Red Sea Test Kit Fail

[Brian Kennedy]

I purchased a Red Sea kit from the LFS to test for Alk, Ca and Mg. I thought I was getting good readings for a few months now only to question everything. Mg is 1350, CA is 450 and Alk is usually right about 7. I began dosing BRS Alk three days ago to increase it closer to 11.5 per the Red Sea Recipe. I'm half way there with a target increase of about .7dkh per day and I'm still getting readings right around 7 dkh. Livestock includes three Monti frags, a Chalice frag and 6 Zoa frags in a 120 g tank. Coralline is starting to grow, but is it really possible that such little livestock is consuming that much alk? PH is 8.2. To add insult to injury, the measurements on the side of all three syringes has worn off! What am I doing wrong?

 

[Raege]

Is kit within expiration date? I have been burned buying from LFS with out of date or very close to expiring kits

 

[Brian Kennedy]

Yea, express mid 2020.

 

[Raege]

i use RedSea and make sure to shake my reagents before adding and scrape to level scoops etc and follow the directions and timing as exact as possible. I missed a few small notes in beginning. Possible to take two samples test off yourself then confirm with a local fish store? Get peace of mind that way.

 

[Raege]

If your tests are correct your numbers look balanced for calcium to alk. Any precipitation where your adding in the putting dose in high flow area? Corraline and a few corals could suck up 1-2 DKH daily in tanks depending on growth. Calcium hard to measure with accuracy by RedSea but chart your alk daily and get an idea of your consumption. Do tests same time each day to get a good udea and start dosing per use with a little kicker to raise. Depending on use you may want to split doses up into couple additions and will have to watch calcium. Lotta folks dose two part alk and ca there’s a proportion of Ca used over DKH consumed I’ve seen from Randy Holmes Farley here on R2R.
Ps the syringe printing is horrible and don’t last long so it’s not you

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I purchased a Red Sea kit from the LFS to test for Alk, Ca and Mg. I thought I was getting good readings for a few months now only to question everything. Mg is 1350, CA is 450 and Alk is usually right about 7. I began dosing BRS Alk three days ago to increase it closer to 11.5 per the Red Sea Recipe. I'm half way there with a target increase of about .7dkh per day and I'm still getting readings right around 7 dkh. Livestock includes three Monti frags, a Chalice frag and 6 Zoa frags in a 120 g tank. Coralline is starting to grow, but is it really possible that such little livestock is consuming that much alk? PH is 8.2. To add insult to injury, the measurements on the side of all three syringes has worn off! What am I doing wrong?

0.7 dKH per day is not very much.

 

[Brian Kennedy]

Thanks for the input. I was away for the weekend. I purchased some new syringes from amazon that seem to be nearly the same as the Red Sea syringes. Just have to use the Red Sea tips. I've upped the dose to closer to the BRS recommended max daily input and I'll see in a little while where I'm at. New problem now is there is GHA growing on my Monti's!