I like what i see here.

[coolingeffect]

Set up my new 125gal tank with 100 lbs of live rock, and three fish yesterday, it has been established for about 4 years. I just got done testing the water. Ph 8.2 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 20ppm. I know the nitrate is a bit high but i figure as a couple of days go by it will lower and stabilize as our well water naturally has some nitrate, im sure the algae on the rock will do a fine job of clearing that up. That ph looks fine from what i have read. Any way to get that nitrate to drop a bit other then just waiting to see if the algae cleans it up?

[Chris5150]

20 ppm nitrate is way too high. Maximum you would want to see is maybe 5 ppm. You well water is most likely not going to be good for a saltwater tank. R/O water would be much better and wont have nitrates.

[coolingeffect]

ill start doing changes with r/o then. Ill do one tommorrow with 10 gals r/o and add some trace elements, i get the feeling these anemones have been neglected

[coachfraley]

I would just add plain RO or RODI water. You shouldn't need to add any trace elements, your salt mix should have everything you need.

If you can get your nitrates down to 0, your anemones will be much happier.

Any pics?

[coolingeffect]

im not going to take any pics till i get the water to clear up a little better, i stirred up alot of stuff yesterday. Ive never messed with inverts before. One of the two anemones is drawn in on itself (not sure if its dying or still in shock from the stress.) And the other one is open but seems to be vomiting up what appears to be just a bunch of detritus. The clownfish keeps cleaning it off and spitting it out elsewhere.....what gives? Ive already dropped the nitrates down quite a bit.....when i tested the water before i moved the tank they were in between 30-40.

[labnjab]

I bet a lot of your nitrate problem is due to disturbing the sand bed. Ive heard horror stories of people just moving an established tank across the room and having it crash because the sand was disturbed.

For future referance its always a good idea to start with fresh, clean sand when moving or buying an established tank and seed it with a few scoops of the old sand. That will help avoid a lot of headaches

[coolingeffect]

im not too overly worried about it, i think it will all level out within a couple days. There is alot of hair algae in the tank at the moment that will do a good job of eating some nitrate, the anemones are starting to open up and the one is noticibly gaining color. 2 hours ago he was just kinda brown, now hes starting to show lots of purple on the tips of the tentacles and the tentacles themselves are stretching way out longer then i have seen them in the 2 years i have seen this critter. Im going to do a water test when i get off of work and see what im dealing with.