Looking for next steps...

FishGuyBri · Feb 24, 2017

Thanks! I'm going to retest before bed after dosing a small part of the alk in a two part mix.

Cary Hover · Feb 25, 2017

I love Red Sea Pro salt. Your levels seem weird. How is your calcium so high without dosing. Mg is important and I would look at phosphate levels.

FishGuyBri · Feb 25, 2017

Cary Hover said:
I love Red Sea Pro salt. Your levels seem weird. How is your calcium so high without dosing. Mg is important and I would look at phosphate levels.

Thanks. I know! I have no clue why Ca is so high. I'm retesting now to see if I get same thing, but I doubt I have anything using Ca right now. I dosed some alk but got immediate precip chunks even though I added to the powerhead.

Doing water change tonight but I'm kind of afraid to do it because of my Ca is so high it HAS to be my salt mix.

Ordered Mg test kit from RedSea and waiting but im also heading to Tampa today- I hope I can find a good store there and can buy one instead of waiting a week... I have all the others.

FishGuyBri · Feb 25, 2017

And so my Ca went up to 508!? What gives?? I recalibrated refractometer with 35pt solution, salinity 35 on the dot. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5 ph 7.7 alk 6.0

I don't dose anything. I did add Reef Fusion2 alkalinity 2.7ml this am. Alk is same.

FishGuyBri · Feb 25, 2017

Bruce Burnett · Feb 25, 2017

if you are using IO salt and mixed to 1.026 sg I don't see your alk being that low. Add the salt slowly to your ro/di water when you make it don't add the water to the salt.. If you added the alk slowly in high flow area and it precipitated then I question your alk and ph readings.

FishGuyBri · Feb 25, 2017

Bruce Burnett said:
if you are using IO salt and mixed to 1.026 sg I don't see your alk being that low. Add the salt slowly to your ro/di water when you make it don't add the water to the salt.. If you added the alk slowly in high flow area and it precipitated then I question your alk and ph readings.

I am very sure of the ph. I test using a calibrated apex probe, api, and Red Sea. The alk was tested with both my Hanna and the Red Sea, so I'm sure of that too. I'm a little bit crazy with the testing and I've heard horror stories with API so I bought the Hanna checker and then i bought the Red Sea kit, that's why I have so many.... That's about all I am sure of!! Haha. The Mg kit will be here Wednesday.

I did a 30% water change. My alk is now 6.5 and Ca is 488. Mg test kit

I will dose the alk part again to see if I can get a balance. I just added some chaeto to fuge. I am going very, very slow so I don't mess everything up. I am not adding any livestock until this is under control. Thanks again for all your input!!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 25, 2017

MacQac said:
But won't kalk raise my Ca too??

Not much.

A 2.8 dKH boost to alk will boost calcium by 20 ppm.

TbyZ · Feb 25, 2017

K

MacQac said:
My alk is now 6.5 and Ca is 488.

I will dose the alk part again to see if I can get a balance.

Keep in mind that NSW alkalinity is 6.988 dKH

mcarroll · Feb 25, 2017

MacQac said:

The calcium test procedure isn't too easy. Do you also have a Ca test from API or Red Sea to compare with?

If you run a duplicate test on the same sample, do you get the same reading?

When I beta-tested a Ca Checker, it took a fair amount of practice to get matching test results to other kits (Hach and Salifert) time after time.

FishGuyBri · Feb 25, 2017

Bruce Burnett said:
if you are using IO salt and mixed to 1.026 sg I don't see your alk being that low. Add the salt slowly to your ro/di water when you make it don't add the water to the salt.. If you added the alk slowly in high flow area and it precipitated then I question your alk and ph readings.

The precip was my fault. I didn't add it to high enough flow. Dose tonight went really well.

FishGuyBri · Feb 27, 2017

what the heck. Did 20 gal H2O change. Mg is 1300 Ca went UP to 521.. might I have a bad Hanna test kit?? I don't understand. The only think I'm putting in is Reef Fusion2,the second part only. Alk is 7 now, up from 5.5. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5. Still only 2 blue chromis and 5 clove polyps. SG is 36pt on Apex, 1.027 on ATC Refracrometer calibrated again with BRS 35pt solution. I don't understand. ORP has gone from 150 when I started to 480 now. Live sand was used and ReefEock 2.1. IO salt. Ugh...

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 28, 2017

Don't panic. None of those numbers are a problem, whether they are accurate or not. ;)

Bruce Burnett · Feb 28, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Don't panic. None of those numbers are a problem, whether they are accurate or not. ;)

+1 I also would not worry about these number. With the previous reading of alk at 5 it was what I questioned as accurate. I had never heard of anyone using IO with alk at 5.

FishGuyBri · Mar 3, 2017

I must be doing something wrong but I'm not gonna stress it. Mg is 1040 Ca is 552 now. I'm pretty meticulous, not sure why this is going on. Weird.

TbyZ · Mar 3, 2017

MacQac said:
I must be doing something wrong but I'm not gonna stress it. Mg is 1040 Ca is 552 now. I'm pretty meticulous, not sure why this is going on. Weird.

Sorry if i missed this in an earlier post, but have you gotten these test done by the LFS' in your area to compare results?

FishGuyBri · Mar 3, 2017

TbyZ said:
Sorry if i missed this in an earlier post, but have you gotten these test done by the LFS' in your area to compare results?

Doing that tomorrow. I almost forgot! It's just weird that it's going up despite no changes to the tank and no livestock to alter it. I do have diatoms... I'm doubting my Hanna checker a little since I am literally OCD about the testing accuracy.

TbyZ · Mar 3, 2017

MacQac said:
Doing that tomorrow. I almost forgot! It's just weird that it's going up despite no changes to the tank and no livestock to alter it. I do have diatoms... I'm doubting my Hanna checker a little since I am literally OCD about the testing accuracy.

Make sure you tell them why you want the tests done, they'll take more care & intetest in doing them.:)

FishGuyBri · Mar 3, 2017

TbyZ said:
Make sure you tell them why you want the tests done, they'll take more care & intetest in doing them.:)

Yeah. My LFS guy is pretty awesome I don't doubt he'll do it. I've spent enough money to keep him going for a few months if not longer lol. Plus I get all my livestock through him because his tanks are always so clean and he quarantines all of his new additions out in the open. I'm lucky- just wish his store was bigger.

I'm grabbing two clowns and a zoa tomorrow since they will be in QT I should have everything else in place by the time they graduate :-)

mcarroll · Mar 3, 2017

MacQac said:
I'm doubting my Hanna checker a little since I am literally OCD about the testing accuracy.

Test it....re-run the test on the same sample or even test a second sample. A little variance would be acceptable, but you should be able to get pretty close or even dead-on most of the time in back-to-back tests. If you see more than a little variance, then more than likely it's something with the way you're doing the test...it's not that easy of a test to do compared to the average drip tests like Salifert or API.