water test

[khill]

Just got my water tested the other day and everything was out of speck except for my salinity.
Calicum 650
Phosphates 1PPM
Nitrates 120
KH 5.8
I am planning on doing a 15 gallon water change this weekend [all water is RO/DI],
My tank is a 75 gallon reef with a wet/dry sump, protene skimmer,100 lbs live rock, new DSB. I add Liquid Calcium [not after this] Coral-vite, Iron and Iodine every week.
I have seven pieces of leather coral,one star pollop and a small piece of green zoos.Two pieces of the leather only stay open a couple of days then they close up, I think getting the water in check will help this.
The fish are,Yellow tang, Blue Hippo,small angle, Six Line Wrass, Lawnmower Blenny Green Mandrian Goby, clean-up crew and a 15 year old one eye damsel.
What can I do to get everything back into speck?
THANKS,
kEITH

 

[dburr]

What can I do to get everything back into speck?
Can you do a 25% WC?
WHy do you add liquid calcium? You have all softies, they use very little calcium. WC should keep up with that kind of demand.
Do you test for iron and iodine? if not IMO, I would not dose them.
The WC will help with the nitrates also.
Alk is low. I have the same problem. Do you have well water? I have a well and their is lots of rock here in CT. A chemist explained to me that because of that, my alk will be low. I even dose kalk 24/7.
Anyway, I think doing a 25% WC this week and another 25% next week will help alot. Recheck the #'s again and repost them.
HTH

 

[khill]

I think 15 gallons is 25%, I am assuming i have about 60 gallons of water.
LFS told me to add these additives years ago,i did have a few hard corals then.
This is the first time i have checked my water in about 8+ years When i had my 180 reef i changed 30 gallons out every 10 days,everything looked awesome so i never checked the water. The 75 i am finding out is more delicate and prone to getting out of speck.
I have allways used RO/DI water in this tank from the LFS.
What is kalk?
As long as i have been in this hobby, I should know these things but the smaller tanks are deffently more dellicate.
Thanks,
Keith

 

[sammiefish]

yeah, if you are gonna want to get the nitrate levels down quickly you will need to do some big water changes... 50% first (but that might be too much for your tank inhabitants) and see how your stuff goes... eliminate the cause of the excessive nitrate... you could add green plants to your sump to get the nitrate down... I found that 10% water changes just take forever to get nitrate down... Id go with a few big water changes and add some caulerpa to the sump... (and of course give it some light)

 

[laddy]

Khill--
Are you sure your Ca is - 650? Wouldn't a result of 650 exhaust your testing kit? How much were you dosing (B-ionic?). You posted in your original that it has a new DSB. How new, is new, and what kind of sand did you use? How long has this tank been up and running? I suggest, taking things real slow at the moment, you'll probably do more harm than good with a 50% water change. Do 10g's every week and check nitrates every third day....by the way what's your Ph at?

 

[sammiefish]

I use reef crystals salt... I was recently doing 10% water changes 3-4 times / week.. when i finally tested the water my Ca was about 650.... but my Alk (KH) was down... after I brought the alk back up my Ca fell back in line..(of course)... so....

 

[ctgretzky9]

Originally posted by khill
a 15 year old one eye damsel.

Sorry, I had to laugh at this description, I dont know why I found it to be so funny!

 

[khill]

LFS tested the water for me and came up with 650 on the calicum. I have been dosing it every week for the past year allong with 5 gallon water changes every 15 days.
I do not use B-Ionic, should i.
The DSB has been in a little over a month. It is reef aquarium sand,cannot remember the name of it. This tank has been running for three years now I just started turning it into a reef several months ago. Before that it was a fish only tank.
The water,rock,wet/dry filter and protene skimmer have been running for the past 15 years in three of my tanks.
Thanks
Keith