Water prameters

[bjledbetter]

My tank recently crashed bc i removed too much of the sand bed too fast. after about a month it has cleared up and the nitrate level has went back to 0 along with phosphate at 0. Im still showing a trace amount of amoneia but not enough to concern me. what has me concerned is that my mag level is almost 1700 and my Ca is 650. I have been doing a wc about twice a week at 5gallon using IO RC. bc i have had a problem now with dino's and the wc seams to get rid of most of it. I lost most of my corals in the crash all but my clam,blasto, and a toadstool, Is the lack of livestock the reason my levels are so high,nothing using it? Should I be concerned? I just added a new lta on Saturday and want to add a few more corals this weekend if yall think it will be ok?

 

[Downbeach]

What are you measuring your salinity with? If it's a swing arm type hydrometer, it may be giving you bad readings. If so, you could be adding too much salt mix to your make up water, which would in turn elevate your Ca and Mg from the WC's. I would check with a calibrated refractometer.

 

[impur]

Have you tested the new SW you make up to do WCs with? IME with IO the levels are about half what you are getting, so something is definitely out of whack there.

 

[bjledbetter]

I use two hydrometers of two different brands and they stay pretty close to the same. ill try to borrow a refractometer from a friend and get a reading from it just to check and make sure. Should I be concerned tho that those levels ad're so high?

 

[bjledbetter]

I was using seachem salt and there was some left in the bucket when i placed the IO in the container i just mixed it up and went on. there was maybe a inch or two still of the seachem in there. Ill test my new water when I make some more tomorrow and let ya know what those readings are.

 

[beaslbob]

What's you alk? if below 4 dkh then i would add some baking soda slowly to get it up to 8dkh or so.

Then remeasure the calcium and mag.

But if alk is already 8dkh or higher I would basically do nothing. calcium and alk will drop over time.

my .02

 

[bjledbetter]

Alk stays between 9.4 and 9.8.

 

[specvjeff]

I've never seen salt mix out to those levels. What test kits are you using? As for the dinos, I had an issue with them a few years ago and got some good advice from Julian Sprung. He suggested stopping water changes, reducing the photo period, and keep the alk up at around 12dkh. I followed his directions, and they went away after about 2 weeks. His suggestions were different then what I thought you'd want to do for getting rid of nuisance algae. By stopping water changes and reducing the photo period you eliminate any potential food sources. By stopping water changes you allow the algae to use up all the potential dissolved organic waste, phosphates, and silicates and eventually starve to death.