High KH low Ca?

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

Hey everyone!

 

I would love if someone could give me some help with this.. I've had a 10 gallon set up for about a month now with rocks/substrate transferred from an older tank that had been established for several years. I have a red mushroom frag, feather duster, clown, a watchman goby, some snails/hermits, but I really want to balance the levels out.

 

Just tested these:

SG: 1.026

pH: 8.4

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: <5

Calcium: 350

Phosphate: <0.25

KH: 12

 

So there's an imbalance between KH and Calcium, but I'm not entirely sure what's caused the KH to rise. It had been sitting around 9 a few weeks ago. I DID switch from getting water from a water supplier to bottled distilled. Could that be it? 

 

I do not have a Mg testing kit and can't get one fast. 

 

I do ~25% water changes about every week and a half. 

 

Please let me know what could be causing this and how I can fix it!

 

Thank you. 

[Tamberav]

14 hours ago, IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut said:

Hey everyone!

 

I would love if someone could give me some help with this.. I've had a 10 gallon set up for about a month now with rocks/substrate transferred from an older tank that had been established for several years. I have a red mushroom frag, feather duster, clown, a watchman goby, some snails/hermits, but I really want to balance the levels out.

 

Just tested these:

SG: 1.026

pH: 8.4

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: <5

Calcium: 350

Phosphate: <0.25

KH: 12

 

So there's an imbalance between KH and Calcium, but I'm not entirely sure what's caused the KH to rise. It had been sitting around 9 a few weeks ago. I DID switch from getting water from a water supplier to bottled distilled. Could that be it? 

 

I do not have a Mg testing kit and can't get one fast. 

 

I do ~25% water changes about every week and a half. 

 

Please let me know what could be causing this and how I can fix it!

 

Thank you. 

Do you dose anything? Perhaps something for pH?

 

What test kits?

 

What do you check salinity with?

 

What brand of salt?

 

[A Little Blue]

Water changes of%50 over the next two weeks would balance things out (that would be the easiest and less risky approach if you're not comfortable with using additives to correct imbalance). Make sure you have the right salt (test b4 WC), your tes kit/ instruments are accurate/calibrated, your Mg is where it supposed to be and don't panic. Especially if your tank is doing fine. No drastic action is needed. 

Vineger can help but not recommended if you're not familiar with basic water chemistry. 

I would start by reading this article tho: 

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/index.htm

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

7 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Do you dose anything? Perhaps something for pH?

 

What test kits?

 

What do you check salinity with?

 

What brand of salt?

 

Not dosing anything

 

API saltwater/reef

 

Refractometer

 

Instant Ocean

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

5 hours ago, A Little Blue said:

Water changes of%50 over the next two weeks would balance things out (that would be the easiest and less risky approach if you're not comfortable with using additives to correct imbalance). Make sure you have the right salt (test b4 WC), your tes kit/ instruments are accurate/calibrated, your Mg is where it supposed to be and don't panic. Especially if your tank is doing fine. No drastic action is needed. 

Vineger can help but not recommended if you're not familiar with basic water chemistry. 

I would start by reading this article tho: 

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/index.htm

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

Thank you for the articles! Took chemical oceanography two years ago and don't remember too much haha. 

I think because they're not terribly off, I'll just do some water changes! 

[Tamberav]

Really strange. I would test your mix water and make sure it's reporting within range of the manufacturers listing. If it is...wc away!

[blasterman]

Test your mix water. I've had salt mixes go as high as 15 dKH out of the bag (waaaaaaaay to high and likely a manufacturing defect) to popular Reef Crystals running at 10-12 dKH out of the bag. 

 

There's nothing in your tank dKH of 12 will bother. Yeah...it's on the high side, but so what.  If the tank is a month old trust me, it will soon start burning through alk as it's used to build bacteria beds and come down on it's own. If you insist on dropping alk down you can trying mixing up some instant ocean, but you aren't fixing anything.

 

 

 

 

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

4 minutes ago, blasterman said:

Test your mix water. I've had salt mixes go as high as 15 dKH out of the bag (waaaaaaaay to high and likely a manufacturing defect) to popular Reef Crystals running at 10-12 dKH out of the bag. 

 

There's nothing in your tank dKH of 12 will bother. Yeah...it's on the high side, but so what.  If the tank is a month old trust me, it will soon start burning through alk as it's used to build bacteria beds and come down on it's own. If you insist on dropping alk down you can trying mixing up some instant ocean, but you aren't fixing anything.

 

 

 

 

i don't think it's the salt. i've been using it for a few months now and it's been fine. i also tested the DI water and the dKH was 0.

 

The rocks/substrate have been cycled for close to 5 years if that matters. Brought it immediately over from an established tank. 

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

I should say, I haven't tested all parameters since I posted this, but everything is looking good so I'm not gonna mess around with it. 

[blasterman]

You might be surprised if you test your salt mix. Just look at the numbers I experienced. 

 

However, there's nothing wrong with 12 dKH for your load on a young tank. If you were running a high SPS load and low nutrient with big water changes there would be some issues here. For this tank....no problem. IMO, you don't need water changes as much as you are doing.

 

I know what you are saying about 'balanced' alk and calcium, but again, you aren't running a heavy SPS tank with large montipora caps that are sensitive to high alk levels.