artoledo said:
Kurt_Nelson said:
What are you dosing your tank with? Calcium levels of 480 and alk of 19 don't come naturally with Instant Ocean and RO/DI water.
Lol. Everyone has asked me the same question. I dont dose my tank. THat is what has perplexed me from the moment i started testing for alk. I was reading that Red Sea has an alk of 2.5 after mixing with RO/DI. ANy thoughts on this? I am getting ready to go to Big Als in 20 minutes.
The alkalinity isn't really why I said that. Using pure water (RO/DI), your Instant Ocean should mix up between 340-360ppm, from my experience. If you're using tap water (no RO/DI), then I can see your Ca levels being higher because you have the additional Ca that's in the water to start with. But you're using RO/DI water, right? And the fact that you tested your RO/DI water and you're getting 0 dkH for your alkalinity leads me to believe that your membranes and resin in your RO/DI are OK. So that extra Ca is coming from someplace, or your test is giving you bad results.
Regarding the alkalinity numbers you mentioned, you're mixing apples and oranges. The 2.5 number you quoted is in units of meq/liter, but the numbers you're getting from your test are dkH. Totally different beasts. To convert, 1 meq/liter is equal to 2.8 dkH. Soo... that 2.5 number you quoted for Red Sea is the same as 7 dkH. (Still a little low for a reef.)
Something is weird with your water, and personally I'd try to figure out what it is before changing things randomly. Salt mix doesn't "cause" cyano. Some salt mixes might inhibit the growth more than others, but the basic cause isn't the salt, from what I've read.