High alk, calcium, and magnesium

[LeChef]

Hi so I just bought 3 salitest kits for alk,calcium, and magnesium. I did the tests and I never have enough in my syringe for the solution to change color which I’m guessing means everything is to high!

I sometimes let my rodi run to long and waste a lot of water so I went from a 20% to a 10% water change a couple times, could this be the reason?

ive been reading and it seems like a water change every other day for a week should help with the calcium and alk, but I’m not sure what to do for magnesium.

this is also my first time testing all of these parameters (I know shame me if you must) but I didn’t have anything to fancy in the tank until about a week ago so I bought the good kits and this is worrying me, any help would be appreciated!!!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Are you dosing anything? What salt are you using? And at what salinity? How do your corals look?

I'd suggest taking a water sample to a friend or LFS to verify results.

 

[LeChef]

Are you dosing anything? What salt are you using? And at what salinity? How do your corals look?

I'd suggest taking a water sample to a friend or LFS to verify results.

I’m not dosing anything, I use instant ocean reef crystals, salinity is 1.025, my corals look good, I’ve had a gsp and Xenia for a few months, Xenia’s been thriving and I just added a lot for lps and softies these few months.

 

[watdachuck]

IO Reef Crystals mixes to a higher range of those elements. If you aren't dosing anything else than your chemistry is more than likely in a healthy place. That or at the very least not too high.

 

[LeChef]

IO Reef Crystals mixes to a higher range of those elements. If you aren't dosing anything else than your chemistry is more than likely in a healthy place. That or at the very least not too high.

Should I switch to regular instant ocean instead? Or maybe reef pro mix?

 

[ColoredRock]

what is you salinity?

 

[redfishbluefish]

With you not dosing and salinity at 1.025, it's got to be testing error. I'd suggest searching for videos on using Salifert test kits.

 

[ColoredRock]

salinity at 1.025,

missed that!

 

[LeChef]

I figured it out! Turns out I forgot that 0.3ml doesn’t just mean 0.3ml it could also be 0.30/0.32ml meaning that my alkalinity is around 10.1!!!

I love stressing over my tank for the last few hours just to realize I haven’t sucked in fish keeping reality, thanks for the help!!!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Glad you figured it out! Happy New Year.