Ok so I did a full water parameter test yesterday to verify that my cycle is finished. The numbers are:
Temp - 80 C
SG - 1.024
pH - 8.0
NO3 - 25 ppm ( best estimate as the shades of pink are the chart are very hard to distinguish when you are comparing two adjacent ones )
Amm - 0 ppm
NO2 - 0 ppm
Ca - 300 or 200
Alk - 12.2/4.34 or 8.6/3.09
Mg - 1200 or 840
Ok so two questions-
1.) Does it look as if my cycle is finished? I think it is. So what do I do - water change or add cleanup crew. The algae cycle is underway as I had a bloom of brown film ( which I assume was diatoms ) and that has somewhat subsided and now there is stringy/clumpy algae growing.
2.) The test kits are Salifert. The Ca, Alk and Mg tests all use a syringe with a fine tip to do titrations. The instructions state there will be a small air bubble under the plunger due to the air in the needle, but that it should be disregarded and wont affect the results. The thing is in all my syringes, the bubble was .2 ml ( the whole syringe is 1.0 ml ) and when I ignored it, I got the much lower results, but when I factored that in ( meaning started calculating using the measurment at which the water actually started ) I got higher results. Which one is correct? I use IO Reef Crystals, aragonite DSB and no livestock so I can't imagine anything absorbing the Ca.
Temp - 80 C
SG - 1.024
pH - 8.0
NO3 - 25 ppm ( best estimate as the shades of pink are the chart are very hard to distinguish when you are comparing two adjacent ones )
Amm - 0 ppm
NO2 - 0 ppm
Ca - 300 or 200
Alk - 12.2/4.34 or 8.6/3.09
Mg - 1200 or 840
Ok so two questions-
1.) Does it look as if my cycle is finished? I think it is. So what do I do - water change or add cleanup crew. The algae cycle is underway as I had a bloom of brown film ( which I assume was diatoms ) and that has somewhat subsided and now there is stringy/clumpy algae growing.
2.) The test kits are Salifert. The Ca, Alk and Mg tests all use a syringe with a fine tip to do titrations. The instructions state there will be a small air bubble under the plunger due to the air in the needle, but that it should be disregarded and wont affect the results. The thing is in all my syringes, the bubble was .2 ml ( the whole syringe is 1.0 ml ) and when I ignored it, I got the much lower results, but when I factored that in ( meaning started calculating using the measurment at which the water actually started ) I got higher results. Which one is correct? I use IO Reef Crystals, aragonite DSB and no livestock so I can't imagine anything absorbing the Ca.