Professional Opinion Needed...

[djdubdub]

Hey all... Need some help... I want a "pro's" opinion on how my levels are doing...

Temp: 79'
Salinity: 1.024
pH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0.0ppm
Nitrite: 0.2ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
Ca: ~300ppm
KH: 140 <<<<<< Does this equate to 14dKH?????

I have a 2month old, 55 gallon Oceanic (non-RR) w/ skimmer, biowheel filter, 330w of fluorescent (220w actinic white, 110w actinic), 10gallon fuge w/ 3 types of algae, 2" SB, and 75lbs of LR...

I have a few softies, a "cleaner" package and 2 damsels.... I'm aiming toward a small reef w/ mostly softies and a few "pretty" fish...

All levels (to me) appear good. I need to know what I should "adjust". How does my Ca and KH look??? Does 140KH equate to 14dKH??? How much more should I push Ca??? Is KH too high now??? What should I adjust before I start a Kalk drip??? What else should I "dose"???

Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated...

Thanks...

[djdubdub]

I'm sorry... I'm using a the FasTest kit and the minimal reading is 0.2ppm... It's hard to tell if there IS actually a "reading"... I put 0.2ppm because I'm a pesimistic and it's hard to read the strip... But... I have had a few (5 out of 25) red legged hermit crabs die... Plus, there still may be some dieoff on my live rock... So that may raise my numbers a little...

Anyway... Regarding dKH... I'm using a Hagen kit... My reading is 140 mg/L... (I'm assuming) this is 140 KH or 14 dKH (assuming d=10)... I could be wrong... Correct me if I'm wrong...

Light on my 10g fuge is a full spectrum 15w bulb... I think it's good enough because grape caulerpa is growing like a weed... Although... Fuge has only been running for about 2-3 wks... So that may also skew my numbers a little...

In regards to SB... 4" in the main tank or fuge??? Does it matter??? Might be a little "tricky" to put 2more inches of sand in main tank...

Anyway... Thanks for the info!!! Keep it coming...

[VGB]

Regarding you alkalinity reading....This is from memory but I think its right...

Your test reads as mg/l which, for the layman is ppm

to convert to the more familiar dKH or meq/L....

50 ppm=1meq/L=2.8 dkh....

So your reading of 140mg/l or ppm is 2.8 meq/L or 7.84dKH

Check my math....

[djdubdub]

Thanks Moor...

That is correct, sir... I checked you math and your conversion and they are both right...

Another way of looking at it is..... PPM (divided by) 17.857 = dKH.
example 245ppm divided by 17.857 =13.72 dKH

OK... So my alkalinity is 7.84dKH and my Ca is ~300... So, these need to come up a little... Right???

[Tim Marvin]

It seems to me that the higher you get the calcium the better growth you get from stoneys and coralline. Be careful when going over 500 though as at about 525ppm it will precipitate out of the water and you will lose a bunch of livestock. Mine stays in the high 400's, sometimes 500-510.

[djdubdub]

Thanks Tim... I don't plan on going too high with it... I just wasn't sure how much higher I need to go... Right now, I'm dosing w/ Kent Tech CB to try to get Ca and dKH up...

Thanks ya'll for the info... Much appreciated...