Scott07
New member
Hello,
I had started a thread in the new reefer's section a few days ago... but wanted to give an update and get some more advice... and felt this may be the more appropriate place.
I've noticed recently that my Calcium has been quite high. I haven't dosed a thing besides some buffer in my top off water for the last couple of weeks. Recent changes that have been made include adding a phosban 150 reactor w/ Phosguard... and starting a new batch of salt (same brand, reef crystals, just a new package of it). Tank is a 20 gallon long... no sump... HOB filter (AC110) containing skimmer, intake for reactor, filter floss, bag of carbon. 2nd HOB filter (AC70) converted to fuge w/ chaeto. Phosban reactor as mentioned previously.
So.. I tested calcium and magnesium again last night and am still getting strange results... Calcium is around 480 or 490. Magnesium is right about 1600. I'm not overly concerned, as I understand these are still within ranges that shouldn't hurt anything... but I'm trying to understand why this might be. I haven't dosed calcium since about 2 or 3 weeks ago... and then was keeping it around 440 or 450 and testing regularly. I haven't dosed magnesium since a couple of months ago... my salt mix has always seemed to keep it in check.
Right now I have two theories... but i'm hoping that someone w/ more experience can help point me in the right direction, and let me know if there's anything I need to do. Theory 1; Phosban reactor has removed a large amt. of phosphates from the water opening up more bonding sites or something in the water chemistry which can now absorb calcium and magnesium. Theory 2; I need to roll my bucket of salt... it may not be mixed uniformly. I dumped two of the bags you get in the 200 gal. box into the empty bucket i had from last time... thought this would be sufficient to mix it up... but maybe not? It's only my second time buying large quantities of salt...
Thanks in advance for any replies... I'd really like to at least understand why this is happening, as I'm trying very hard to promote stability in my tank... which this is not helping lol.
I had started a thread in the new reefer's section a few days ago... but wanted to give an update and get some more advice... and felt this may be the more appropriate place.
I've noticed recently that my Calcium has been quite high. I haven't dosed a thing besides some buffer in my top off water for the last couple of weeks. Recent changes that have been made include adding a phosban 150 reactor w/ Phosguard... and starting a new batch of salt (same brand, reef crystals, just a new package of it). Tank is a 20 gallon long... no sump... HOB filter (AC110) containing skimmer, intake for reactor, filter floss, bag of carbon. 2nd HOB filter (AC70) converted to fuge w/ chaeto. Phosban reactor as mentioned previously.
So.. I tested calcium and magnesium again last night and am still getting strange results... Calcium is around 480 or 490. Magnesium is right about 1600. I'm not overly concerned, as I understand these are still within ranges that shouldn't hurt anything... but I'm trying to understand why this might be. I haven't dosed calcium since about 2 or 3 weeks ago... and then was keeping it around 440 or 450 and testing regularly. I haven't dosed magnesium since a couple of months ago... my salt mix has always seemed to keep it in check.
Right now I have two theories... but i'm hoping that someone w/ more experience can help point me in the right direction, and let me know if there's anything I need to do. Theory 1; Phosban reactor has removed a large amt. of phosphates from the water opening up more bonding sites or something in the water chemistry which can now absorb calcium and magnesium. Theory 2; I need to roll my bucket of salt... it may not be mixed uniformly. I dumped two of the bags you get in the 200 gal. box into the empty bucket i had from last time... thought this would be sufficient to mix it up... but maybe not? It's only my second time buying large quantities of salt...
Thanks in advance for any replies... I'd really like to at least understand why this is happening, as I'm trying very hard to promote stability in my tank... which this is not helping lol.