Help me with my Water Parameters

[butts182]

I am losing chalices and acros right now and I want to look at my water to see if it is a problem. my tank is 40g with a 20g sump, skimmer, T5 lighting. I have been adding Brightwells Alk +2 to the top off water. I do a 5g water change every week or two. anyways, here's what my paramets have been in the last month (as tested by LFS).

3/1/11
Salinity 1.025
Ca 500
Alk 9.1
Mg 1228

3/15/11
Salinity 1.026
PH 8.1
Ca 460
Alk 9.8
Mg 1486

Today
Salinity 1.024
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <10
PH 7.8
Phosphate 0.2
Ca 500
Alk 11.9
Mg 1410

I have been riding an alk wave lately, but that is my fault. is an alk of 11.9 too high? that's what the kalk makes my alk go up to. i may just have to not use the kalk anymore. my ph is low now too and i don't know why. any ideas on what to do?

 

[VegasRick]

Phosphates are high are you running gfo? algae problems? this is probably your first concern.

Time of day is important when looking at ph levels. pH tends to be lower in the morning before the lights go on and highest when the lights have been on all day. Low ph is usually from excess co2. More flow especially at the surface will help..unless the co2 level in the house is high. In that case open a window or door and let some fresh air in or look into a co2 scrubber.

Your alk is high but not a coral killer unless you are carbon dosing. My alk was sitting at 11.5 a couple days ago when i checked it.

The most important thing is avoiding daily swings. Stability. Using an auto top off?

 

[Troylee]

Ya what he said^^^ ahahahah good start Rick.... I would say if your doing weekly wc there is no need for topping off with kalk... Most likely the reason why your alk is riding high...

 

[Rogger Castells]

Sorry if I sound harsh but I think your first issue is having your LFS check your water, SPS's are delicate corals that require specific parameters, It is not a bad investment when trying to maintain acros alive to buy a good set of test equipment, Salifert, Merch, LaMotte makes some nice ones.
IMO it is likely that there is an imbalance in your water most likely the alkalinity swing is the main issue, The calcium seems excessively high too.

 

[subielover]

I agree with the above posters. Definitely invest in your own test kits, why trust someone else with YOUR tank inhabitants? Looks to me like everything has been stable except alk, which is key. Strive for stability.

 

[ahvrivera]

IMO stop dosing. Get some good test kits and do a test everyday(at the same time each day) for a week after doing a WC to find out what your consumption is. Then i would start a low doseing (if nessessary).
IMO it looks like your overdosing. Good luck!

Like mentioned above
stability is key!

 

[CJO]

As the others said, stability is the key. Definitely invest in your own testing kits. Stop dosing and start off with a large (10% or more) water change to get your baseline parameters on alk, Ca and Mg. Test every day for a week to see how quickly they drop. If they don't drop very quickly, you are fine for now with just doing water changes. If they do, you have the data to determine how much dosing you need to do. Also, as Rick mentioned, an ATO is a great investment if you don't already have one.

CJ

 

[butts182]

thanks for all of the ideas and insight. i have stopped dosing kalk. i cleaned out my auto topoff this morning and added ro water.

 

[butts182]

i think it may be important to note that i am doing my water changes with NSW, which has a lower Ca and Alk than most salt mixes. i do have a small algae issue.