Red Sea Test Kit

reefingnoob · Jul 5, 2015

And if it requires 16 drops your alk would be 16 dkh. I would not bother with LFS with this I would worry about how to bring it down to 11 or below

bumperbeetle · Jul 5, 2015

Yes. My confusion is whether or not the extra drops I have to add to reach the start color should be figured in or not. If so it would appear my KH is very high. I havent tested for this in the past as I have only just started to add some other than fish stock to my tank. Its been set up for about 8 months and I wanted to wait a while to add anything. Currently I have an RBTA, Moon Zoa's, Star Polyps, and a couple different variations of mushrooms. There is also a grouping of small zoa's growing on my LR that I havent identified yet, but they appear as a very neon yellow under blue led.

reefingnoob · Jul 5, 2015

No you only count total drops needed to reach the end point. Start color is irrelevant in a sense that if your alk was 1dkh you would get green in the first drop and never see blue.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 5, 2015

bumperbeetle said:
Yes. My confusion is whether or not the extra drops I have to add to reach the start color should be figured in or not. If so it would appear my KH is very high. I havent tested for this in the past as I have only just started to add some other than fish stock to my tank. Its been set up for about 8 months and I wanted to wait a while to add anything. Currently I have an RBTA, Moon Zoa's, Star Polyps, and a couple different variations of mushrooms. There is also a grouping of small zoa's growing on my LR that I havent identified yet, but they appear as a very neon yellow under blue led.

Try measuring the alk of some new salt water made with RO/DI to confirm it is reading roughly correctly.

bumperbeetle · Jul 5, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Try measuring the alk of some new salt water made with RO/DI to confirm it is reading roughly correctly.

Good Idea, I'll do it and let you know what I get.

redfishbluefish · Jul 5, 2015

The way I read the instructions, the first drop counts. But regardless, 14 or 15 dKH, it's too high. I'm also bothered by the addition of excess titrant back to the bottle. That is NOT good laboratory practice. You never return excess titrant back to the mother vial.

This particuar Red Sea Alk test puts you in the ball park. And this particular ball park is way too high.

bumperbeetle · Jul 6, 2015

redfishbluefish said:
The way I read the instructions, the first drop counts. But regardless, 14 or 15 dKH, it's too high. I'm also bothered by the addition of excess titrant back to the bottle. That is NOT good laboratory practice. You never return excess titrant back to the mother vial.

This particuar Red Sea Alk test puts you in the ball park. And this particular ball park is way too high.

That has been my worry, that regardless of whether or not the drops counted was that I was too high. What is the best (and easiest on my stock) way to get it down? Gradually with 10% daily water changes until Im at a safe level?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 6, 2015

bumperbeetle said:
That has been my worry, that regardless of whether or not the drops counted was that I was too high. What is the best (and easiest on my stock) way to get it down? Gradually with 10% daily water changes until Im at a safe level?

Do you dose alkalinity?

Do you use tap water?

bumperbeetle · Jul 6, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Do you dose alkalinity?

Do you use tap water?

I do not dose alkalinity.
I do not use tap water. I buy RO water in 1gl jugs and mix in Oceanic Natural Sea Salt Mix to a salinity of 1.021.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 6, 2015

If you do not dose anything that might contain alkalinity (can you list anything you do dose?), then the alkalinity is coming from the salt mix, and oceanic at that salinity won't have alkalinity that high unless you used a small portion of a bucket that separated prior to use.

Most likely, it is testing error of some sort.

How much of the Oceanic container did you use?

bumperbeetle · Jul 7, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If you do not dose anything that might contain alkalinity (can you list anything you do dose?), then the alkalinity is coming from the salt mix, and oceanic at that salinity won't have alkalinity that high unless you used a small portion of a bucket that separated prior to use.

Most likely, it is testing error of some sort.

How much of the Oceanic container did you use?

I use 1/2 cp per 1 gl of RO water. This gets me to a 1.021 salinity. The only thing I add to the tank is purple up (5ml once every 3wks) and zooplex (5ml once every 1-2 wks). This is my small tank, its a 42 gallon. I run a eheim 3 chamber canister, protein skimmer with led's and one powerhead.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 7, 2015

bumperbeetle said:
I use 1/2 cp per 1 gl of RO water. This gets me to a 1.021 salinity. The only thing I add to the tank is purple up (5ml once every 3wks) and zooplex (5ml once every 1-2 wks). This is my small tank, its a 42 gallon. I run a eheim 3 chamber canister, protein skimmer with led's and one powerhead.

I actually meant what portion of a salt container.

If you only mixed up a few gallons, then it might be due to a settled salt mix being inhomogeneous. If you mixed up the whole container at once, that couldn't explain unusual alkalinity.

Purple Up is an odd duck. The fine calcium carbonate in it does not dissolve in seawater (so does not provide usable alkalinity), but if it is still suspended in the water when you take a test sample, it will lead to false high alkalinity readings because the fine sand will dissolve during the alkalinity and be "detected" as alkalinity.

bumperbeetle · Jul 7, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I actually meant what portion of a salt container.

If you only mixed up a few gallons, then it might be due to a settled salt mix being inhomogeneous. If you mixed up the whole container at once, that couldn't explain unusual alkalinity.

Purple Up is an odd duck. The fine calcium carbonate in it does not dissolve in seawater (so does not provide usable alkalinity), but if it is still suspended in the water when you take a test sample, it will lead to false high alkalinity readings because the fine sand will dissolve during the alkalinity and be "detected" as alkalinity.

Ah! Thats good to know, thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 8, 2015

You're welcome.

Good luck.

Stacey Keyes · Mar 9, 2016

bumperbeetle said:
.as I understood the instructions, one drop of the titrant should have brought my 5ml sample to the "start" color. It barely changed my water color. I actually had to add five drops. Now Im not quite sure how to read my results. ??

i'm having the exact same problem

Stacey Keyes · Mar 9, 2016

Stacey Keyes said:
i'm having the exact same problem

thanks for the info, instructions were very vague

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 10, 2016

Hi Stacey,

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Did the above discussion solve your issue, or do you still have a problem?

Stacey Keyes · Mar 11, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Hi Stacey,

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Did the above discussion solve your issue, or do you still have a problem?

Yes, thank you

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 11, 2016

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing.

LexiMag96 · Jan 12, 2018

Extremely weird that they are different but I have the foundation pro and have the blue-green test. I am also have trouble reading Alks test results. My alk is off the chart at 15( I think) not sure how to calculate the chart. I'm guessing my high Alk is what's making my hammer shrivel up. My flow is low to barely moving tentacles. Tank is 2 years old. Sg- 1.021, Ph-8.1, NH-0,NO-10,Ca-490 and having trouble calculating Mg on Titrator doser. Anyone experienced with reading Titrator and chart? Anyone know whats going on with my hammer?