion]

Originally Posted by daybreaks

Salinity is another impt factor,if your salinity is high enough,you can have a wider range of buffer(if i'm not wrong on this aspect of chemistry) as you will tend to have a higher kH value.Something around 1.025 is probably good. Are you using a hydrometer?

And,no, don't cycle the tank with corals/sessile inverts/marine fishes.A better way would be to use some mollies(the black ones,but do consider a slow acclimatisation for them) or nothing at all.

Another way to kick start the BB culture is to place a piece of MP into the tank. The existing organisms inside the LR should be able to break down the NH4 and NO2 which is produced by the decomposing MP.

haiz... when will ppl learn not to cycle tank with fish or use fish to test water

Originally Posted by xersion

haiz... when will ppl learn not to cycle tank with fish or use fish to test water

since we're on this it reminds me of the conversion of freshwater fishes into marine environment as well and that's bad.

[daybreaks]

Originally Posted by xersion

haiz... when will ppl learn not to cycle tank with fish or use fish to test water

Hi bro,

Don't get me wrong here.I hope I'm not sounding like I'm promoting the use of mollies to cycle tanks.
On a side note,there are actually documented ways of using them,acclimatising them slowly over a dripline,before fully introducing them into a fully-saltwater environment.

You might be amazed,like how I personally is when I read and came across these articles.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=196633

http://reefbydesign.blogspot.com/200...-sphenops.html

Ultimately, I do not encourage such practices(and I hpe that I am not sounding as if I'm promoting them)