Spent most of this rainy day cleaning and catching up on maintenance on my tank. I tested everything that I have a test for and all my perams. look good except for Cal. and Mag. I’f i’m reading correctly, Cal. levels should be between 380-450, mine was at 520. And Mag. level should be between 1250-1350, mine was at 1440. Both of these test were done with a Salifert test kit. I’m still pretty new at this with less than a year under my belt and I’m at a loss as to how to get these in acceptable range. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Are you dosing those supplements? what is your salinity level? how old are the test kits? Fresh new mix are never that high unless more salt was added.
No, not dosing, My salinity is 1.24. The test kit is still fairly new at about 2 months old. I did a 20% water change first thing this morning and did the test this evening.
When you mix your new water, how long you let it mix? couple of hours 24hr before you do the water change?
Hmmm, might be on to something there, I mix it and change it. I didnt realize that would cause any problems.
Most people mix their new water for at least 24hr before they do the water change so that all the salt mix is properly dissolved. Then one must make sure that the new water temp and salinity at least the same as the DT water before the change. If you have a good salt mix you shouldn’t really have to worry about those other parameter, it should be as the sea water. Couple of weeks later then you test those parameter and see if it has been used up by what ever it is that you are keeping ie…hard corals or any corals at that. How bout some pics of the tank?
Thats good advice and I’ll make sure to apply it from now on. So do you think I have anything to worry about or that I can do right away to correct things? Or just let it ride and keep checking to see if the levels drop over time? My tank is a 55G with a 20G sump, A pair of clowns, a small yellow tang, a serpent star and a few hermits and pep shrimp. As far as corals I have some frogspawn, a fox coral, cabbage leather and some star polyps. The fish and all the corals are doing well and growing, everything seems healthy. I’ll try to post a few pics tomm.
Oh yeah, as far as the salt mix I’ve been using Instant Ocean from day one.
[quote=“Tim, post:7, topic:5222”]
Thats good advice and I’ll make sure to apply it from now on. So do you think I have anything to worry about or that I can do right away to correct things? Or just let it ride and keep checking to see if the levels drop over time? My tank is a 55G with a 20G sump, A pair of clowns, a small yellow tang, a serpent star and a few hermits and pep shrimp. As far as corals I have some frogspawn, a fox coral, cabbage leather and some star polyps. The fish and all the corals are doing well and growing, everything seems healthy. I’ll try to post a few pics tomm.[/quote]
As you say, just let it ride. Those parameter are not that far off to where it will hurt those animal you have in the tank. Just keep an eye on it and not let it fall way below those levels. I my self has been IO reef crystal fan, it has never fail me. Good luck and keep us posted
Something is amiss. Either your test kits or your specific gravity devise. IO doesn’t normally mix to that high in readings.
or test results.
http://www.tanktests.co.uk/index.php?target=pages&page_id=salt_water_study
but, Your readings, although higher than NSW, are not out of the realm of over zealous reef keepers. and if you leave it alone, those readings will come down. at least the calcium. Magnesium isnt consumed very much. its a facilitator.
You said you are nt dosing, are you adding anything beside food ? Purple UP, Reef Builder or any other additives ?
Hudson, the only other thing I add besides food is a bag of Phos-sorb in my protien skimmer chamber every few months, dont know if that would affect the readings or not. Ken, thats a good point, the refractometer I have is a bit old, its a hand me down. I guess that should be the very next thing on my list to pick up, with any luck I’ll win one at the swap raffle next week:) If not I’ll go ahead and get one ordered, Thanks
for your refractometer you really should get a bottle of calabration fluid, I know DPA carries it, don’t know about other local fish stores. Rather cheap under 10 bucks and should be enough to last a couple years
if you are using a bucket with instant ocean and your close to empty this makes sense i tested my fresh mix and the alk was 12-13 and the calcium was 550. but if you test a full bucket it’ll be 7-8 dkh and 350ish calc but to be that high you would have to do a large water change and without dosing i would think the test is off. I would think your sg would have to be pretty high to get calcium that high. It wont hurt anything though what could hurt is you alk dropping due to calcium too high but without adding i don’t think this is the case. I also have used io since the start 8 years now imo its a great salt and readily available.