Thoughts on these test results

[90gDreams]

Tested right after lights out about 2 weeks ago and just tested for PH DKH and Nitrates results were as follows:
PH 8.3
KH 6.5
NO3 0.2

On Saturday I did a 30g water change (90g tank +20g L Sump -rock - Sand -Sump height = 80ish gallons), probably about a 30% WC. Largely did that to clean out detritus from the sump and remove some hair algae from there. Trying to avoid the "fun" side of a new tank, got peach fuzz all over that shiny white rock so just trying to stay diligent.

Tonight I did a full battery of tests except phosphate because I don't have a tester yet. Mostly just for the hell of it than any concern. Ricordea, Blastomussa, and some Zoas are all doing well. A green digitata is mostly brown but getting more green. It must've gone through hell considering it was a part of a shipment from ORA that saw 2 out of 3 damsels die a couple weeks ago. Seriously, how piss poor of a packing job do you have to do to kill damsels. Anyways the numbers:

PH 8.4
KH 5.2
NO3 0
Mg 1400
Ca 330

The dKH number seems pretty low and I don't really get why. Salinity is 1.026 with IO Reef Crystals. I have quite a few specs of coralline on the base rock, I mean dry live rock, and I'm about 6 weeks out from adding in the gulf rock and about a month post cycle. Not a chance in heck I start up a dosing routine at this point in the game but the low dKH is just kind of odd. Any thoughts??

Now confessions from a formerly broke reefer, I never tested anything other than NO3 when I was reefing years back. I did 20% water changes every other week, ran GFO when algae was popping up and cut back on feeding when nitrates went up. This time around I'm trying to be a bit more scientific about things without getting too deep to fast. Got some high hopes for a SPS dominate tank in a year or two but want to get legs under me first.

 

[Adam]

What is your salinity and what are you using to test it?

 

[00Dan]

I had some low alk issues with reef crystals myself. I ended up having to start a very easy dosing routine.
Have you done any validation tests to know if your kits are giving good numbers? Have you tested freshly mixed water to see what it’s reading?

 

[Steve Burton]

My latest tank is a 180 started with dry base rock, I cycled it quickly with ammonia, and my alkalinity dropped quite low during the cycling. I raised it up a couple times before adding fish at a month and started dosing alk before adding coral at three months. I'm out of town so don't have the numbers with me but it didn't really take much. I'm at @6 months and still only dose a small amount, haven't had to increase much at all even though the coraline has exploded. Seems to me that cycling uses some Alk, I might have read that somewhere but can't remember where and haven't worried about it enough to bother researching. I use a Jebao wifi 4 head doser, to dose BRS Soda Ash mix, and highly recommend it.
Edit: I use regular Instant Ocean, mixes at @160 ppm for alk.

 

[90gDreams]

What is your salinity and what are you using to test it?

1.026 usually a swing arm but ive checked it against a calibrated refractometer. Running a tunze off a 10g reservoir so it's pretty steady regardless of the actual number fwiw

I had some low alk issues with reef crystals myself. I ended up having to start a very easy dosing routine.
Have you done any validation tests to know if your kits are giving good numbers? Have you tested freshly mixed water to see what it’s reading?

Zero validations and have not tested a fresh batch for anything more than salinity.

 

[Adam]

New systems will eat up some alk in the first few months as the bacterial colonies build up. Adding some baking soda mixed in ro water will help.

The reason I asked about the salinity is the calcium looks a little low for a new tank and after a water change.

 

[90gDreams]

New systems will eat up some alk in the first few months as the bacterial colonies build up. Adding some baking soda mixed in ro water will help.

The reason I asked about the salinity is the calcium looks a little low for a new tank and after a water change.

I agree it looks low. It's more than possible I fudged it up on the test. If it wasn't 10pm on Monday I would've re-done to confirm.

 

[90gDreams]

My latest tank is a 180 started with dry base rock, I cycled it quickly with ammonia, and my alkalinity dropped quite low during the cycling. I raised it up a couple times before adding fish at a month and started dosing alk before adding coral at three months. I'm out of town so don't have the numbers with me but it didn't really take much. I'm at @6 months and still only dose a small amount, haven't had to increase much at all even though the coraline has exploded. Seems to me that cycling uses some Alk, I might have read that somewhere but can't remember where and haven't worried about it enough to bother researching. I use a Jebao wifi 4 head doser, to dose BRS Soda Ash mix, and highly recommend it.
Edit: I use regular Instant Ocean, mixes at @160 ppm for alk.

Yeah I'm struggling with it. I had pretty good success with LPS and fair success with some Monti spongodes and Caps literally never testing for dKH. So I find myself torn between just roll with and wanting to kick this setup up a notch from the previous.

 

[Adam]

I agree it looks low. It's more than possible I fudged it up on the test. If it wasn't 10pm on Monday I would've re-done to confirm.

I would reconfirm the salinity with a calibrated refractometer or digital salinity tester. Best to rule that out before making any other adjustments.

In the mean time you can bump up the Alk by adding 21 grams of baking soda mixed into RODI water. Dose half today and the other half tomorrow. That should get you close to 7.5dKH, if the system doesn't start sucking it right up that is.

If after retesting the Cal and it's still low you should be able to work it up with future water changes.

Always double and even triple check your test results if something is off, even if it means taking a sample in to a LFS, before making dosing adjustments. Doing that will save you rear end more often than not.

 

[civics14]

Alk low with reef crystals? That doesn't seem right. That's one of the reasons I got away from Reef Crystals because their Alk mix is so dang high, like 12-13 DKH!!

Are you using the bucket? If so, I suggest rolling the bucket around and flipping upside down a few times and rolling it again to get it mixed up nicely before using it. Heck, I would do this before doing any mix with reef crystals to be honest.

Also, is the reef crystals new or hardened? I noticed that hardened salt or if some moisture got into the bag, they would mix up with low alk as well.

Just some things to think about...

 

[Adam]

That's actually the reason I'm cycling with Reef Crystals, the high Alk, because I know the process of cycling will chew through some Alk.

Couple the low Alk with low Cal really has me questioning the salinity.
I'd also like to ask what test kits are being used?

 

[90gDreams]

That's actually the reason I'm cycling with Reef Crystals, the high Alk, because I know the process of cycling will chew through some Alk.

Couple the low Alk with low Cal really has me questioning the salinity.
I'd also like to ask what test kits are being used?

Alk low with reef crystals? That doesn't seem right. That's one of the reasons I got away from Reef Crystals because their Alk mix is so dang high, like 12-13 DKH!!

Are you using the bucket? If so, I suggest rolling the bucket around and flipping upside down a few times and rolling it again to get it mixed up nicely before using it. Heck, I would do this before doing any mix with reef crystals to be honest.

Also, is the reef crystals new or hardened? I noticed that hardened salt or if some moisture got into the bag, they would mix up with low alk as well.

Just some things to think about...

So original tank was set up with one bag of 6ish year old salt and a bag of year old. Since then it had a bag of non reef crystals water change and a bag of new crystals.

Higher alk is my reason for doing reef crystals thought being with the coming AWC it could stave of near term need for dosing.

I've got 70g mixing in the garage for TTM that's kicking off Saturday that I can test when I have time this week.

Tests are Red Sea.

For the moment plan of action is test what is in the garage, reconfirm salinity with refractometer again. No plan to dose for the moment blasto, rics, and zoas are healthy and don't want to add complexity fighting through the uglies. Was really just wanting some input on some odd results and sounds like I was right to be a bit confused to see what I saw.

Also before comments, I know it's not good to change salts around. Still just ramping up and was in a pinch so Petco regular IO was needed to take the edge off the big Amonnia spike and keep as much life on the live rock as I could. Focus right now is getting it all stable and stocked with healthy fish.

 

[90gDreams]

Alk low with reef crystals? That doesn't seem right. That's one of the reasons I got away from Reef Crystals because their Alk mix is so dang high, like 12-13 DKH!!

Are you using the bucket? If so, I suggest rolling the bucket around and flipping upside down a few times and rolling it again to get it mixed up nicely before using it. Heck, I would do this before doing any mix with reef crystals to be honest.

Also, is the reef crystals new or hardened? I noticed that hardened salt or if some moisture got into the bag, they would mix up with low alk as well.

Just some things to think about...

noticed I didn't fully answer. I use bags, not buckets. Will be getting a box o' bags soon here.

 

[90gDreams]

So I bumped salinity up a bit on accident really just fighting return pump issues. It's checking out at about 1.028 now. Ca today was 430 so I think the other week it was just a bad test.

dKH again came in mid 5s so I will be adding 6 teaspoons of baking soda over the course of the week and will see where it is next weekend.

Zoas, trachy, frogspawn, and blastomussa all look healthy and happy. Digitata is mostly brown but that's not much different than how it arrived. Fair polyp extension and no tissue loss.

Letting that stick be my canary, when I get it to being a proper green digitata I'll add more corals.

 

[90gDreams]

9.8dKH today after the 6 teaspoons over 5 days
Got the Salinity back down 1.026 as well.

If I understood some directions I found I should simply check alkalinity every day for 5 days and make my calculations based off that.

 

[Adam]

Without any encrusting coral, getting down into the mid 5's dKH is pretty odd. Is the Red Sea alk test the Pro version? I haven't looked up the numbers on a calculator but a jump from 5.5 to 9.8 in 5 days is a lot for only dosing 6tsp of baking soda. Were you dosing 6tsp per day?

You are way too early with this system to be worrying about routine dosing of anything. My earlier recommendation to dose baking soda was meant to be a one time, or occasional, adjustment to bump the alk up a little while the system cycles and continues to build up bacteria colonies as you add to the bioload.

Things should stabilize within 4 to 6 months after setting up a new system. Until you see Cal & Alk dropping by reasonable amounts, water changes alone will be enough to keep your parameters in line. Even then if there aren't a lot of incrusting corals that are actively growing water changes may be enough.

With you being in Cumming there are quite a few experienced reefer's near you. See if some of them are willing to let you stop by to see their setups and go to your house to look yours over. If you find someone you get along really well with that person may be willing to help mentor you.

 

[90gDreams]

Earlier I had mentioned not doing a dosing routine yet, I'll just go back to that plan for now. I've never bothered testing alkalinity ever in the previous foray into the hobby and had decent success.

There are a lot of big clams, and a fair number of mound corals in there, on top of normal cycle eating up alkalinity. That is the only thing I can ascribe it to.

It was 6tsp total mixed in some rodi and added from Sunday to yesterday.

 

[90gDreams]

Any takers in the cumming area to give me a hand? I'm just trying to do this one a little better than my old one so I can keep more sps and a clam.

 

[Cook]

I can help you verify your alkalinity numbers if you haven't done that yet.

 

[90gDreams]

I can help you verify your alkalinity numbers if you haven't done that yet.

Certainly would like some back up on them. Let me know how to arrange that, swing by your place this weekend sometime I assume?