Testing Water Help with Understanding Numbers

CMG

CMG

Member
1) Ok so I am using the seachem marine basic testing kit and it tests in mg/L which I think is miligrams per liter, but most of the stuff I am reading about on this site is in ppm. So does anyone know the conversion for that because my ammonia is 0, nitrites, 0 and nitrates are 5 mg/L (cycling for about 2 months now without sand and 1 week with sand, I dont know if adding the sand effected anything. I am also running an aqua c remora). I read that for a FOWLR its ok to have 0-10ppm for nitrates. My tank is going to be a FOWLR once I can get it to finish cycling.

2) Also I added what I thought was live sand and I dont think it was because the bag was just sand, there was no water in it! So I think I added dead sand. How long does it take to turn into LS and should I buy a bag of LS and just put it in the tank to help it all turn into LS or just wait it out?

3) What is the temp parameters I should be using? Is 84 F too hot? I am a freshwater person so all I know is freshwater stuff.

4) Can I turn my built in wet/dry filter into a refugium in the sense of putting cheato in it to help with nitrates? I mean it already has a skimmer back there so adding LS and cheato would pretty much make it a fuge right?
 
reefman420

reefman420

Active Member
well i dont know anything about the conversion,but 0 to 10 ppm means 10 ppm is what the fish can tolerate not meaning they are happy in their.i shout for around .5 ppm or less to have happy fish.un happy fish can easaly catch ich.2nd thing that is kinda high temp. most fish like th 78 to 81 range.if it gets too hot u will kook ure fish...and i dont see why u couldnt use it for a fuge
 
oldsaint

oldsaint

Member
1. mg/L (milligrams per liter) to ppm (parts per million)?
The measurements are identical: 1mg/L = 1ppm
Here are some conversions that maybe helpful
Conversions:
1 meg/L = 50 ppm CaCO3
To convert meq/l to ppm CaCO3, multiply by 50
To convert meq/l to dKH mutiply by 2.8
To convert dkH to meq/l divide by 2.8
To convert dKH to ppm multiply by 17.9

0-10 is ok for FOWLR but 0 is best.

2. If it was dry sand it was not live sand. You might want to go and get a pound of live sand from a few good LFS and add them to your tank to help kick start your LS
 
CMG

CMG

Member
Ok, the LFS here has LS in a bag with water in it, I cant remember the brand, but they wouldnt sell me any of the LS in their display tanks.

so mg/l is ppm. Well that helps a lot! haha, what a goof I am. So I have 5ppm of nitrate in my tank. And I need to get it down to make sure the fish will be super happy. Good thing I dont have any fish in there. I am not planning on putting any in there (because of high temp) until our roomate moves out and we convert her room into the "fish tank lounge", hehe.
 
Melanie

Melanie

Well-Known Member
What are using to cycle the tank? You will need something in there besides water and "dead" sand. You will want to add a raw shrimp from your grocer to kick off the cycle if you didn't already. (This will turn your dead sand to LS eventually as well)

84 is IMHO much too high. I try to keep it below 80. Do you have a heater in there? Does the room have A/C? Are your lights hot? Do you have a glass cover over the tank? Is it in front of a window or door?

You can add a cheap clip-on fan from Kmart to blow across the surface and it will drop the temp a few degrees usually. If you have a glass top, remove it (but make sure your lights aren't the kind that have to sit on a glass top to be safe)
 
CMG

CMG

Member
Melanie said:
What are using to cycle the tank? You will need something in there besides water and "dead" sand. You will want to add a raw shrimp from your grocer to kick off the cycle if you didn't already. (This will turn your dead sand to LS eventually as well)

84 is IMHO much too high. I try to keep it below 80. Do you have a heater in there? Does the room have A/C? Are your lights hot? Do you have a glass cover over the tank? Is it in front of a window or door?

You can add a cheap clip-on fan from Kmart to blow across the surface and it will drop the temp a few degrees usually. If you have a glass top, remove it (but make sure your lights aren't the kind that have to sit on a glass top to be safe)
Click to expand...


I have already done the dead shrimp method about a month ago. But it was before I added sand. The reason its so hot in there is because its just a closed up 1 car garage with no windows, vents, etc. Its all I can do for now but rest assured I wont and have not put any livestock in there. I was thinking about getting a clip on fan though, couldnt find a good one at the store yesterday and I was in a hurry. There is no lid and the lights ar only on for 4 hours a day since nothing is in there. There are two heaters but not plugged in. Thank you.
 
prow

prow

Well-Known Member
sweet great job on waiting. cant wait to see it when the roomate moves. PIC'S PIC'S, whatever you do dont forget the pics.

on the sand thing just get a couple peices of good rock and throw in there, the sand will get seeded and become populated. with no fish, the sand and the rock will get rid of them, by way of denitrification via anaerobic bacteria activity. no light needed here.

on the wetdry, yup you can do that. many have turnned theirs into a sump/refugium. i would post a thread for just this. someone will come in that did it. or just do a search on it, i am sure you will find a few different styles. i have seen a few that looked real nice and functional.
 
CMG

CMG

Member
prow said:
sweet great job on waiting. cant wait to see it when the roomate moves. PIC'S PIC'S, whatever you do dont forget the pics.

on the sand thing just get a couple peices of good rock and throw in there, the sand will get seeded and become populated. with no fish, the sand and the rock will get rid of them, by way of denitrification via anaerobic bacteria activity. no light needed here.

on the wetdry, yup you can do that. many have turnned theirs into a sump/refugium. i would post a thread for just this. someone will come in that did it. or just do a search on it, i am sure you will find a few different styles. i have seen a few that looked real nice and functional.
Click to expand...

Wow thanks for your reply, that was helpful. From what I can tell by reading the chronicals section I am pretty patient! Most people that started after me already have a full tank. But I am really not in a position to really stock the tank, I mean its just sitting in a garage! haha. but Patients will prevail and I will have my Picasso Trigger! hehe, thats the fish that got me started on this salt water stuff.
 
Boomer

Boomer

Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
Oldsaint


. mg/L (milligrams per liter) to ppm (parts per million)?
The measurements are identical: 1mg/L = 1 ppm


Not o get picky buddy but not really :D

One of the reasons when you look at NSW values here or there you will often see different values. If you look close one may be in ppm and the other in mg/l

If is fine for us to just call them the same but when one gets into high ion levels there is a difference. If you looked at these;

400 ppm Calcium = 410 mg / l

1300 ppm magnesium = 1,330 mg / l

19,000 ppm chloride = 19, 440 mg / l

mg/l = ppm x 1.023 ( for us). That 1.023 is the density of seawater at the temp we use. Do not confuse Sg with density, they are NOT the same, a common error in this hobby. Sg is always higher than D, meaning a D of 1.023 = 1.026 Sg for us. D = Sg ONLY at 4 C.

Why ?

mg/ l is weight/ volume related and ppm is weight/weight related ( grams / kilogram). 1 liter of seawater is not = to 1 kg but is more than 1 kg. 1 kg of seawater does not = 1 liter but is less.
 
Boomer

Boomer

Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
Now that will confuse most people :D

meq/ l is a whole different beast, based on molar values and ion charge.
 
prow

prow

Well-Known Member
yup, me a cardiac specialiest, deal with it all dam day and them some and thats the easy part lol.. at first thats what i thought, o boy confusion incoming. just made me laugh after reading it. not what you posted before or after, just that hit me. it was a long night, can you tell:coffee: .
 
Boomer

Boomer

Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
Well, if I ever have heart problems I will know who to contact. But it is not likely I will have such issues :D We forgot N :lol:
 
Boomer

Boomer

Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
Prow

N = Normality, used with acids as in 10 N HCl, it is kinda like the meq, think H2SO4 vs HCl, 2 H vs 1 H. Just like Ca++ vs Na+

Old

Just picking you you :)
 
prow

prow

Well-Known Member
lol, :hammerhea oooo normality, 24 hour shift, i thought i miss spelled something, lol or you were on some type of nitro(nitroglycerin). N as in Normality yeah also used in redox reactions, now that can get interesting. for some:invisible
 
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