wow, water parameters are way off please help

skirrby

Active Member
well my tank has kinda feel behind the past couple months, between my vacation, and alot of overtime at work to make up for the vacation lol. ive been working on getting everything back in line. bought all brand new ro/di filters, cleaned up alot of the algea that was growing from the lack of good ro filters. i did a 15 gallon water change 2 days ago. tank still seemed like something was off. so i tested the water , and heres the results
temp : 79
ph : 7.8 why so low? tank should be at its highest ph at this point.
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0 (at least those are good :) )
calcium : 385 (thats way to low)
dkh: 14.4 (what? is this possible, how did i get so out of balance)
i dose my tank only about once a week, and i always do equal parts. i only dose cal and alk. how did the levels get so off. is the low ph because the dkh is so high? how my dkh get so high? and my cal so low? especially after i just did a 30% water change. and the salt was good. (tropic marin, had my fav lfs mix it for me cause im out of salt till payday)
anyone got some suggestions to the cause of all this mess, and what i can do to turn it all back around
 

ssweet1

Member
*Illegal Link* I dont think you are too badly off, Tropic Marin is a really good salt so I would think you will level back out with simple adjustments of ph and calc. Carrie
 

michael7979

Member
Raise your calcium and your dkh will fall back to a better range they work like a teeter-totter,( with one on each side).
As for the ph if you didn't do some WC's during this vacation period then you may need to add a little buffer, open a window near by and air out the canopy and stand as stale air will not allow ph to rise, and the fresh air will. It may only be a slight rise but it will let you know if you might have a CO2 problem. HTH
 

skirrby

Active Member
anymore suggestions,, im affraid to add just calcuim, cause i dont want to cause more of a imbalance some how,, unless a few people can assure me thats safe
 

reefnut

Active Member
Adding calcium will not only raise the calcium level, it will also lower the alkalinity level. Go slow and watch both levels so you do not swing the other way... water changes will also help.
 
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