New to Testing, please help!

codytbuckner · Mar 11, 2019

I have a tank that has been running for about 3 months. I just started testing Ca, Alk, and Mag. Todays results are CA: 470 MAG: 1320 Alk: 12.6 DKH. Going off what I want for a mixed reef, these results are far off but not exactly where they should be....I little high for ALK and Ca. Is there anything I should be doing to lower these or are they fine where they are?

dansreef · Mar 11, 2019

How big is your tank? Are you dosing for ALK and CA?

I would shoot for doing some water changes to bring down your ALK. Stop dosing, if you are. Go slowly. If you have coral in your tank.... you do not want large sudden moves in ALK... but you want to bring it down.

Good rule of thumb.... don't dose anything until you begin testing it's levels.

codytbuckner · Mar 11, 2019

dansreef said:
How big is your tank? Are you dosing for ALK and CA?

I would shoot for doing some water changes to bring down your ALK. Stop dosing, if you are. Go slowly. If you have coral in your tank.... you do not want large sudden moves in ALK... but you want to bring it down.

Good rule of thumb.... don't dose anything until you begin testing it's levels.

It's a 65B. I do not dose anything. How do the levels get too high if I'm not dosing?

Eagle_Steve · Mar 11, 2019

codytbuckner said:
It's a 65B. I do not dose anything. How do the levels get too high if I'm not dosing?

What salt are you using?

codytbuckner · Mar 11, 2019

Eagle_Steve said:
What salt are you using?

Instant ocean reef Crystals

Eagle_Steve · Mar 11, 2019

codytbuckner said:
Instant ocean reef Crystals

Thats it right there. See below for reference of it and other salts.

Eagle_Steve · Mar 11, 2019

I use reef crystals in a grow out tank I have and I have about the same numbers you do, except I dose iodine and mag to it. I also keep my nitrates at about 10, phosphate at about .03 and Mag at 1500 or so. Everything in there does fine. (SPS, LPS, and Zoas) One thing to remember with high alk, is to keep nutrients up. If they go down too low or nothing at all, it will cause the corals to burn. Learned that the hard way on that tank, and now run a skimmer 4 hours a day and my fuge light 6 hours a day.

Tautog · Mar 11, 2019

Calcium and Alkalinity to lower just wait.
What salt? If you’re using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals or for that matter, whatever salt your using, test for Alkalinity before the WC. This salt will mix out with a high Alkalinity at a salinity level of 1.026.

codytbuckner · Mar 11, 2019

Eagle_Steve said:
I use reef crystals in a grow out tank I have and I have about the same numbers you do, except I dose iodine and mag to it. I also keep my nitrates at about 10, phosphate at about .03 and Mag at 1500 or so. Everything in there does fine. (SPS, LPS, and Zoas) One thing to remember with high alk, is to keep nutrients up. If they go down too low or nothing at all, it will cause the corals to burn. Learned that the hard way on that tank, and now run a skimmer 4 hours a day and my fuge light 6 hours a day.

So my levels are okay? I was actually thinking about dosing nitrates. I have undetectable nitrates and high phosphates. And a cyano problem

codytbuckner · Mar 11, 2019

Tautog said:
Calcium and Alkalinity to lower just wait.
What salt? If you’re using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals or for that matter, whatever salt your using, test for Alkalinity before the WC. This salt will mix out with a high Alkalinity at a salinity level of 1.026.

So what do I do to lower those numbers if it mixes high?

Tautog · Mar 11, 2019

If your salt Alkalinity is very high, it’s better to wait a few days for it to lower. I recently changed salts to TM Pro which after mixing is 8.5 dKH, from using Reef Crystals which mixes to 13 dKH. High Alkalinity will burn your corals. Test your mixed water before the change

jsker · Mar 11, 2019

I would suggest to switch to IO blue bucket for now. When your tank is more established and demand is higher with corals switch back to the reef crystals. Then you can look at dosing when the system uses up the element from the reef crystals.

As far as Nitrates. the same goes for the more established the system is with live stock the nitrates will go up from the waste from the fish

Slow down and be patient is a big factor in reefing

.

Larry L · Mar 12, 2019

Take a look at:

Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity Problems By Randy Holmes-Farley
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

In particular Figure 1 - it shows ranges of calcium and alkalinity values to shoot for, and depending on where you are on that graph it will tell you what you need to do about being outside of the desired ranges.

codytbuckner · Mar 12, 2019

Quick update: I tested on a new kit and nitrates are 4ppm and phosphates are .06ppm. How do i lower phosphates?

chizer · Mar 12, 2019

I wouldn't too much sweat that phosphate yet. If water changes don't keep it low you could look into gfo or phosphate rx.

codytbuckner · Mar 12, 2019

chizer said:
I wouldn't too much sweat that phosphate yet. If water changes don't keep it low you could look into gfo or phosphate rx.

The problem is cyano. I want to get rid of it

Tautog · Mar 12, 2019

Blue box of Chemi Clean will take care of it. Don’t over use it, not necessary, use a little less than suggested, and it works great. Turn off skimmer. This stuff will make your skimmer overflow

codytbuckner · Mar 12, 2019

Tautog said:
Blue box of Chemi Clean will take care of it. Don’t over use it, not necessary, use a little less than suggested, and it works great. Turn off skimmer. This stuff will make your skimmer overflow

This wont help the underlying problem though...

codytbuckner · Mar 12, 2019

Tautog said:
Blue box of Chemi Clean will take care of it. Don’t over use it, not necessary, use a little less than suggested, and it works great. Turn off skimmer. This stuff will make your skimmer overflow

This wont help the underlying problem though...

Dkeller_nc · Mar 12, 2019

codytbuckner said:
I have a tank that has been running for about 3 months. I just started testing Ca, Alk, and Mag. Todays results are CA: 470 MAG: 1320 Alk: 12.6 DKH. Going off what I want for a mixed reef, these results are far off but not exactly where they should be....I little high for ALK and Ca. Is there anything I should be doing to lower these or are they fine where they are?

First things first, be absolutely sure that your tank water is at 1.026. I've seen a lot of !!!!! reactions to alk and Ca tests, only to find out that the tank's specific gravity was more like 1.029 or even 1.030 because of uncalibrated or miscalibrated refractometers.

Secondly, and others noted, it's a heck of a lot easier to switch to a salt mix that is more in line with your desired levels than it is to lower a really "enriched" salt mix. To do that, you have to either time it correctly as the alkalinity and calcium combine in heated, circulating seawater and fall out of solution, or do very small water changes to avoid changing the tank water too much.

About cyano - you've a new tank, and it's normal. I've never set up a tank without going through at least a minor cyanobacteria phase, and I've never heard of someone else doing it, either. And most of those tanks were setup with actual live rock, not dead rock. Yes, you can nuke it with erythromycin (that's what "chemiclean" is), but I hesitate to recommend treating a tank with an antibiotic when it's just getting the bacterial biofilter established. And once the erythro is out of the system, the cyano is likely to come back. The best way to deal with it is just to practice good overall management techniques and wait it out.