Water testing

[justahobby]

So it's been about a year since I tested my water. I figured I would post my results and maybe encourage others that are just as diligent at testing as me :angel: ...

Preview of my tank:
Biocube 14g, water changes are 3-4 gallons every 1.5-2 weeks w/ Oceanic salt. I've been dosing Randy's 2 part (recipe 1) pretty diligently for at least 6 months. No skimmer, heavy feeding....

No3: <5 (probably 2ish)
PH: 7.8
Alk: 2.8 meq/l


Annnd now for Calcium.....



wait for it...



wait.....

[justahobby]

.......


680!! :blushing:

Cross checked it w/ another test to be sure (well, I stopped at 600 on the other kit). While this level isn't lethal, it certainly could cause problems if my PH dipped. So I will be backing off on Calcium and upping the Alk a little.


So what are your test results?

[BSJF]

Don't up your alk until your calc is much lower. YOu will just get a shower of snow in the tank.

[justahobby]

True. I was going to look it up and see at what level alk needs to be at for Ca precipitation. To avoid it...not induce : p

[alton]

So it looks like Oceanic has not changed much. Mine was over 800 a few years ago in my 158. I was not into a lot of testing. What I did to bring it down was switch over to instant ocean salt which is the lowest calcium level of salt that I know of and with a bunch of water changes it went back down. Since this was several years ago I can't remember how long it took but it was more like several months because I did not want to shock anything. The only way I was able to get that reading was only use half of my seawater and half RO/DI water, mix, test, and multiply x 2.

[justahobby]

Thanks for sharing your experience Alton. I was a little bewildered that my alk wasn't equally as high, and I was dosing small amounts. I was also expecting the larger water changes to balance it out. I was also using the bucket which doesn't come in separate bags and has the potential to settle out to uneven levels. I just bought some coralife salt so I will try bringing the level down with that instead of finishing off the oceanic.

[tebstan]

I had the same problem with Oceanic salt when I first started this hobby. I blindly followed the directions on the bucket, and never tested calcium since I didn't have corals. Then one day it was a winter wonderland in there...


Now I test religiously. At least every two weeks. Sometimes more just for fun. :nerd:


My last test was Apr 15:
Nitrates 10
pH 8.4
calcium 400
dKH (alk) 9 (161.1)
Magnesium 1200
Salinity 1.024

My calcium is still a little low, I've been raising it slowly. While I'm good at remembering to test, I'm not so good at remembering to put in any additives. I've been skimming wet compared to what I used to do, so I'm monitoring the salinity closely to see how much of a difference it makes.

[justahobby]

I've got a fresh batch of oceanic brewing. I will test it for Ca and post the results.

Adriene, You may be able to achieve your calcium level by simply adjusting your spacific gravity 2 thousandths of a point. When I was inadvertently keeping my salinity around 1.023 I had a hard time maintaining Ca above the 300 range using Kalk and RC salt. Raised salinity, problem solved.... JME


EDIT: While typing this out I had an epiphany. If I let my Oceanic salt mix for more than a couple days I would get precipitation on the pump and bottom of the bucket. I dismissed it at the time, but it was never a noticeable problem with RC salt

[tebstan]

I test the mix water too... I'm a little OCD. I keep the mix at 1.025 to 1.026. The salinity drops slowly with the wet skimming, but I haven't been doing it long enough to know just how much higher to keep the mix water. And with the biopellets, I'm not having to change water as often. I don't want to change water over a few points of salinity. I'll just have to keep an eye on it and figure out how much higher the mix needs to be to balance out.
I've seen people just dump salt in the sump... but that seems risky.

[tebstan]

EDIT: While typing this out I had an epiphany. If I let my Oceanic salt mix for more than a couple days I would get precipitation on the pump and bottom of the bucket. I dismissed it at the time, but it was never a noticeable problem with RC salt

I had that happen too. Drove me crazy. I switched to RO and reef crystals, and my mix can stays clean as a whistle.

[justahobby]

I just tested and the Oceanic salt's calcium level is 620ppm