how is my water quality???

[reefer]

ph 8.51
alk reads in the middle of normal to high
ca 425pmm
po4 <0.2ppm
no3 <2.5ppm
no2 undetectable
nh3/nh4 undetectable
is there a formula for calculating dkh?
8)

[rwilliams26]

Water temp? Daily fluctuation?
Appropriate Ca levels rather dependant on tank inhabitants, from what I've read.

[Tim Marvin]

Sounds good, are you sure the ph is 8.5? I had an 8.5-8.6 reading before I re-calibrated my probe and meter, now it is a solid 8.3.

[reefer]

temp is 80'f it has gotten up to 84'f in the past, i have a heater set to keep it above 78'f.
i ordered a strontium/molybdenum test kit from premium aquatics that should be here on friday. mike at AA ordered me a magnesium test kit, but don't know when the will get here.

[Tim Marvin]

Too much testing IMO, drip kalk, or run a calcium reactor. Test temp, calcium, alk, ph, and test the others a few times a year.. Usually a good LFS will do the other tests for you if you think you need them. I drip Kalk, use a refugium, a skimmer, and do water changes. I only look at the above noted parameters.

[reefer]

i just checked the calibration of the ph controller with a 9.0 solution, the read back was 9.01, so it fairly acturate. the salinity need to be recal'd was reading 59.7! now it is 54.5us (1.0269), so i'll need to add some top off.
8)

[Tim Marvin]

Cool, most people have a hard time getting PH up high enough. I haven't had any problems with PH since I started useing Kalk again.

[Bigreefer]

Tim,

Do you have any extra calibration packets left? I'd rather not mail order just two packets. My pinpoint is showing 8.39 with a single stage calcium reactor.

Jason