Does this sound off to you?!

[firesurfpunk]

Im checking my water params in my tank and im just wondering bc i am getting conflicting information on my readings

nitrates 1.0
chlorine 0
alkalinity 300
pH 8.4-8.8
nitrates 160-200

Temp is at a steady 76
All the fish are active, feeding normally and look great....starfish still wont eat or move though, he keeps moving one arm up and down every so often, tried to feed him some squid yesterday set him right on top of it, and he didnt take it, the shrimp decided they would take advantage and ate most of it, removed the waste and left overs, did a water change yesterday 25%

They are in a 30g one piece of live rock for the blenny and i have live sand in the tank.

55G is still cycling will be for quite a few more weeks so I can finally move the clowns and everyone over to the tank when its finished.

[ralphie]

You posted nitrates twice, is the first one nitrite?

What test kits are you using? How old are they? Can you have someone else run tests to confirm your readings?

[firesurfpunk]

Using quick dip strips, red sea max and the LFS for verification

Today i tested again after reducing the nitrates and this is what I came up with

nitrates 80-160 (still seems too high)
nitrites 0-0.5
chlorine 0
ammonia 0
alkalinity 180-300
pH 7.8-8.4 range

[Rondelet]

Both Nitrates and nitrites are high. Suggests to me your tank is cycling, or is struggling to keep up with the bio-load. Nitrites should be 0. Nitrates <30-40 - depending on what your keeping (but certainly not 100.). Also the range 80-160 is a little puzzling. Are you sure you're reading the kits properly?

You alkalinity seems low - suggests to me you're not changing you're water enough. If you're changing your water on a regular basis and have no corals to use up calcium, you're alkalinity should be higher.

Laslty, pH is low and demonstrating quite a bit of variation. You might try adding buffer to keep it up and stable.

So, yes, it sounds a little off.

[ralphie]

How much excess food is left over in the tank when you feed?

Are there any sponges covering filters?