Water quality issues - need help!

ramba

ramba

New Member
The ph in my newly mixed saltwater is only 8.0. Ph in my tank was around 7.8. Lfs confirmed this(with same brand of kit-Tetra) and recommended calcium. Added this yesterday A.M. and it went up to 8.0. It is now back to around 7.8. Nitrates are 15. Using well water.Nitrates are now detectable in the fresh wellwater, low, but there. Kh is 11 in newly mixed saltwater and 6 in the tank.Did a 10% water change a week ago and 20% 2 days ago.These haven't helped. Have read a lot of posts on water quality, but not sure how to proceed.Please help! Thanks.
 
jlem

jlem

Active Member
If you can find a glacier water machine then get a couple 5 gallon jugs and use that water instead of well water. Get a buffer and dose about 1 tsp every night until it reaches 8.1-8.3, then wait a day or two and see if it drops. If it drops then keep up with the nightly dosing. Becareful with dosing calcium if you have no hard corals and little corraline because it is easy to overdose which can drive down alkalinity resulting in fluctuating PH. You will want to add in some buffer into your makeup water or else your makeup water may have a low PH. Give alist of your setup including filtration and powerheads and we can narrow down a possible cause.
 
bbuck_camelback

bbuck_camelback

Member
You need to bring that PH up, try using Kent`s ProBuffer. It is one additive that I wouldn`t live without. I had a friend who never checked his Ph, well three months later everything in his tank died. What i`m trying to say is keeping PH in order is very important. 7.8 is really low, you want 8.3-8.4.
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
what is the calcium?
and what test kit are you using and how old is it? is there a date on the bottles or the box?
sorry, i see it is a tetra tec, not too good of a test kit
salifert or lamott's is better. It could not hurt to try and get it tested with a different kit. Tetra is not the most accurate.
 
ramba

ramba

New Member
The filtration is a wet/dry filter with bioballs that is built into the tank. One powerhead at each end of the tank,Rio 1700 and not sure about the other one's size.
Don't have a Ca test kit. My only choices for test kits in this town are Red Sea, Fastest, and Tetra.I can take a water sample to ***** (the only other LFS here),but I think they just use the strips. Am planning on ordering Salifert tests from this site today, but need to do something now before it's too late. I can definitely get the buffer from ***** now and will see if they know where to get some good water. Am planning on ordering RO/DI unit also, but LFS guy said it would not help.(maybe he meant with the ph).
My livrock has a lot of coralline, so maybe the Ca I put in will be o.k?
 
bbuck_camelback

bbuck_camelback

Member
The RO unit won`t help with the PH, but it is definately something you should get. Try doing a search on ----, you will find a much better deal on there.
 
jlem

jlem

Active Member
If you are running well water through a ro/di filter then you may be going through membranes rather quickly. It may be alot cheaper to use the glacier machines. You should have the glacier water machines in olympia somewhere and it is ro/di/carbon/mechanical/yadayadayada. I have used it for over a year and it is only 25 cents a gallon. I mix 10 gallons with kent salt and 1 teaspoon of seachem marine buffer to get 8.2 after about 12 hours of mixing with a powerhead.
 
ramba

ramba

New Member
Good point about going thru the RO/DI fiters quickly. We already use a floss type filter and it gets filled with sediment fairly quickly.
I will look for the Glacier water, thanks! I have a friend coming over soon to test my water with his tests.Will let you know what we find out.
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
buffer may or may not help
if the alk is correct and the ph reading is accurate, then I hope it is the calcium, that is off
But, I would test with another kit first, what if your PH is good and the reading is inaccurate?
fastest, IMO is better than Tetra
 
ramba

ramba

New Member
Well, my friend tested the ph and got 8.2 and nitrate was zero! He is pretty confident his kit is accurate. I feel better and it was good for me to have this little scare because I read a lot about water parameters and this will be a good starting point for getting ready to reef.Obviously, I need to order new tests, so any advice about what salifert tests to order if going for a reef tank in the near future? If I find that my nitrates are definitely zero, will I need to worry about using well water anymore? What kind of bad things can come out of a 110 foot well? Thanks, guys, for all the help!
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
PH, Alk, Calcium, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Phosphate, Iodine, Strontium.
yes, you need to be cautious of well water. It often has things like sulphur, copper, iron, just to name a few. There are many more things found in wells, esp that deep which may or may not be a problem.
 
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