Nitrate a wee bit high.......rectified.

JMM744 · Jan 27, 2017

So for the last several weeks I have been dosing my 70 reef with cal., mag. , alk and occasionally with nitrate. In the last two days my alk has gone from 9.5 to 12 and tonight to 18. Nothing seems bothered by this but why would it jump so? Calc. and mag are close to where I want them with mag being the only number I can't quite reach. I use ro/ri water and run a skimmer and refugium in the sump with lights on all night. Tank has a mix or soft and Stoney corals in it along with two cleaner shrimp. No fish yet as they are in qt tank. By the way, I checked the Salifert twice and the Hanna once to be sure of what I was reading. Any suggestions, comments?
Thanks, Jim
Calc. 430
Mag. 1220
Alk. 18
Temp. 81
Nitrate was 5 yesterday.
Ph was 8.4 yesterday.

Oscar47f · Jan 28, 2017

The nitrate is fine the way it is, if you want to lower it you can though but don't go above 5... lower the alkalinity lol i don't know the effects of alkalinity that high but usually 8-12 is the range i think? don't quote me on that... and the PH is great..

Diesel · Jan 28, 2017

ALK at 18 must be a testing error.
You corals are not going to like this at all and within a 24 hour period most close up or melt away.

JMM744 · Jan 28, 2017

Was up late last night and kept thinking about this and when I read Diesels remark it just made sense yet didn't . Finally it hit me, I used the same sample water collected for all three tests so maybe the sample was contaminated some how. I took a new container and gathered a sample to test which tested at 9.5. Much better number and in line with were it should be. I use old plastic food storage containers to collect water and my guess is the one used was not cleaned out correctly .
I appreciate the comments made and the knowledge shared on this site. It certainly makes the learning curve for keeping a reef going much smoother.
Thanks again, Jim

Diesel · Jan 28, 2017

JMM744 said:
Was up late last night and kept thinking about this and when I read Diesels remark it just made sense yet didn't . Finally it hit me, I used the same sample water collected for all three tests so maybe the sample was contaminated some how. I took a new container and gathered a sample to test which tested at 9.5. Much better number and in line with were it should be. I use old plastic food storage containers to collect water and my guess is the one used was not cleaned out correctly .
I appreciate the comments made and the knowledge shared on this site. It certainly makes the learning curve for keeping a reef going much smoother.
Thanks again, Jim

Glad we could help here.
Just remember "there isn't such thing as a stupid question, only the questions you never ask are stupid"