Ok, so heres where I'm at

Your Ph needs to be brought up to 8.2 at least, and your alkalinity needs to be around 3.75 to 4.75, and your dkh 9 to 12. The water changes will lower the nitrates initially but they will come back up until you do water changes for a few weeks and only if you take out more than you are putting in. On the salt, you can either change your salt, or, if you are using r/o water you can use an r/o water reconstituter such as OSMO prep by Kent to give you a better base for mixing your salt and to help keep your Ph and alkalinity up. good luck hope something here helps. (an item overlooked a lot of times, Magnesium? Make sure your magnesium is at proper levels.)
 
Is there a test kit that encorporates all of those factors?


I dont have a sump, I dont have adequate space for one.
 
Unfortunately, the best test kit brand (Salifert) is quite expensive. That's the only magnesium test I've seen available in my town without having to go online.
 
A little update-


I did a water change of about 10%, and my nitrites are still at about 20ppm. My pH is finally up, but I fear my KH is too high. pH is at 8.2, KH is at 13. Ammonia is at 0ppm and CO2 appears to be at 4.0 mg/l



Is it true that CO2 content is directly variable by pH and KH?


Come to think of it, whats the difference between KH and dKH?
 
KH and dKH are the same thing (almost). KH is carbonate hardness. dKH is degrees carbonate hardness. these two are used interchangeably in most aquarium literature. HTH. here is a good read Water Hardness
 
High CO2 levels will bring your pH down, since CO2 combines with water to form carbonic acid, which will lower pH. Since you are having a hard time bringing your pH up, reducing the CO2 will definitely help.
 
I dont think it works like that but I may be wrong. I think to lower your c02, you have to airate the water more. Do you have a ripple on the surface of the water? Are you using power heads, or a skimmer?
 
I don't have a skimmer yet, but I'm ordering one tomorrow. Whats better, Prizm Deluxe or Coralife SuperSkimmer?
 
I would get the super skimmer, or the remora. I personaly havnt used them myself but with all the good reviews on them I dont think you could go wrong. Do you have a sump? I have read several times over a good in sump skimmer beats any and all hob skimmers.
 
Hey havnt heard from you in a while. Hows it going? What skimmer did you get? Add any fish yet? Hope it going good, and let us know.
 
Sorry about not loggin in for a while. Theres been alot going on here and I haven't had time to log on. I ordered the super skimmer yesterday and I should have it in a week. I got the o-rings and gaskets for my canister filter, and now I just need some hose and I can add it to my setup. I did some research and I got a fish. I believe its called a firefish. I also got some more lr from my job that has significant corraline growth on it. Hopefully, I can seed some of it to my rock and finally see some purple in my tank. I scored a pretty cool freebie at work the other night. I was looking through the LR and out of nowhere, a cool looking shrimp appears on a piece I have in my hand. My manager let me have him since noone knew what he was and we didnt have a price tag for him. Last time I took parameters was roughly a week ago and everything looked ok then. Im doing another test tonight, but I have to get some aquasafe before I can do a water change.
 
Ive been trying to snap a shot, but I cant find him anywhere.


Oh and I forgot to mention, theres a coral growing out of my LR.
 

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