So far all the Ammonia and Nitrites have gone and are at 0ppm which im really happy about. it means my Nitrogen cycle is working and my rock is becoming live, or at least building up good bacteria. Im having a major problem with high Nitrates and newly formed hair algae.
I should be seeing a weekly drop in the Nitrate levels even if its only slight! but so far its staying the same or even going up after water changes. Ive decided to start doing some major water changes to physically remove the nitrates. Ive been making trips to my local fish store and buying my pre mixed salt water 25 litres at a time.
After a couple of weeks im still not seeing a drop in Nitrates! and the levels have actually have risen. Im starting to wonder what im doing wrong! So just out of curiosity (being a complete novice) i decided to test the water fresh from the shop….
To my surprise the new water id been buying had a Nitrate level of 80ppm, which i could not believe. I sourced another local shop called south coast marines and took a sample of my water into their shop. He tested the water i had with a digital tester and, the look of shock on this guys face! 185ppm was the real Nitrate level of my shop bought water, which he could not believe. The guy in south coast marines tested some of his water in front of me which showed a reading of 0.01ppm completely pure! so of course i bought some of his water and took it home to test myself.
0ppm on my test with the new water. Unfortunately i have a tank full of high nitrate water which will set me back but at least i know it was not something i was doing wrong and my Nitrates were lower before doing water changes with the bad water, which means my Nitrogen cycle is really starting to work.
Moral of the story is always check shop bought water
Reef Tank 