New tank, First Testings, New fish

TylerJaid

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Hey everyone I'm very excited as I have some fish and my first soft corals on the way, they will be here in about 1 week! Anyways I just got a bunch of salifert test kits in so I decided to some tests with them! I am a little worried with the test results though. Also this tank has had water in it for 40 ish days and I have not done a water change yet, it's a 55 gallon, I was going to do water change right before fish came in. The salinity was 1.026 when I started 40 ish days ago. Today my test results are:

Temp: 78
Ph:7.8
Salinity:1.0245
Kh/alk:6.7
Calcium:350
Magnesium:1000
Po4:.03

I'm mainly concerned with the dkh as that seems low from what I've read. Also the drop in salinity have to do with testing and taking water out the past 40ish days?? Should I make my salt mix say 1.027 when I do a 25% water change? Should I add a small amount of salt to the tank to raise salinity, my already made up batch of saltwater is 1.026. Any tips or tricks on raising these levels or am I overthinking this? Mainly going to be a fish, invert, soft coral tank thanks everyone in advance I have already learned so much here!
 

Cichlid Dad

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BRS-AquariumParameter-HP-Hero-2400-v2.jpg
 

Cichlid Dad

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This is kinda out dated as nitrates around 25 and phos .03-.05 are acceptable and magnesium over 1400 is fine. I don't know anyone with a reef tank running 1200 magnesium. I'm sure many people are but no one I know.
 
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TylerJaid

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This is kinda out dated as nitrates around 25 and phos .03-.05 are acceptable and magnesium over 1400 is fine. I don't know anyone with a reef tank running 1200 magnesium. I'm sure many people are but no one I know.
So is 1000 Extremely low?? Thanks for the graph even outdated it helps to give me a good ballpark!
 

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Everything is close I guess maybe a 25% water change will bring everything back up to about right I don't know!
It all depends on the salt you are using. Also how experienced are you at using the test kits?
 
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TylerJaid

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It all depends on the salt you are using. Also how experienced are you at using the test kits?
Not very at all as today was my first time using the salifert tests but they were all very easy to run, and it is instant ocean sea salt (purple label)
 

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I believe you have some testing errors. Watch some videos on using the salufert test kits for each parameter. Also, how are you measuring salinity?
 
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TylerJaid

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I believe you have some testing errors. Watch some videos on using the salufert test kits for each parameter. Also, how are you measuring salinity?
Do you think they are all wrong? I'll watch some videos and retest tommorow, I'm using a refractometer for salinity it was around 38$ on brs.
 

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Do you think they are all wrong? I'll watch some videos and retest tommorow, I'm using a refractometer for salinity it was around 38$ on brs.
What are you using to calibrate the refractometer
 

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