More Questions

Hi All,

Just a couple of questions re my water, if someone can help ... have my orca 58L Tl450 up and running now a month, personally i think its a miracle the fish are still alive, I have 1 Clown, 1 yellow tailed blue damsel, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 turbo snails, and 5 blue legged hermet crabs.
i was away for a week and had someone feeding the twice fish daily and switching the lights on and off... Ive come back and tested the waters and am getting the following...
Ph was 7.8, had to add the Alkalinity 8.3 KH Buffer which was recommended by my local fish shop, so thats at 8.4 now...
My Nitrate is up to 40, Ammonia and Nitrites are both at 0... however the SG is now down to 1.018 and the salinity at 25/26...
I did a 10% water change before I went away, so a week ago, adding RO water.
My question I suppose is what do I need to do to get my Sg back to the 1.024 levels so my fish are OK..and will another water change bring the Nitrate levels back down or is there something extra I need for this (like the KH buffer) ??

Also, The ESB are doing works in the area on Thursday and i wont have power for about 6hours, what should I do with my Tank, i read in 1 of the books to put a quilt over it to keep the heat and check all water tests straight away....Is this enough or can I do anything else ??

Sorry for the long winded essay, these are prob basic questions, but im gradually getting my head around everything !!!

... hope someone can help...

Thanks
Tricia

hi tricia,

you do need to bring your salinity back up for the sake of the inverts....unless your salinity reading is incorrect. how could it have dropped that much?
-did you do a water change and replace the water you took out with pure ro water??

your nitrates will come down in time, just keep up your weekily water changes and dont overfeed.
if i was you id be very concerned about the 6 hours without electricity. buy or borrow a battery operated air pump and run this while the power is out. if the tank is in a warm room the temp shouldnt drop too much. to be safe you could cover with a quilt over it.
if you can answer the two questions above you'll be back on track!
all the best
fran

Hi Fran,
Thanks for the reply..
Its new Hydromter I got, when I fist tested the water the readings were up to 1.028, so i brought that down by doing water changes also, and it was at 1.024, i checkt he water every day to make sure it stays at 1.024, but now its dropped to 1.018....Yes I changed the water with pure RO water I got from my local fish shop..he advised to do a 10% water change every 2 weeks or so due to the size of my tank...

Thanks
Tricia.

no prob tricia,
i was trying to establish if you put salt water back in or if you put just water back in. if just water than that would explain the drop in salinity. make sure u get a correct reading, hydrometers can be wrong if there is tiny air bubbles attached to the arm. tap the arm several times with a chopstick or a pencil to make sure the any bubbles are shaken off and then u have a correct reading!
now once you have the salinity at your desired level it doesnt really need monitoring. when the tank is full pick a mark at the top of the water level. (mine is a tank sticker). with evapouration the water will drop....then you just add freshwater top up till its back at the mark. then when you do your water changes (10% weekly would be better) make sure the salt water you put back in is the same salinity as your tank water 1.024. your new salt water and freshwater top ups should be the same temp as the tank. its a good idea to have a dedicated storage vessel for aging/mixing your salt water. and if u do the mix up after your wc for the following week it becomes a painless routine!
personally i'd do a 10litre wc weekly on that tank.
i becomes really easy after a while ... enjoy your tank!
fran