Candy cane not doing great

[drakebuffie]

I’m glad you were able to figure that out. Things like that happen to the best of us. Do you have updated test results?

An ALK of 2.2 dKH is almost impossible to achieve in seawater. I’m glad you didn’t add all that ALK because that would have been disastrous.

Last test i did on 4/1 after adding phosphate E

nitrates 9.2
phosphates .13
alk 7.8
ph 7.8
calcium 435

Doing a wc this wekeend and will test again.

This candy cane looks like its doing ok but doesnt look as nice as it used to.

 

[Dburr1014]

Your water is going thru wild swings. This is most likely why.
Phosphate e will bring down po4 fast if not careful. Then the rocks leach it back out. Swinging.

Why did you step away from gfo? Just curious. 0.13 is a good number, high end, but good.

Edit, we're you able to test mag? Alk and cal have a hard time being stable if mag is below 1300

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Following.
I'm going through similar problem, my next item to buy is mag test kit
(My candy cane on right is struggling)
Thanks

 

[drakebuffie]

Your water is going thru wild swings. This is most likely why.
Phosphate e will bring down po4 fast if not careful. Then the rocks leach it back out. Swinging.

Why did you step away from gfo? Just curious. 0.13 is a good number, high end, but good.

Edit, we're you able to test mag? Alk and cal have a hard time being stable if mag is below 1300

I do not have a mag test. I also question the accuracy of some of these tests. The hanna chekers packets for example. No way you can have EXACTLY the same amount of regent every time. Some powder sticks to the sides of the packets for example. One drop of water more or less changes the amount of water being tested.

I am still running GFO but added the phosphate E because I was no really seeing much of a change. Had planed to test it every couple days for a while and I did but have not been able to stay up on it like I planned. Life happens. I added half the recommended phosphate E and was happy with the results.

The only real swing I saw was in calcium and when I go back thru my testing records it is different every time I test but always within acceptable ranges but swings widely within acceptable ranges. I attributed that more to testing error than to actual swings. Really dont know. Would need to test more often and possibly 2 times in a row to actually narrow that down.

 

[drakebuffie]

Your water is going thru wild swings. This is most likely why.
Phosphate e will bring down po4 fast if not careful. Then the rocks leach it back out. Swinging.

Why did you step away from gfo? Just curious. 0.13 is a good number, high end, but good.

Edit, we're you able to test mag? Alk and cal have a hard time being stable if mag is below 1300

I would have to think eventually there would be no phosphates left in the rocks to leach out. Or does it not work that way?

 

[Dburr1014]

I would have to think eventually there would be no phosphates left in the rocks to leach out. Or does it not work that way?

it takes a long time to get there, a really long time.
I like my aquaforest test kit. You need to test calcium before hand cuz it tells you how many drops to ad based on the calcium number.
I do not trust the Hanna kit based on the bad batch when they first came out.