HELP!! need advice on water paramerters what am I doing wrong?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you started the plunger with its end at 1.0 mL, and it's end is now at 0.3 mL, you dispensed 0.7 mL and the magnesium is 0.7 x 100 x 20 = 1400 ppm.

Problem looks like it is "solved".

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Let's try it this way...

When you fill the syringe up as instructed, the black rubber stopper would be inline with the 1ml measure at the top of the syringe, (the included one only shows measures going that high).

As you push down on the syringe to add the fluid, the plunger moves towards the tip of the syringe. If the colour change happens after adding 0.68ml, the rubber stopper portion would now be next to the 0.32ml marking. To figure out how much you added, you would look at the reading you stopped at and then subtract that from the starting reading/volume of 1ml. The syringe measures how much fluid remains in the syringe - not how much you used.

For the calcium test you could use the entire 1ml. I think that indicates 500+ ppm.

For the magnesium test, a full range of the test only uses 0.8ml so when you subtract what is left to get what was used, you have to calculate it from 0.8ml not 1ml.

I beleive they instruct to fill the syringe to 1ml so that it is consistent between all the pro tests. Does that make sense?

No.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

If you started the plunger with its end at 1.0 mL, and it's end is now at 0.3 mL, you dispensed 0.7 mL and the magnesium is 0.7 x 100 x 20 = 1400 ppm.

Problem looks like it is "solved".

Thank you very much, we... umm i mean, I was reading it backwards
God I feel like an idiot wasting everyone's time on this.

Thank you for clearing this up for me and now to go back and read everything yall posted and send everyone a case of beer. Thanks again for the help and helping me understand this.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Let's back up, forget anything that LFS said, and try to determine what your situation is right now.

Alkalinity is currently what? Measured how?

Calcium is currently what, and measured how?

Alright, I did fill the syringe to the 1.0ml as instructed. I was just reading it wrong as a few of you suggested and totally right. Thank you! Also the LFS guy was just going off what I told him and the advice he gave was to help me out. I cant blame him as it was MY OWN FAULT for not reading the test kit properly.

Anyways I mixed up 12L of reef crystals yesterday and did the water swap earlier this morning.
This afternoon I tested and I was then like what the heck! so I thought yeah something isnt right and posted the photo.. Makes total sense now.

Tested
Calcium 399 Hanna checker
dkH 10.6 Hanna checker
Mag 1400 (thanks Mr Randy)

So my question now is what should I add to bump the calcium up?
I have seachem Fusion 1 and 2 and the more concentrated Reef Complete.

Advice

 

[Bramzor]

A new tank which is just a few weeks old and you are already chasing numbers? dkH 11.1? Why is it that high?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you very much, we... umm i mean, I was reading it backwards
God I feel like an idiot wasting everyone's time on this.

Thank you for clearing this up for me and now to go back and read everything yall posted and send everyone a case of beer. Thanks again for the help and helping me understand this.

No problem. Reading the syringe backward is especially a problem with the Salifert kit, so you aren’t the only one.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Alright, I did fill the syringe to the 1.0ml as instructed. I was just reading it wrong as a few of you suggested and totally right. Thank you! Also the LFS guy was just going off what I told him and the advice he gave was to help me out. I cant blame him as it was MY OWN FAULT for not reading the test kit properly.

Anyways I mixed up 12L of reef crystals yesterday and did the water swap earlier this morning.
This afternoon I tested and I was then like what the heck! so I thought yeah something isnt right and posted the photo.. Makes total sense now.

Tested
Calcium 399 Hanna checker
dkH 10.6 Hanna checker
Mag 1400 (thanks Mr Randy)

So my question now is what should I add to bump the calcium up?
I have seachem Fusion 1 and 2 and the more concentrated Reef Complete.

Advice

You can and should blame the lfs guy for not asking about how you measured it. The value was so far off of what people ever get, advising you to add 600 ppm of magnesium is not good advice.

If I asked whether I should use my right or left hand to grab that king cobra by the neck, is giving me an answer ever good advice?

 

[blaxsun]

Calcium 399 Hanna checker
dkH 10.6 Hanna checker
Mag 1400 (thanks Mr Randy)

So my question now is what should I add to bump the calcium up?
I have seachem Fusion 1 and 2 and the more concentrated Reef Complete.

Advice

I wouldn't necessarily worry about the calcium. With such a small tank, regular water changes (10% every 2 weeks) will probably see it increase naturally all by itself. Most aim for a target calcium level of around 450ppm, so you're really not that far off.

Glad you were able to figure out the testing kit error. Always double-check the instructions - some test kits from the same company will often have different ways of determining the result.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Alright, I did fill the syringe to the 1.0ml as instructed. I was just reading it wrong as a few of you suggested and totally right. Thank you! Also the LFS guy was just going off what I told him and the advice he gave was to help me out. I cant blame him as it was MY OWN FAULT for not reading the test kit properly.

Anyways I mixed up 12L of reef crystals yesterday and did the water swap earlier this morning.
This afternoon I tested and I was then like what the heck! so I thought yeah something isnt right and posted the photo.. Makes total sense now.

Tested
Calcium 399 Hanna checker
dkH 10.6 Hanna checker
Mag 1400 (thanks Mr Randy)

So my question now is what should I add to bump the calcium up?
I have seachem Fusion 1 and 2 and the more concentrated Reef Complete.

Advice

The calcium is not especially low, and the calcium part of the Reef Fusion is fine to boost to 420 pppm.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

A new tank which is just a few weeks old and you are already chasing numbers? dkH 11.1? Why is it that high?

Probably from adding the fusion part 2 I'm assuming. Also I did start out using the plain Jane instant ocean then transitioned to reef crystals. Also not having a test kit at the time was my own fault and should've left things alone till I got the proper tester. Anyways nothing died and corals looking great today so now I won't be chasing numbers anymore.

I added some purple Helix a while ago trying to get Coraline algae going so that's another reason I was going wild

I have around roughly 18lbs of Carib sea purple life Rock in the tank. Which is looking good and is working well.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

The calcium is not especially low, and the calcium part of the Reef Fusion is fine to boost to 420 pppm.

So RC says to add 1.5 caps and not to dose more then 25ppm a day so I should be ok adding 1 cap full and then test tomorrow for cal and alk and check to be sure it's not pushing anything out of sorts?

 

[bakbay]

I must confess that I'm the slowest human on this forum but what is it that you're trying to solve? Glad that you got Mg squared away but why tackle Ca in the first place? That is, you're observing issues with "low" Ca, things are dying, slow growth, or???

IME, Ca isn't the problem, unless it's really low (high 200's, low 300's). I think that trying to maintain Alk stable is the key though. If you insist on cranking Ca up, why not just dose it separately?

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I must confess that I'm the slowest human on this forum but what is it that you're trying to solve? Glad that you got Mg squared away but why tackle Ca in the first place? That is, you're observing issues with "low" Ca, things are dying, slow growth, or???

IME, Ca isn't the problem, unless it's really low (high 200's, low 300's). I think that trying to maintain Alk stable is the key though. If you insist on cranking Ca up, why not just dose it separately?

I am now

Low and slow from here on out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So RC says to add 1.5 caps and not to dose more then 25ppm a day so I should be ok adding 1 cap full and then test tomorrow for cal and alk and check to be sure it's not pushing anything out of sorts?

RC?

 

[bakbay]

I am now

Low and slow from here on out.

Sorry but I'm still on a quest for answers -- why do you want to crank up Ca again? Things are not dying at ~400 right? That's where mine is at and things are fine...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sorry but I'm still on a quest for answers -- why do you want to crank up Ca again? Things are not dying at ~400 right? That's where mine is at and things are fine...

IMO. It’s not reasonable to push up calcium. I would. 400 ppm is borderline and raising it with a product he already has seems a no brained to me. Assuming he adds an appropriate dose, there’s no downside.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

RC?

Sorry, Reef Chemistry Calculator.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sorry, Reef Chemistry Calculator.

Lol, ok. Sounds like a fine plan.