Water primeters

BigBlue187

BigBlue187

New member
Well I did my weekly water test and everything came out good except my calcium was a little low it is at 380mg/L and my hardness was alittle high it was at 15dKH.

I did a water change at 12:00pm today and tested my water at 5:00pm. Do I need to worry or will it balance out?

I do add suppliments to my tank everyday. I add Nano Reef parts A&B. I do have some stuff called Purpleup but I don't use it becouse I don't know how much to add. All the directions say is to add 1 capful for every 50g and I don't know how to break that down for my little 14g.

If this is something that I need to worry about please let me know.

Thanks
 
I havent really heard anything good about the purple up. Do a search & you will find plenty. I am not sure, but doing a water change should help out your calc & ph.

GL
Craig
 
I would retest after the waterchange. If the alks still high just stop dosing the alkalinity part for a couple days.
 
Well I did a couple water changes yesterday to try to get my alk down and I checked it to day and its still at 15dKH. I'm stumped I don't know what to do. Should I just wait and see if it goes down by its self?
 
What type of salt are you using? Most salts have additives in them aready, these multiple water changes could be fueling the fire. And is your test kit accurate? Test kits have been known to go bad or be in accurate.
 
yeah, I'm thinking you need to double check your results with another kit. Also try testing the freshly made up water.
 
I use reef crystals. Is it possable for just the KH test to go bad? I have not tested my replacement water. I don't really want to go out and buy a whole new test kit for just that.
 
Oceanic normally has high calcium (480-500)

and reasonable alk around 8.

I used it for almost 2 years. It was pretty consistant with those numbers.

BUT he never did say what he was using. High alk low cal is usally IO if it is coming from the salt.
 
I just tested my replacement water and it is also at 15dKH. Should I change the salt that I'm using? I would really hate to do that cause my fish and corals are doing great. But what ever you guy think would help I'm willing to try.
 
You could borrow one of the other W-loo members kits to double check but IO and RC usally run high. Not quite that high, 15 dkh isn't normal, you could try Oceanic.

One other thing. Bucket or Bags? Beginning or the end of it? and did you shake it up?

Sometime the different chemical in the salt settle out in transport.
 
If your getting that high alk out of a fresh salt mix I really think it's your test kit. Double check with another kit to verify. You can dose calcium chloride slowly to bring alk down. if your using a 2 part the calcium mix should have it, if not kent's turbo calcium or any liquid calcium should work.
 
Im gonna say bad test kit too....if you want bring over some water and ill test it with my kit.

You know where im at stop by whenever, im on vacation.
 
The test kit is a API Reef Master Test Kit. There is no exp. date on it any where.

The salt is in a bag. Its about half way used. No i didn't shake the bag before I used it.

Wavers will you be home tomarrow? I could stop over after work. Could you send me your number and I could call you tommarow.
 
ALK

ALK

I'm the last on who should be posting ANYTHING concerning
water chemistry.
But I have learned this.
Test kits: calcium,mag,phosphate, Alk use only a tritration
test. salifert or seachem every thing else in my opinion is junk
with a tritation test the sample changes color at the point, real easy to be precise.
swing arm salinity meters don't work well .
Read the GRIS website on water parameters, untill you understand the ionic relationship alk/mag/ca.
I wright down my readings so I can plot them out and watch for a trend.
Don't dose unless you know exactly what you have and where you are going.
There is a real good chart that tells what to do if the parameters are off, what to do- some are do nothing just wait.
randomly adding chems could get things all out of wack.
Read, Read, REad.
I still don't have a good handle on it. all I dose is reef builder
around .9 tsp /day, and CA. weekly 10% water change.
I just ordered a mag test kit. I don't think I have a problem but i want to monitor.
 
I just tested my new IO make up water.... 13dkh, 340-Ca. that's pretty crappy. I added a little OsmoPrep so maybe that's why the Alk is high... but still that partly explains why I have a hard time keeping my Ca up.
 
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