Unusual water chemistry

[Brittanyjo]

I have RO well water and I’m pretty sure the lack of DI is my problem. I wonder if you have had this problem and if it will kill things.

Calcium 550
Dkh 13
Magnesium ~1700

 

[Bnichols124]

Mag over 1500 has some serious consequences. Are you sure its not a bad test?
Are you dosing?
What salt are you using?

 

[DSEKULA]

Alk is high I'd definitely at least adjust that down before adding to the tank. The other thing that concerns me is what else might be in the water? What's your tds? 13 dkh can account for roughly 232 ppm tds so you'll need to account for all the other contaminates to make a true determination.

 

[DSEKULA]

Mag over 1500 has some serious consequences. Are you sure its not a bad test?
Are you dosing?
What salt are you using?

That's their well water, the source before adding a salt mix.

 

[kyleinpdx]

Mag over 1500 has some serious consequences. Are you sure its not a bad test?
Are you dosing?
What salt are you using?

Does it? What issues have you experienced? Back in the day (prior to things like fluconazole) we would routinely run stupid high mag to inhibit algae growth. I’ve run mag in the 1800+ range for years and never had issues. I know folks that have done 2000. I may just be lucky but I’ve never heard of issues?

 

[Bnichols124]

Bryopsis treatment 5 years ago, got mag up to 1500+ and chalices and acros rtn. Could of been the unbalanced alk/cal/mag but alk and cal stayed on the normal dosage amounts

 

[Brittanyjo]

Definitely the well water. I’m purchasing a RODI. I thought RO would cover it. Any problems with high DKH?

 

[kyleinpdx]

Definitely the well water. I’m purchasing a RODI. I thought RO would cover it. Any problems with high DKH?

I suppose that depends on exactly how "high" it is after you mix your salt in. You may want to use a lower alk salt to compensate, or it may be totally fine.

Keep your nutrients "detectable" (no3, po4) with higher alkalinity. Really low nutrients and high alk can cause lots of issues.