bizzare test results, help?!

eeyrg

Member
I tested my tank this morning:
Temp 79
SG 1.024
PH 8.0
NO2 0
NO3 0
Calc 572 ppm!!
Alk 6dkh
Phosp. 0
Strontium 10 mg/l
Magnesium 1575 ppm
Ok, I'm not dosing w/Kalkwasser for a bit.
How do i raise my alkalinity and ph safely? Water change?
 

eeyrg

Member

Originally posted by fender
PH seems fine to me for a morning reading.

i guess so, i'll check it again later in the day. i'm more concerned about the low Alk. i think..
 

bang guy

Moderator
Try mixing a teaspoon of Baking Soda per every 50 gallons of tank water into a gallon of tank water and slowly pour it into a high flow area. Do this every day until your ALK is back in balance with your Ca. If it takes more than a week (probable) then also add a teaspoon of washing soda to the mix once a week. Your ALK misbalance is moderate, don't do anything fast to correct it.
Keep up with dripping limewater but just use less Calcium hydroxide in the solution.
...or....
Buy a commercial non-borate based PH buffer.
 

eeyrg

Member

Originally posted by Bang Guy
Try mixing a teaspoon per every 50 gallons of tank water into a gallon of tank water and slowly pour it into a high flow area. Do this every day until your ALK is back in balance with your Ca. If it takes more than a week (probable) then also add a teaspoon of washing soda to the mix once a week. Your ALK misbalance is moderate, don't do anything fast to correct it.
Keep up with dripping limewater but just use less Calcium hydroxide in the solution.
...or....
Buy a commercial non-borate based PH buffer.

<i>Try mixing a teaspoon per every 50 gallons of tank water into a gallon of tank water and slowly pour it into a high flow area.</i>
I beg your pardon? :)
 

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by EeyrG
I beg your pardon? :)

LOL... I had a popup while I was typing and it stole some words from me :mad:
I fixed my post.
 

eeyrg

Member

Originally posted by Bang Guy
LOL... I had a popup while I was typing and it stole some words from me :mad:
I fixed my post.

whew. i was so confused.
i thought you meant mix kalkwasser back into the tank at that rate.
so, you mentioned continuing to dose limewater, but i use kalkwasser. Should I just dilute it further?
 

redawg

Member
kalkwasser is german for limewater... with calcium that high i'd stop dripping kalk and let it fall and at the same time would be dosing what ever kinda alk buffer you use.. as you raise your alk your cal will drop..
here's really all the info you need about cal and alk probs
edited link
hth
 

eeyrg

Member

Originally posted by JawfishRay
?
Ray

washing soda = sodium carbonate
baking soda = sodium bicarbonate
i had to look it (washing soda) up :)
 

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
Is the tank fairly new. If so then let everything settle out a little. The calcium should come down.
If it not new then I would like to know how the calcium got that high. especially if you are not dripping kalk
 

eeyrg

Member

Originally posted by beaslbob
Is the tank fairly new. If so then let everything settle out a little. The calcium should come down.
If it not new then I would like to know how the calcium got that high. especially if you are not dripping kalk

Oh! No, the tank is over a year old. I was dripping kalk every day.
 

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
woops my bad. hopefully stopping the kalk will help the calcium come down. And the baking soda will bring the alk (and ph) up.
 

eeyrg

Member

Originally posted by Kipass4130
you may have told me in some chats, but i cant remember...
do you have a a lot of calcifying corals... LPS, SPS?
if so, it is hard to get Ca that high with just kalk in an LPS-SPS tank.

I do have a couple, but most just arrived as frags today.
http://www.sequester.net/reef/12-2003/g_reef.jpg
not a very close up picture, but as you can see, not much coral. Yet. :)
2.5 Tablespoons per 5 gallons of RODI to make our kalkwasser drip...
 

eeyrg

Member

Originally posted by Kipass4130
thats a pretty light drip.... i cant figure out why your Ca is so high with a light kalk drip, RO/DI, no other additives... beats me.

Maybe I'm just lucky? Sort of..? Ha.
Like I said, I added Turbo Calc, but that was quite some time ago. I hadn't tested my tank for quite a few weeks until today.
I'm going to try adding the baking soda solution starting tomorrow and test again daily to see if I can correct it (but continue to dose).
 

eeyrg

Member

Originally posted by Kipass4130
how long ago did you dose the turbo ca... and what kinda readings did you have before and after?

about a month ago was my last turbo calc...
the last reading i wrote in my book was on 9/27/03:
temp 80
ph 8.1
alk 5 dkh
sg 1.23
n02 0
no3 0
phos 0
calc 420
 
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