Urgent question

[combiemaster]

Ok guys i have been running my nano cube 24G for about almost 3 months and i was using instant ocean mix with RO water. i dupmed all the water out of there exept for about maybe 5 gallons and went to LFS and got catalina island water i filled it up there are no fish in there but i have 5 turbo snail i took out but i will put them back in as soon as the water is back to 77-79 degrees. ok the salinity for catalina water is 1.025 i always ran my tank at 1.023 is there any difference for the fish. is a salinity that high good for the FOWLR. After one hour i checked the water parameters and the PH was at 8.4 Nitrite was 0 and nitrate was 20 Alk was 300 i think. would the tank take longer to cycle now since the mechanical has all the bacteria and all???

[AHBrit]

The salinity won't make a difference to your fish provided you run a skimmer to give them enough oxygen (higher salinity = lower oxygen content).
I'm surprised at your nitrate reading though. i have no help to provide on that.
Guess 1: Maybe you should redo the test just to make sure
Guess 2: Maybe it wasnt catalina water, or wasnt pumped from the right depth.

[combiemaster]

Oh so the higher the salinity the lower the oxygen okkkk got that. but on the nano cube no room for the skimmer (only that fussion but is sucks) would a surface skimmer count at least it will make so bubbles with the water that flows through it

[combiemaster]

Originally Posted by AHBrit

The salinity won't make a difference to your fish provided you run a skimmer to give them enough oxygen (higher salinity = lower oxygen content).
I'm surprised at your nitrate reading though. i have no help to provide on that.
Guess 1: Maybe you should redo the test just to make sure
Guess 2: Maybe it wasnt catalina water, or wasnt pumped from the right depth.

Oh and one question as for the nitrate should it be 0 or higher because its new water

[Geoff]

i prefer to run my tanks close to NSW. i run mine at 1.026.

nitrates should be 0, but would be difficult to acheive without a skimmer. i would not add anything to the tank that would make bubbles. this will in effect turn your tank into a skimmer. the bubbles will build up on the waters surface and block gas exchange and light.

did you test the water before putting it into the tank? if you mixed up any detritus while pouring the water into the tank, that could raise the nitrate levels.

G~

[seshapir]

I looked into using the catalina water when we first setup our 20g and the only think people kept telling me was don't switch back and forth between the catalina and mixing your own water. Also be prepared for the salinty to be different each time you buy it. When I bought a box of it, the salinity in that box was 1.028.