.5 Phosphates and 16Dkh

[dormreefer]

I completed my water testing this evening which my new Red Sea test kits and to my surprise, although it should of been obvious as I've been using API kits since I moved, my water parameters are far from perfect. My main issue is that my phosphates are at .5 even though I am running CPE, do weekly W/Cs and feed lightly. How often do I need to change my CPE and should I call out my LFS RODI water and have them test it before I buy? Second my Alkalinity is sitting at 16! I am very surprised by this and will have the LFS double check my readings but if so how do I get my ALK to drop down to 12?

 

Pretty disappointing/Eye opening evening but I'm happy that the extra cash spent on the test kit will likely be worth it!

[jedimasterben]

Yikes! When was the last time you changed the CPE? What tank is it in (one that's in your sig?)?

 

 

Water changes (big ones) to bring your alk down, will also help with your phosphate issue.

[dormreefer]

Yikes! When was the last time you changed the CPE? What tank is it in (one that's in your sig?)?

 

 

Water changes (big ones) to bring your alk down, will also help with your phosphate issue.

It's the 14 gallon biocube tank. I'm really going to have to start mixing my own salt again. I figured due to limitations of my apartment I would buy SW from the LFS. I have no idea what they are doing to get the Alkalinity that high, unless something in my tank is the issue? I'll hopefully do a 50% WC tomorrow and see what happens. The CPE is around a month old.

Also, my Calc is right at 450 is it possible to have 16alk at 450 calc?

 

On a positive note all the corals and fish appear healthy, although I think I finally found why my Monti won't grow

[jedimasterben]

What is the alk of the LFS' water you do changes with?

 

And if you had high phosphate already, it can exhaust the CPE media very very quickly. How much are you feeding?

[dormreefer]

I haven't checked the LFS alk but will do when I buy more water for the water changes.

 

I usually feed once a daily for 2-3 days then off 1 or 2.

[jedimasterben]

I haven't checked the LFS alk but will do when I buy more water for the water changes.

 

I usually feed once a daily for 2-3 days then off 1 or 2.

Not too terribly much feeding. Just wondering where the phosphate is coming from. How much are you feeding each time?

[dormreefer]

To be honest its not really a set amount but I wouldn't call it excessive. If I feed mysis I'll give eat clown and the Goby 2 or so each. If I do cyclop-eeze I'll scratch a little of mix it with RODI and shoot it in with a 3ML pipette, usually I barely use 1 full pipette.

[jedimasterben]

lol, I feed about 60x that daily. it's strange to me to think that people feed so little in comparison! But that sounds perfectly ok. I would do the water changes and get some more CPE and keep an eye on it.

[dormreefer]

That's why it came as a shock to me as I feel like I'm being overly stingy with food at times. I really think I need to investigate the source water to be sure what the heck is going on. I just realized that today is Tuesday and I was due a weekly W/C yesterday so perhaps the phosphates are a little higher than they normally would be...Hmm...Who knows? Here's to fixing the issues!

[jedimasterben]

Unless you do massive water changes, they won't really do much to bring down phosphate. If it reads 0.5 right now and you do a 25% change, the phosphate level after the change would be 0.375.

[uglyfish]

I use many of the red sea kits - and the red sea alk test gives me the most unreliable readings. I would think your alk would precipitate with 450 cal - check with something else.

[dormreefer]

I use many of the red sea kits - and the red sea alk test gives me the most unreliable readings. I would think your alk would precipitate with 450 cal - check with something else.

I was thinking the same, I actually found this

and it appears the colors they tell you to look for are not correct. I will retest watching the video later and we shall see.

[nano_tank]

Get a Salifert test kit and compare the results. If you have very high Calcium, it's not possible to have 16KH Alk as once both ALK and Calcium hit saturation point, increasing 1 will drop the other. The Salifert kit have a base KH solution to test against, mine came with 6.8KH to validate if the kit is accurate. I found both my API Alk test kit was junk as the first one was 3 KH higher and the second one was 2KH value higher. You also won't know a fraction of 1KH increment so you're easily 1 KH off anyway which can be problematic if you're running ULNS systems and want to keep KH at 7 or 8 with not much room for error due to high Alk causing SPS tip burns with ULNS systems.