lilreef's 20g - Help with water chemistry?

Hi everyone,
Can I get some help on this 20g I have?
I am new at all of this, so I just need to know if I am doing this right.

I have had the rock and sand in it for a couple of weeks, and have been doing water tests every other day - all stable: Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 0, pH has been steady at 7.8, no change.
My LFS said this was fine. (since then I have been reading about how to increase that to a more stable alkalinity - but could use your expertise and experience!)
Since my levels looked good, they said I would be fine putting a couple of small fish in.
My son and I picked 2 damsels (yes, I know they are agressive, but since I dont plan on putting anything else into that tank, I thought it would be fine - The big 60g, once it's up an running in a couple of months will have all the bigger fishes and corals etc...)
One is an electric blue female (so far unnamed), and the other is a yellow tailed blue (but is actually purple, so I might have the "breed" wrong) I think it's a male. His name is "Prince".
The female is very social swimming all over the place & eating everything that she can get in her mouth!
The ?male? has been hiding since his arrival - not eating too much - he may be eating when the lights go out, but not 100% sure.

So, on to water chemistry:
I checked the levels today, and I am not sure if I should wait it out for a day or so, or do a water change, since the fishes just went in on Sunday.
pH - still low, 7.8
Ammonia - 1ppm
Nitrite - 0.25ppm
Nitrate - 1-5ppm
Phos - 0
Specific Gravity - 1.023 (only using hydrometer)
Those are the tests I have. Should I be testing anything else?

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. I dont want either of them to become casualties!

Thanks!!

Here's a pic of my 20g.

Oh, and any name suggestions for my little electric blue? :)

Are you putting corals in that tank or just fish?

Your system seems pretty new. Did it ever run a cycle before you added the fish? Having all zeros makes me ask, since you now have numbers after adding fish. As to your question about the water change, wait until sunday unless your Nitrite begin to rise to high. One of the fish may be a bit stressed and is hiding out for the time being. Doing a water change this soon after adding them might make him/her worse off. Also keep in mind that with the smaller tank you will have to really be on top of your water changes and testing routine.

I would have the lfs check your salinity, if that is one of those floating needle hydo's its really not accurate at all. See if you can get the one you look through with the light, damn, I cant remeber what its called.....lol, and I use it everyday, lol.....oh, REFRATOMETER, thats it, lolololol. Need sleep real bad.

And let me know when the yellowtail starts nipping at your arm! Mine does, tough little bugger, serious Napolian Syndrome...

if those rock are not LR and your tank didn't go through a 'cycle' like fastrd said then doing small water changes to keep the ammonia/nitrites down will help your fish survive the cycle and less stressed...

Hes right ONLY adding 2 damsels shouldn't have showed ammonia/nitrite in a cycled tank. But in a 20g idk mayb.

and your Specific gravity is ok for fish only but should be around 1.025 for a reef.

No corals, I am waiting until I have the large tank for that - this is a FOWLR.
I had numbers when I first put the LR and sand in. It cycled really quickly - the guy I bought the LR from even said it would cycle quickly - they were pretty "juicy" rocks.
There is about 75% of the rock is live, the rest seeded for a couple of weeks & is coming along...

Fastrd, I am testing every other day, is that enough?

SeaBee, I will pick up a refractometer - I thought I could put it off, but it looks as though I need one sooner than later!

Are the numbers I have low enough to wait until Sunday to do a water change? When does it become an emergency? I'm going to test again tonight when I get home. (I have a class tonight, so I wont get home until 10)

Your testing regiment is fine. Keep an eye on your Nitrites. If you see a spike you're gonna want to do a water change sooner than later as that is the most harmful of them.

+1 everybody on the cycle.
Being as its cycling now and you have fish in there,I dont think I'd hold off till sunday for the water change.You need to keep the ammonia down as much as possible,even if it means daily water changes.
On the PH,how long have your lights been on before testing? The PH will be the lowest just before the lights come on and the highest just before they go off.

I tested again tonight.
pH - still 7.8 :(
Ammonia - .25
Nitrite - .25
Nitrate - 0

Yote - my lights have been on for at least 8 hours when I test. What should I do to get the pH up? Should I keep the lights on longer? They are on 10 hours/day right now.
Since the ammonia has gone down since yesterday, should I leave the water change until (or IF) the ammonia spikes again? Nitrites have stayed the same, so I will test again tomorrow to keep an eye on them & definitely do a water change if they spike....or should I do a change anyway to get the nitrites to zero?

LilreefGirl I gotta say Bad girl. Don't cycle with fish. But hey I forgive you. Now your into an extended cycle. Instead of a 1 month cycle your looking at more like a 3 month cycle since you need to change out the water to keep the fish from getting to stressed. Don't worry about the Ph to much yet it will stabalize out as you get your tank ready.

I think your forgetting VA that she did start with "juicy" LR for a few weeks...

I would actually avoid doing a water change and if you do only small 10% ones :)

Remember when changing water your also taking out that bacteria in the old water your tank needs to cycle with it.... in turn prolonging your cycle.

Do small water changes if your nitrites get up to high where it would be stressful to your fish. (this reason your going to have to be testing nitrite especially daily.)
PS. Damsels are one of the most hardy fish.

When my tank cycled I did 0 water changes. (I wanted the bacteria to grow) I had 50 lbs of LR with TONS of dead stuff on it. I didn't scrape any of it off so there was lots of decay. In ~7 days the tank was fully cycled and I didn't do my first water change until I added my chromis and a few snails/hermits. Ammonia/nitrite never spiked again.

VAreef said:

LilreefGirl I gotta say Bad girl. Don't cycle with fish. But hey I forgive you. Now your into an extended cycle. Instead of a 1 month cycle your looking at more like a 3 month cycle since you need to change out the water to keep the fish from getting to stressed. Don't worry about the Ph to much yet it will stabalize out as you get your tank ready.

Click to expand...

I thought it already cycled. I had at least 15lbs of LR and about 20 lbs of LS, the guy I bought it from said my tank would cycle quickly, so when my readings went down to all zeros, I thought it had cycled. The LFS said as long as my numbers were good (no ammonia/nitrite/nitrate - I had them check the water too) the tank has most likely cycled and I could add fish. So I picked up the 2 damsels. I knew they were hardy fish, so if I messed up with anything, most likely they were strong enough to survive.
I hope I'm not voted off the reef! ...:shock:

At what level are the nitrites too high?

Nitrites can be fatal to fish and inverts at anything above zero. If you are getting nitrites, then your tank wasn't fully cycled.

damn. Now I feel like an idiot. I guess I f'd up. I thought it had cycled.

Should I do a 10% water change today?
How soon after I do the change should I test again, and if nitrites are still up, how often should I be doing changes?

How high are your nitrites? Since you have fish in there, you will need to do water changes to keep them as close to zero as possible. This will draw out the cycle and make it last longer, but it will give the fish a better shot at surviving.

Instead of doing that, I'd just catch the fish and take them back. You don't want damsels anyways -- they are highly aggressive and will try to kill any fish you add later on down the road.

my nitrites as of last night were 0.25....down from 1.0 the day before.
I'll check the levels again when I get home tonight & if they are still above zero, I will do a 10% change & test again. (is that a good idea?)

The damsels were all I was planning to put in that small tank...so I kinda wanted to keep them.

I have to log out and get back to work.

Thanks for all the help everyone!! keep fingers crossed for me!

Okay, tested as soon as I got home.
Lights have been on since 8am. It is now 5:30.
pH - 7.8 (it's not budging!)
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10 (hard to tell, they are both the same shade of orange!)

Is it possible that the tank really was cycled and it spiked because of the fish?

Thats what I'm betting on.
Just let the PH ride for right now.But keep a close eye on the ammonia and nitrites.I think the cycles done,but it dont hurt to watch it close.
If you dont already have an alkalinity test kit,go ahead and pick one up. This is the one I use for a majority of my tests.Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater/Saltwater Carbonate Hardness (KH) Test Kit
The reason I like that one,is its cheap and you just have to count the drops to get your DKH ( alkalinity ).

thanks Yote, I'll pick up the alk test tomorrow.
I'll be checking the levels daily for a while and hope nothing goes wonky on me!