What is even happening with my readings?!?!

[Sweet Coraline]

So I have a 13.5 evo mixed reef tank and it's been up for about 5 months. Fish are healthy as can be. Corals are thriving except for one cyphastrea which I need to move to a more shaded area and a duncan that hasn't opened in a while. ( leathers, monitors, bird nest, gsp, hammer, anthelia, bicolor candy cane, turbinaria, zoas, pipe organ, Kenya trees, favia, and favites, oscillates and a 6 line wrasse, cuc.) Made it through gha and a baaaad cyano outbreak. Did nothing but water changes. Woke up one morning and it was all gone. Sweet. Had a rough month and slacked on water changes. Tested my water tonight for the first time in....a while. ( I've taken a hands off approach to tanking in the past with my freshwater tanks, and don't like to dose anything if I don't have to. This has followed through to my first salt tank.) API tells me my calcium is too low, phosphates too high, ammonia too high, nitrites perfect, zero nitrates hardness was off the charts, and I don't have a magnesium test. Ph is 8.3 and has been from the get, and temp is 75f and has been. I FREAKED OUT when I read the test levels, even knowing that api sucks. Doing a water change tomorrow, BUT the question is, if everyone appears to be thriving, crystal clear water, and fish are fine, should I be concerned? Still new to salt, so alot of what I've read says to ADD CALCIUM NOW OMG! WAIT! DON'T DO ANYTHING YOUNEEDNITRAAAAATES!!! etc etc. Long term, yes, my calcium needs to come up, but again, everything SEEMS to be thriving! Logically, with these readings, everything should be dead. What now?!?!?!
(Crab just left my zoas, so they JUST closed up. Usually out and happy!)

 

[Brymac1]

Corals can tolerate a wide variety of parameters if slowly acclimated to them. I would verify your test results with another test kit, then slowly ease back into a good water change schedule.

 

[kittenbritches]

Out of curiosity, what was your calcium reading? Test twice (even though it's super annoying to shake between every drop). Same question with the ammonia.

How many fish did you say you have? Two?

I say do a 20% water change and feed heavy to bring nitrates up.

 

[KK's Reef]

When in doubt test again.

Looks like your readings got there gradually, which softies can tolerate a lot better. I'm pretty new to reefing as well, but I'm pretty sure you don't just want to increase the calcium by itself. I would think you need to raise alk and mag along with it?

 

[DrZoidburg]

Shouldn't worry about calcium too much you have mostly new lps frags, some sps, and soft corals. Focus on alkalinity. When In doubt test again.

 

[Lyss]

Are you getting an ammonia reading? What was it? Could also be some testing error going on, too. Do you have anything other than API to compare to?

 

[Glenner’sreef]

API……Always Pretty Inconsistent. Your water changes should provide enough calcium for what i see in your tank.

 

[Rmckoy]

What are your actual calcium alk and nitrates readings ?

I would say …. In a established tank of ammonia was high as your test suggests , you would know .
fish behaviours and you would be able to smell the foul tank smell.

api is known for being off

the calcium test is probably the most annoying one .

alk test if I remember it’s only counting drops till the water turns colour .
Nitrate is always high ,
And ammonia will always turn a little green indicating some ammonia .

a more reliable test kit might help the confusion and frustration

 

[DrZoidburg]

Agree their alk test is very broad from what I remember. I use salifert for dkh. I find them to be very close.

 

[Sweet Coraline]

I DEFINITELY need to purchase new tests. My calcium was in the 340 range. Hardness (KH) didn't even read. 28 drops later, it still hadn't turned blue, so I just stopped after retesting 3x!! Phosphate wasn't even a color, but if I had to GUESS, it was between .25 and .50 ppm. No alk test, ammonia was .25, so, zero, zero nitrites, and zero nitrates. Api is a JOKE. No smell, no NOTHING that would indicate anything is off, except for the closed duncan. It feels like everything should be dead, but in fact, it's THRIVING. How often and how necessary is it to test like it's your job? Barring, obviously, seeing some signs of distress and death.

I plan to upgrade soon, but I began with a small tank because, having been tanking for YEARS, I knew that if I could keep a small tank alive, I'd for sure be able to keep a large tank running. I just didn't want to shell out all that money for a big set up and get discouraged quickly and be done.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

API tests for freshwater have a habit of giving false ammonia readings. I'd bet this applies to thier saltwater ammonia kit as well since they just changed the color cards for each type of water.

For your small softie tank, you should be able to raise calcium with just water changes. Do you know what your salt mix reads for calcium?

 

[FishyFishFish]

Those numbers don't look horrific, apart from hardness which is weird.

Are you dosing anything for hardness? If not, I would guess that either the result is wrong (either user or test error).

What water are you using (e.g. tap water? RODI?)?

Are you using a syringe to fill the API test tubes? The 5ml lines are sometimes quite a way off.

 

[Rmckoy]

I DEFINITELY need to purchase new tests. My calcium was in the 340 range. Hardness (KH) didn't even read. 28 drops later, it still hadn't turned blue, so I just stopped after retesting 3x!! Phosphate wasn't even a color, but if I had to GUESS, it was between .25 and .50 ppm. No alk test, ammonia was .25, so, zero, zero nitrites, and zero nitrates. Api is a JOKE. No smell, no NOTHING that would indicate anything is off, except for the closed duncan. It feels like everything should be dead, but in fact, it's THRIVING. How often and how necessary is it to test like it's your job? Barring, obviously, seeing some signs of distress and death.

I plan to upgrade soon, but I began with a small tank because, having been tanking for YEARS, I knew that if I could keep a small tank alive, I'd for sure be able to keep a large tank running. I just didn't want to shell out all that money for a big set up and get discouraged quickly and be done.

Alkalinity is your kh hardness test. .
When they expire or if for some weird reason they weren’t shaken sufficiently tthey will sometimes not change colour .
To
Test that kit . Fill the vial with 5ml tap water. .
The first drop of reagent should change blue .
If everything is thriving . I wouldn’t suspect any issues or a need to test . But …..
Depending on what corals some will consume more compared to others and the frequency and volume of water changes
if you want to keep corals I’d suggest higher quality test kits .
Think of it as protecting your investment . Why not use the best possible .
Following are the test kits I use .
but the most important is what works best for you .
Alk : Hanna or salifert ( Hanna is the easiest but be sure to always shake the reagent .
The last of the bottle is known to show inaccurate numbers .
Cal: id recommend salifert . Easy to see the colour change .
mag salifert
Nitrate salifert ( only because I don’t like the Hanna nitrate test I bought .

I rarely ever test ammonia but the api kit will
Be sufficient just to tell you yes there is ammonia or no there isn’t .
again not needed if your tank is thriving

nitrite is not important for marine .
again after the cycle is complete it should never be needed to test

I rarely ever test ph .
it fluctuates between day to night .
a window slightly open or a door letting in fresh air from outside helps regulate .
min winter months if it’s cold where you are. .
Some will use c02 scrubbers , a air line from outside to their skimmer etc .

 

[Sweet Coraline]

So I'm going to screen shot some of these responses. I'm VERY familiar with how to use api tests, and yes, I use a syringe. ( Had to ask my diabetic neighbors if I could buy a syringe without the needle to dose a 1 gal shrimp tank with prime. No, not an addict, just a fishaholic. Lol. That wa a fun conversation.) I definitely need to get the better test kits. It's so odd how what knowledge i have of freshwater only vaguely translates to salt! Thanks for the replies, and until or unless something tragic happens, I'll keep an eye out and probably ask more questions as they come up again! Thanks fellow reefers!