When to add Clean up Crew

[swanny88]

Hello everyone...well the tank is coming along nicely.

The lights are installed, as is the protein skimmer. I've removed the old sand and replaced it with aragonite mixed with a little crushed coral.

I'm getting ready to do another water change (changed 30 gallons last weekend) since removing the sand really stirred up some bad stuff.

Here are my water params:

75 gallons
PH: 8.2
Temp: 79
Nitrate: still high at 20 ppm
Phos: 1.5-2.0 (now using ro/di)
Calc: 450 mq/l
alk: 6 meq/l
SG: 1.023

So before I order my clean up crew...how low do I need to get my nitrates? Do you have any other water params that I need to adjust?

Thanks again for all of your help since I can sense that I'm getting close to the point when I can add some softies.

[know-it-all]

should be fine to start looking at what you want
I'd wait probably 1 more week

[Loverotties]

You didn't test the two things that is important to tell if you can add the crew.You need to test for ammonia and nitites.if 0 then you can add them

[mdcorcoran]

Your alkalinity is reallly reallllllly high! If you are correctly labeling it as meq/L, that is about 16.8dKH, most of us like the 8-10 range.

[swanny88]

Originally Posted by mdcorcoran

Your alkalinity is reallly reallllllly high! If you are correctly labeling it as meq/L, that is about 16.8dKH, most of us like the 8-10 range.

I had thought this too. When I read up on alkalinity it mentions this is the ability of the water to resist PH changes. So is this a bad thing? If so how do I lower it?

One other question for the group (sorry for having so many). I currently am using a Seatest Reef Master test kit. Is this a problem?

I will have my test kits for ammonia and nitrite today and will get those number. Thanks again everyone. You're awesome!