jhjones2000 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Hi Everyone. New guy here. First off, this forum has been a gold mine of information. Thank you to everyone for sharing. Second, I could use your help. I have a new tank w/ live rock and sand, which is still cycling. Params as tested yesterday: Amm: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate:0 PH: 7.8 Calcium: 530 KH: 210 From what I can gather from this article (which I found on another thread here): http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm The problem will correct itself: "through biotic deposition into coral skeletons or coralline algae, or through abiotic precipitation, as on heaters, the levels of each will drop in an appropriate ratio" What do you guys think? Since I don't have any coral or coralline algae yet, I'm thinking this will take a long time. Anyone else experience something similar? Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 I'm thinking you need to get a new Kh test kit if you did the test correctly, cause there's no way that's what your Kh really is. What test kit are you using? What's the expiration date on it? Also, hat's off to you for posting this thread in the correct forum. Link to comment
DiscoFool Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 I'm thinking you need to get a new Kh test kit if you did the test correctly, cause there's no way that's what your Kh really is. What test kit are you using? What's the expiration date on it? Also, hat's off to you for posting this thread in the correct forum. With your KH their are different types of measurement. My kit for example uses meq.; so it reads like 3.5. I was wondering if yours is actually 2.10 and you can convert by using meq x 2.8=KH The calcium is high though. What salt are you using? I have found that many salts actually have a PH between 2.5 and 2.7; thus the Ph is always a little low. I changed from Reef Crystals to Seachem (8.2 PH) and it helped a lot to keep my PH up. Have you been using a calcium supplement? Or something like Purple up? Because, while your tank is cycling you dont need to add such things. Especially with that calcium level (assuming its correct). Link to comment
jhjones2000 Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 I'm thinking you need to get a new Kh test kit if you did the test correctly, cause there's no way that's what your That was my first thought. Not much selection in KH test kits in my area. First one I tried was "Red Sea pH/KH Test Kit". Instructions where to test water until start colour changes to finish colour. Well, I couldn't get it to change colour. I figured the KH must be zero or off the charts, or the test was bad. So I went out and bought the only other test kit I could find in my area. It is by Hagen. Instructions are to count the number of drops until solution changes colour, and multiply by ten. Which is how I arrived at my 210 number. Link to comment
jhjones2000 Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 What salt are you using? I bought a big honking tub of Instant Ocean sea salt with my cube. That's all I've added to the water so far. Link to comment
beeker Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 i only use Aqaurium Systems instant ocean Alk test, I've used API and Salifert and both of the API and Salifert were off by a decent amount The aquarium systems test can be bought off of ebay for less than 20 dollars shipped and it's a good test, it's the only test i will use on my tank, other test like API become inacurate after you do a few test because the size of the drop changes because of the way the bottle is designed, and Salifert is just plain hard to understand no matter how you read the instructions My alk tested at 10DKH on the Aquarium systems kit, my Alk with the Salifert kit was 14 DKH which wasn't even possible but thats what i kept getting, and my ALK with API test kit didn't change over till i was at 15 drops...so that would have been 15 DKH which i know my tank is not or else i'd be lossing corals the aqaurium systems test kit has the least amount of issue's, or atleast for me i don't worry about ODing ALK with this test kit, i did OD on alk with my API test kit before so i cant trust using them anymore and the salifert one didn't give me the right reading when i used it so i won't use anything else i keep my param's at Alk between 9-12 DKH Calc between 450-500 and even over 500ppm isn't a bad thing mine gets up to 550ppm sometimes, 600ppm would be the point where you'd want to stop dosing Calc for a day and let it drop or add more alk and less calc when you add your 2 part it will bring the calc down some Magnesium needs to be around 1300 to be affective and i've even had my mag as high as 1400ppm without ill affect as well HTH Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Red Sea test kits are notoriously inaccurate. Hagen is better, but not by much. I would look for a better test kit online. Link to comment
jhjones2000 Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 Which KH test kit brand would you recommend, API? In the meantime, assuming my 210ppm number is correct, using this chart: http://ozreef.org/library/tables/alkalinity_conversion.html My dKH is > 11.5, meq/l > 4.0 Something I should try to correct before I add my CUC, or still within acceptable range? Link to comment
maxijazz Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Within the acceptable range. API is a fast easy test kit, salifert is very accuarate if needed. So API gets an A and Salifert A+. If your Amm. Nitrite and Nitrate are 0 looks like your cycle is over but you say its still cycling, why do you think that. What test kits are you testing these with. imo alot more important to have these accuarate than alk and calc. Link to comment
bdare Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Get better test kits for sure. API, Salifert, LaMotte or Elos. You also need to get a Mg test kit as this will help precipitation down with your numbers that high. Also, precipitation has less of a chance of occuring with your low Ph. Ph is commonly low during a cycle so don't worry about that too much until the cycle is done. I'm also curious what you using to measure your SG? If you are using Instant Ocean as you stated above the onlyl way you will get your Ca and Alk that high is one of 2 ways... dosing or mixing your water tooo strong (salty). IMO measuing salinity with anything less than a refractometer calibrated with calibration fluid just won't cut it. Link to comment
jhjones2000 Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 maxijazz: I'm using API's "Master" kit for the other measures. I think the tank is still cycling because there's very little algae to speak of, and the PH is somewhat low (7.8). bdare: I haven't seen a Mg test kit yet, that's next on the neverending list. And yes, you are right, I did initially mix the water with too much salt. I followed the instructions according to the label, but that turned out to be overkill. Thanks for solving that mystery. Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Good advice from bdare and maxijazz. Link to comment
bdare Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Good advice from bdare and maxijazz. Thanks for your approval Link to comment
DiscoFool Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 i absolutely agree with Weetabix. Those Red sea test kits are very acurate and nice to work with. hey, this may sound silly, but make sure that when you are mixing the water that you FIRST put ALL of the water in the bucket and THEN add the salt. Never put in salt and then add water. Link to comment
jonny5 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I have heard NOTHING but CRAP from RED SEA test kits... Just WHAT I HAVE HEARD...so dont bash... As for your KH and high calcium... your KH reading is WAY OFF...it has to be if stuff is alive... My readings as of 2 days ago from a free test at my LFS, Calcium is at 580 and my KH at 8(which is low).... So if anything, take your water to LFS and have them test it.... Cause that just aint right... Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 i absolutely agree with Weetabix. Those Red sea test kits are very acurate and nice to work with. hey, this may sound silly, but make sure that when you are mixing the water that you FIRST put ALL of the water in the bucket and THEN add the salt. Never put in salt and then add water. WAT??? I had nothing but trouble with both of the Red Sea Test kits I started out with, and I've heard lots of bad reports on inaccuracy from others as well. Link to comment
jonny5 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 ^ +1 (if that matters ) Take your water to your LFS, and if you are lucky and they are cool, they will test it for free... Link to comment
bdare Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 WAT???I had nothing but trouble with both of the Red Sea Test kits I started out with, and I've heard lots of bad reports on inaccuracy from others as well. Test your water side by side with Red Sea and another test kit which others have reccomended. Just do a search for Red Sea Test in the Chem forum at Reef Central and let me know what you come up with. The 210 value the OP recieved for Alk is in ppm. This number is actually right on target (maybe just a lil high...) Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.