All levels high ?

jborlace · Jun 1, 2014

jduck said:
Throw out the hydrometer and spend $8 on salinity calibration solution 35ppt. I think you will find that the refractometer is off and what you think is 1.025 is really 1.026+.
Only reason you would ever need to dose something if your levels are not staying high enough from the water changes.

Are you rinsing the frozen before adding it to tank?

I haven't been rinsing the frozen. Started rinsing yesterday and will from now on. Where can I get the calibration fluid ?

lionfish5740 · Jun 1, 2014

Order it from Marine Depot or just about any other online vendor.

jborlace · Jun 1, 2014

lionfish5740 said:
You're correct about the nitrates and phosphates. The algae sucks it up so quick that the test kits read low!

If you want to do a water change then dilute the salinity of the water down some. Something like 1.020 wouldn't affect your 40B total salinity too much and would also dilute down the Ca, Alk, & Mg. And you would be changing more than 5 gallons this time obviously.

There's always the possibility that you have a bad batch of salt with the levels off. You could always test new water, just let it sit mixed for a day beforehand to let the Alk settle.

It's been high with every salt I have used. Leads me to believe I have a bad test kit or my refractometer is way off. I do 4 gallons a week WC. I'll drop that to 1.020 and see what happens.

lionfish5740 · Jun 1, 2014

I've accidentally had my calcium over 500 before and my corals didn't seem to mind. It took a while to get it back down for me.

You can still measure it with that kit. If you have to look at the card you'll see that every 0.01ml of titrant = 5ppm Ca. or the pattern on the card shows that every 0.02ml added is 10ppm. Just use a new tip or rinse it good with ro/di so you don't contaminate your titrant.

Just like mentioned earlier, it could be the test kit. If so Red Sea will send you another for free.

Tahoe61 · Jun 1, 2014

jduck said:
Throw out the hydrometer and spend $8 on salinity calibration solution 35ppt. I think you will find that the refractometer is off and what you think is 1.025 is really 1.026+.
Only reason you would ever need to dose something if your levels are not staying high enough from the water changes.

Are you rinsing the frozen before adding it to tank?

Yes, distilled water did not work with my refractometer. When in doubt or any issues that seems out of the norm, calibrate the refractometer with calibration fluid. I have read all about using distilled to calibrate refractometers, different types of refractometer... on and on. My personal experience is that calibration with distilled produced inaccurate readings.

lionfish5740 · Jun 1, 2014

I've read that most refractometers aren't made for our tanks and are thus inaccurate. Red Sea uses that as marketing for their brand of refractometer. Could be just a marketing ploy though. I can't remember where else I read it either.

Taking readings at different temps does play a role in the readings also. I record my temp at the time I take my conductivity. A little math can figure out the relationship with temp swings.

I stopped using refractometers quite a while ago and switched to a probe on my controller that gets calibrated every couple months, whether it needs it or not. It's just easier with a probe lol. In my opinion, refractometers are just one piece that should be recalibrated in the same way. Repeated small changes add up to big differences in enough time.