Dry Rock question

[Doug Geib]

Ive been struggling with getting my water perimeters right. My dkh is 4.7 and calcium is in the 500's so I followed the dosing instruction on the red sea bottle and now I have a lot of calcium buildup in the tank. I had to soak my wave makers and heater in lemon juice to get it off. But it is also on my dry rock. How can I clean it from the dry rock? Im using a canister filter so there is bacteria in that media so Im not to concerned with the loss of bacteria on the dry rock. It is a fairly new build so there are no fish or corals in the tank.

Thanks!

 

[redfishbluefish]

First off, welcome to R2R. #WelcometoR2R

Now, stop dosing...your dKH isn't that low!!!!

You either have a bad kit or there is testing error. If you can, have a friend or LFS test your tank water. If that isn't possible, test a fresh batch of saltwater and see if the alk and calc numbers are close to what they say it's supposed to be.

How are you testing for alk and calc...what test kits?

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r ! Agree with above.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Absolutely check you alkalinity test kit and stop dosing. Have a LFS test your alkalinity.

 

[Doug Geib]

Thanks for the replies. I did a large water change and it brought the perimeters up to where the salt bucket said it would. My dkh was 7.7, PH 7.6, Ca 362, Mg 1080. A few days later with little to no dosing it dropped to: PH 7.7, DKH 5.8, CA 342, Mg 960. I am using a calibrated hanna checker for the DKH and confirmed with a red sea test kit. What is driving this down so much? I just added a sump in conjunction with my canister filter I had been using. In the canister filter I have marine BioHome and a small amount of carbon. Im going to have my LFS check the water as well.

 

[Doug Geib]

update - I took a water sample to the LFS and they confirmed my low DKH but they also found salinity to be at 1.015. Thats when I realized my testing meter needed recalibrating. Sure enough, it did. So Im doing a water change to bring up the salinity. Hopefully that will help things.
Once I get my levels up will I need to dose to maintain those levels or will they drop?

 

[Doug Geib]

Im glad to report that after doing a water change and re calibrating my refractometer, My dkh is now at 9.3!