NO2 drops??

[RAV-65]

Hi all,

I'm a new hobbyist and my tank is about 1 month old... due to my ignorance been putting in livestock in since day 1... so far lost 1 fish due to dat... lucky me... anyway, i used live sand and coralchips to cycle my tank....

I have been having a no2 problem for the past 2-3 weeks, but out of the sudden it dropped slightly today... been testing almost everyday so i can tell the difference in the colour of the water tested...

Besides the possibility that i now have colour-blindness, can anyone tell if it's a sign of better days to come? dat maybe my nitrogen cycle is improving?

Vincent Ho

[ah^siao]

yesh.. cycling stage almost over

[RAV-65]

Ah siao,

hoe do u know dat for sure? anyway I can confirm?

Vincent Ho

[ah^siao]

i waited for 2 months before adding in fish.. hmmm.. just wondering if you put in any dead material inside? got measure ammonia?

[RAV-65]

Ah^siao,

NH3 very low, close to 0, tested liao... no2 about 0.3-0.4mg/L, better than the 0.5-0.8mg/L previously..

PH = 8.3

Temp = 25-26 degrees celsius

Salinity = 1.022-1.023

Wat do u tink?

Vincent Ho

[terryansimon]

end of the cycling era. this ushers in the other problems.

PO4. NO3. oh well. I'm fighting NO3 now and PO4. my PhosGuard isn't working and I want to double dose the damn thing now as I speak.

[RAV-65]

Terryansimon,

hey buddy, izit always the case dat when u complete your cycling, the no3 and po4 problem starts, i'm starting to get some reddish algae in my tank, is dat a sign of it? if my understanding is correct, no3 causes the po4 to rise and thus more algae rite? Pls correct me if im wrong...

Vincent Ho

[terryansimon]

you see red algae? may be cyano. another PO4/NO3 driven monster.

actually, during my fifth day in cycling, I already had sky high NO3 figures. I'm not sure about my PO4 as I didn't have any test kits, and still don't.

but I do know from people's experience that such nuisance algae is actually a teething issue every tank maturing will experience. hence the investment in things like macroalgae/live sand/dense rocks to remove NO3 and Rowaphos *if you are rich* or PhosGuard *if you are poor. like me* to remove PO4.

[RAV-65]

Terryansimon,

I just bought Phosguard today too... but i only put a little an a bag and left it inside my IOS... i scared overdose or something...

Another strange thing is dat, IMO, i tink i'm have lotsa of LS, but it seems that my NH3 level always very low and my skimmer dun skim those black "kopi" water, its always just brownish water... I tried adjusting it again and again oso no use... keep my fingers crossed that its alright...

Vincent Ho

[terryansimon]

hehz no need to worry about overdosing the thing. provided its contained within a filter bag. SeaChem states that it wouldn't leech anything back into the tank once its material is exhausted. so dump it in lah! although you may end up wasting more money than you can bargain for.

do you have any fishes inside? okay wait. what is your tank dimensions? and water parameters? NH4, NO2, NO3 will be nice.

[RAV-65]

Terryansimon,

yo my fren, my water parameters already posted in this thread leh.... my tank only 2 feet, about 15gallon of water... but lots of LS..

2 small Clowns

2 Cleaner Shrimps

1 Fire Shrimp

1 Boxing shrimp

1 porcupine puffer

1 mini lionfish

3 mini boxfish

2 domino damsels

1 blue fish - dunno wat...

1 starfish

1 maxima clam

1 mini blenny

4 snails

3 hermit crabs

Phew! the lst much longer den i expected, didn't know i got so much LS liao... I think i'm gonna get criticised by many people here...

Vincent Ho

[terryansimon]

yah you may be. you shouldn't even be adding any livestock inside the tank when you have readible figures on your NH4 and NO2. unless its a mini spike.

tell me, did you cycle your tank prior to livestock addition?

[RAV-65]

Like i said, i was pretty ignorant at first, so started putting in Ls from day 1...... but i used sand and coral chips dat were already cycled for 2 weeks or so... my clowns were there from day 1 and so far they are still alive... did lose 1 porcupine puffer though... and another boxfish died while being treated for ich.... tink i overdose the fella with copper... but so far only 1 casualty beside dat.. and i tink the puffer died when he squeezed into a hole with the rocks and got caught in a small space the whole day, causing it to be stressed out and died, coz my puffer was doing alright the day b4....

Vincent Ho

[terryansimon]

you dosed copper into the main tank? or did you isolate the fish into another container/tank of sorts before you dose copper?

[RAV-65]

Bro,

in a separate tank, if not all my corals die liao...

Vincent Ho

[roidan]

you may not want to overdose phosguard too much..some chemist in reefcentral did tests and found out that it leach some aluminium and some corals did not open fully after it...

and the management of seachem also rebutted it...you can go to reefcentral and search under phosguard..sure can find the topics...

phosguard is aluminium based ....rowaphos and contraphos are iron based....just for information

[RAV-65]

Wah...

any diff between the iron based and aluminium based? really confused here liao...

Vincent Ho

[dravan]

Wah...

any diff between the iron based and aluminium based? really confused here liao...

Vincent Ho

i tink is the reactivity of the metal cation wif the free po4 anion.... iron think better than aluminium... pardon my chemistry return to my lecturer liaoz haha....

[RAV-65]

Dravan,

thanxs for trying to help... now i more confused liao... wahahaha... I dun even remember who my chemistry teacher is... kekeke...

Vincent Ho

[marcvelous]

Me thinks the first procupine puffer died due to stress and not coz it wriggled into a hole.

Correct me if I am wrong but when marine fish die, it find itself a nice quiet resting place (where available) to do it instead of floating up to the surface of the water.

Well, even if the procupine died as a result of wriggling itself into a hole, you can rest easy knowing that you HAD a real puffer that puffed itself to death!!! Muhahahah!!!

And me thinks you forgot to mention the other casualty --- the cowfish

[RAV-65]

Marcvelous,

the cowfish had white spots when i bought it.... didn't realise it until I got the fella home... it den passed away while in quarantine... Very sad, but nonetheless a lesson learnt to check on the fishes you buy very closely b4 u pay for them... but still a lesson learnt, surely u wun ridicule me for dat?

Vincent Ho