What Could Cause These High Parameters?

shadow1013

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My tank finished cycling last week so I started testing the parameters. I didn't have all of my test kits so I brought water in to my LFS which has the Aqua Spin Test and that came back with these parameters.

Salinity - 1.026 (same as my hanna checker)
Nitrates - 4 (My hanna checker read 1.42)
PH - 8
Alk - 7.3
Cal - 507
Mag - 1500

I did a 10% water change a day or two ago and just tested everything and coming back with

Salinity - 1.026
Nitrates - 2.10
PH - Unknown checker coming in on Thursday
Alk - 9.1
Cal - over 500 Red Sea limits at 500
Mag - 1800!

I'm going to call my LFS as I have only used their salt water since I didn't have my RODI unit set up yet to cycle the tank and the water left over was enough for a 10% water change so it has been 100% their provided water. The only thing I added was half a cap full of Fuel to feed the starter coral we got this weekend and only did that once so besides this nothing has been dosed. I don't have anymore of the salt water to test to see if that was the cause. What else would cause these high parameters after a week with no dosing and a single 10% water change?
 

vetteguy53081

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-Too much being added
-False rest results
-Type of salt
-Replacing lost water with salt water instead of RODI
 

arking_mark

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Just be aware that our hobby test kits are not that accurate and prone to testing errors.
 

Looking back to your reefing roots: Did you start with Instant Ocean salt?

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