New to Hobby and new tank, here's the Scoop. what to do?

[msr224]

so here is what I am doing.

54 gallon corner bowfront. Drilled and plumbed. Setting up a refugium in stand with coralife 65g skimmer. Going to do a reef tank.

Initial water is coming out of my brand new RO unit as we speak.

PH tests real low as in WAY below 7.4 on a Red Sea liquid test kit. The test kit goes from pale green at 7.4 to purple at 8.6 and my water tests out a yellow color kinda urine color.....

Alk tests at 0.0 MilEq (however you write that.) This is also on Red Sea Liquid test. Kit goes from bright yellow at 0 to blue at 3.6 and I am bright yellow.

These test are both done on the fresh water i am storing in 5 gallon jugs.....

My tank is clean, dry and new.

I was planning to mix the salt and fill the aquarium.

Then...do I wait till after live rock and a week to balance before worrying about Ph and Alk or do I try to get them both up with some baking soda before adding live rock????

I'm not in a huge rush as I would rather do this right than dump a bunch of uncured rock in to lose everything. i now I will be cycling for the next six weeks but was wondering if I needed to worry about these now, soon or later...... Rock is an hour away in a good shop that has it in stock all the time so no hurry...... I work a lot so i won't be sitting around staring at an empty tank...... Although i am looking forward to having something in it....

thanks in advance for the help folks.....:spin1:

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

pH measurement is not accurate in RO/DI water, and it is low anyway, so there is no need for concern. It is never a cause for low reef tank pH. :)

The uncured rock will mess with pH and alkalinity, so just monitor it when you are cycling, and add an alk supplement (like baking soda or limewater) if the alk drops too low. :)


These have more:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 1: The Salt Water Itself
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/rhf/index.php

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php

The "How To" Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 3: pH
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-05/rhf/index.php

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners,
Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

[msr224]

I found those links last night and read them first thing this morning. I need to print them out and put them in my notebook that way I can refer back to them. After sitting and reading through all four of them I was more confused than ever....I am sure that a second, third and fourth reading will each make a little more info stick.....

So don't worry about anything right now? Just add the LR and let the cycle begin? Even though the Alk is at 0.0 before hand?


Thanks Randy.

-Scott

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You mean the alkalinity in the fresh water before adding salt, right?

It is never 0 in seawater, so if that is what you mean, it is testing error.

[Percula9]

Follow Randy's advise. Alk and pH are meaningless in fresh water for our purpose. Once the salt is in they will come to seawater parameters. I would ditch the red sea kit and get an API master test kit. This will have all that you need to test during your cycling.

[Pcrain]

follow randy's advise. Alk and ph are meaningless in fresh water for our purpose. Once the salt is in they will come to seawater parameters. I would ditch the red sea kit and get an api master test kit. This will have all that you need to test during your cycling.

+1

[msr224]

You mean the alkalinity in the fresh water before adding salt, right?

It is never 0 in seawater, so if that is what you mean, it is testing error.

Yes I was testing the fresh water out of my RO.

I will get to mixing and go from there. Thanks guys. As for the Red Sea test kit. I just picked it up yesterday. It was all they had at LFS here in the middle of nowhere Indiana. So I'm stuck with it for now and will look on line for a better one down the road.

Thanks Guys.

[Pcrain]

yea red sea are like the worst test kits out there

[bertoni]

Moved to New to the Hobby for more views.

I had bad experiences with my Red Sea test kits, too. I ended up returning them. :( They use liquid reagents, which might account for an apparent short shelf life.

[DivineStler]

Just remember that your LR is going to displace alot of water! Having that cured LR in the tank with all the little critters will also get the cycle going faster. I'd try to add it at the same time as the water personally. I have a new tank I just set up with cured LR and a little of my other tanks water that has almost completely cycled in 8 days. Once you get a spike and drop in nitrites followed by a spike and drop in nitrates you're pretty much good to go. obviously a little patience never hurts in this hobby though!

[msr224]

Is the Red Sea really that bad or are we just talking preference here?