Sooo Thaaaaaaats what was off.

[crewdawg1981]

Been trying to figure out what in the world is wrong with my tank for a while now. My parameters were testing fine, so I was lost. In fact, I checked on Sunday morning and this what I got back:

Salinity - 1.026
pH - 8.25
Alkalinity - 3 Meq/L = 8.4 dkh - Seachem test
Calcium - 400 - Seachem test
Nitrates - 1 - Elos test
Mag - 1325 - Seachem test
Temp - 78.0-78.5

Still, I'm having issues so I run some water up to SEA and get them to test a few values using their fancy photometer.

Results:

Alkalinity - 290PPM... Thats <u>5.8 Meq/L or 16.24 dkh</u></em>!!!!!!!
Calcium - 320
Nitrates - 1 (nitrates) - 4.5 (total nitrogen).

Turned off the Cal reactor. Seems I have a number of large water changes in my future.

So... beyond the water changes I'm looking for suggestions on test kits. Seachem tests are in the trash. Was going to look into the hanna checkers for alk and cal. Seems there are some that have had issues? Or... some salifert test kits. I'd love to pick up some photometers for each, but ... yeah... at ~200 each, no thanks.

 

[acroholic]

Grant,
So the issue was your test kit and not the calcium reactor? That explains a lot.

 

[crewdawg1981]

Acroholic;698819 wrote: Grant,
So the issue was your test kit and not the calcium reactor? That explains a lot.

Indeed!

Still disappointed that my Calcium was only 320. I'm going to pick up some calcium mix and dose just that while also doing more frequent water changes. Jeremy recommended picking up something cheap that is typically deficient in alk to help as well.

 

[hnguyen]

I have a bottle of fuel calcium saying around that I'm not using ATM that you can use to boost your calcium up. I'm glad you found out what was wrong with your tank, lets hope things start to pick up after you get everything straighten out. As for test kits, I like the elos kit, salifert is pretty good as well and I use both. I also have a hanna alk checker and boy I tell you, I'm loving it. It also reads around the same ball park as my elos and salifert. I've read a lot of bad things about the calcium check from hanna since you have to use RO water and some of your tank water to test.... I think. I just know if your off by a tiny bit, then your numbers will be way off as well. Good luck with everything man, keep us posted on how things go. Oh, BTW I still have that genX calcium media I told you about that you can have. LMK if you still need it.

 

[crewdawg1981]

Hey Hoang,

I appreciate it mane. I've got some BRS Calcium left over from my dosing days, so once I get everything squared away, I'll probably just use it to bring things up to spec... assuming I have enough.

Yeah, I really wanna go the Checker route on this... just thinking about how the quality is when you consider how expensive the quality photometers are. That and I've read the complaints about the Calcium Checker. I dont think RO water would be an issue considering I always have 10-20 gallons made for my ATO setup. Hmmmm.

I'm shutting down the Cal reactor for the time being as it adds both Cal and Alk... and I dont need anymore Alk. I may hit you up for that GenX once everything settles down though!

 

[hnguyen]

Sounds good buddy, just holla at me whenever you do need it. It shouldn't take but a few days for your alk to drop with all the sps in your tank and the calcium dosing you'll be doing. I remember when my alk was that high, it dropped down to normal within a week after I stopped adding alk.

As for the calcium check, I remember reading about how you have to add half RO and half salt water and if your like 2 drops off it would read like 50ppm off or something like that. Sounded scary so I never bought it.

 

[acroholic]

Crewdawg1981;698823 wrote: Indeed!

Still disappointed that my Calcium was only 320. I'm going to pick up some calcium mix and dose just that while also doing more frequent water changes. Jeremy recommended picking up something cheap that is typically deficient in alk to help as well.

The idea is to dose to get calcium, alk, and mag where you want it, then use the reactor to maintain it. A calcium reactor will not make up for deficient calcium, alk, or mag levels, only maintain levels as long as it is dialed in correctly. When you use calcareous media you are releasing ca, mag, and alk in the proportion it was taken up by the coral and no more, unless your reactor is dissolving more media than is being taken up by your corals.

What I would do, once you have normal ca, alk and mag levels in the tank, is don't do any water changes for a couple weeks and dial in your reactor. Once you are dialed in with consistent, accurate test results, you can then see if you have to add any extra magnesium or calcium to your system or WC water. Test your water change water for ca, mag and alk to see if they are deficient. If any of the three levels are deficient, you will either have to dose the WC water or dose the tank, as over time that continual deficiency will be reflected in your system water test results.

I'm wondering if your high alkalinity level is the cause of your lower calcium level (causing abiotic precipitation maybe?).

 

[crewdawg1981]

Do you guys have a favorite test kit? I've been looking at Salifert and Red Sea Reef Foundation Multi Test kit.

Seachem is out

 

[hnguyen]

Salifert and Elos for me. I have both if you would like to try them out to see which you like better.

 

[purplegorilla]

Grant I have been using Salifert ever since I first started several years ago. It is a little time consuming but it works for me.

 

[acroholic]

I use Elos for all three.

 

[seth the wine guy]

I was having some suspicious readings with my Salifert's and did the same as you. Tested at SEA. Guess what? My test was off too. In my case it was PO4. My tests have been saying zero for months and after increasing the bio-load, I knew there was just no way. Didn't have them test my Mg, Ca, or Alk. Maybe I should get those done too.

I'm probably going to get a Hanna for PO4 at the very least.

 

[dan3949]

The Hanna Checkers for ALk, PO4, and calcium have worked very well for me.

 

[ripped tide]

Just curious, those checkers must require a reagent each time you want to test. Which means that it could get expensive(for the store) each time someone wants to know what is going on in their tank... do they charge for a water test there? And if so, how much?

 

[crewdawg1981]

Decisions decisions.

But yes, SEA does charge per test due to the cost of the reagents. They use one of the full blown $1600 photometer... Not a checker. The checkers appear to be getting mixed reviews (at least the calcium has).

I may go red sea test kit after reading a bunch of reviews and looking at Mark Levenson's (SP?) review of the kit and the fact that you can buy refills.

 

[frdagaa]

Newb here, but is SEA Southeast Aquariums?

 

[crewdawg1981]

frdagaa;699173 wrote: Newb here, but is SEA Southeast Aquariums?

Yup. They just opened a retail store in Duluth, next to St. Ives.

 

[schwaggs]

What are you using for media in your CA reactor? Were you dosing CA or Alk suppliments in addition to the CA reactor? I wonder how your CA and Alk got so out of whack to each other if you are using only a CA reactor.

I have had excellent results with Seachem tests but Salifert are my favorite.

 

[crewdawg1981]

My media was Caribsea ARM. Had been using the fine, switched to the coarse. A teency bit of NeoMag on top of the second chamber.

No dosing.

 

[crewdawg1981]

Hmm...

A week and two 25 gallon water changes later and my tank shows 9.3dkh?

I bought a new salifert test kit and tried it three times... same answer each time. 0.4mls administered = 9.3dkh. Old Seachem test still saying ~3-3.5meq/L or 9-9.8dkh.