question

[jaynduke]

so i thought my peppermint shrimp died because i found a skelaton of it today and i'm pretty ne to the hobby. . which scared the crap out of me because i hadn't seen it for a few days now. so i removed it and decided to break out all the test kits that were given to me. felt like a science project and that is what the results are:

ph 8.38
nitrate=10ppm.
phosphate=0ppm
calcium=400
magnesium=1200

are these ok? i'm thinking the nitrates are to high. but not sure if i'm confusing them with nitrites so let me know. these were taken with the salifert test kits.

i have some green algae starting to grow in my sump. mainly around edge of water line though. not sure if this is an issue or if it will disappear on it's own.thanks for the help. Jay

 

[Phyl]

Shrimp molt. If you found just the shell of the shrimp it is possible that it is growing and molted. Your parameters all look pretty good. Your trates could be lower, but keeping up with your water changes (and maybe reducing your feedings) should bring them back in line. They're not "high" though SPS corals will start to get fussy around this point and prefer trates closer to zero.

Is the algae in the sump grassy/hairy or slimey looking?

 

[jaynduke]

yeah i figured it molted later on when i saw him peek out of a cave somewhere.
algae seems kond of slimey. i tried to get some and had a hard time because of it.
about the feeding, i really didn't think i was feeding that much, actually thought was maybe not enough, but i guess i will cut back on the food.

i also have cheato i think growing in the sump. i think. kinf of long spaghetti'ish, almost. the stuff i' am worruing about is slimey and mostly on the part where the water flows over to the main pump are and not really any where else. just right on the edge of it. thanks phyl.