bioteacher
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2012
- Messages
- 306
Mrc8858 said:You'll want to try to maintain magnesium at 3x the level of your calcium by the way
Hmm, ok. So is there a good kit I should use, or are they all ok.
Mrc8858 said:You'll want to try to maintain magnesium at 3x the level of your calcium by the way
Mrc8858 said:It is a bit high but I do believe that the elevated calcium levels could be the reason for that but I may be wrong
bioteacher said:Hmm, ok. So is there a good kit I should use, or are they all ok.
Mrc8858 said:Digital tests are the only ones that are accurate enough for phosphates imo
bioteacher said:Wait I thought we were talking about magnesium.
bioteacher said:My ph is at 8.86. I use a hand held Hanna digital meter. It has always been high since I got the tank so I think that it might be out of calibration a bit. It has been very steady in this range ever since I got the tank. I hadn't thought to test my rodi water for calcium before mixing. Just assumed that since my tds was so low that there couldn't be calcium in my water.
Gregcoyote said:I suspect your test kits or your use of them. It is VERY hard to get calcium up to the levels you report. You would have to be dosing calcium and/or Kalkwasser. I do both and get a calcium reading of 500. But I am growing a lot of hard corals. And keep my magnesium levels up to match. I suspect your reading. Take a water sample to the LFS and ask them to test it for you.
ccCapt said:Coralife salt usually mixes to around 560 calcium so what you are seeing isn't far off from what should be expected.
Synthetic Salt Mixes - Reef Central Online Community
I would definitely calibrate the pH meter. I highly doubt your pH is 8.8.
bioteacher said:Ok, so I tested a mixed batch of saltwater. Here are the parameters:
pH 8.61
Cal 630
Sal 1.026
My tank is at
pH 8.74
Cal 600
Sal 1.026
So I guess my mix is just high in calcium. The real question is why is it not being used up more seeing as I am not dosing calcium. This leads me back to the magnesium issue. I still have not tested for that so I still have more things to look into. I am going to take some sample to the lfs for testing as well.
Gregcoyote said:It sure does take a lot of hard coral to matter. But I am still not believing those PH readings. With readings like that calcium dosing would be a waste of time. Alkalinity though is important to keep up.
Madreefer420 said:Y would it be a waist others then the fact that the ph is high
Gregcoyote said:What? Spell checker dude.
Madreefer420 said:How would dosing calcium be a waste of time when the ph is that high