alkalinity???

salt newbie01

Reefing newb
My calcium stays high and I was told it may be that my alkalinity was off creating a high calcium condition. So I buy a seachem alkalinity test kit and it doesn't work very well. It says to add one drop and the solution will turn blue - then and more drops until the solution turn yellow. It never even turned blue much less yellow!! :frustrat: I got frustrated and didn't try it again last night - but I will try again tonight. my calcium stays around 520. I am using oceanic salt and am only dosing the tank with amino acids and strontium. nitrates/trites and amonia are 0 - phosphates are between 0-.5. Everything appears healthy and has good growth. how does everyone test for alk? which test kit should I get and what level do I want my alk at?

Thanks for the help
 
Ok I use the same kit.

First use the Alkalinity Reference Liquid and test that to make sure your doing it right.


Basically you fill the sample pipette to the base of the bulb with tank water.

Empty that into one of the sections of the test plate.

Get some alkalinity regent in your alkalinity pipette.

Add one drop at a time and stir with the stir stick until the water turns yellow.

If your not getting any blue to begin with it may mean your alk is so low it will not show. I find this hard to believe, but it may be possible. Use the reference test to make sure your doing it right.

I will point you to some links that shows you how to use baking soda to raise alk. I use it all the time to keep mine up.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll be looking forward to the links. I was so busy last night I didn't get a chance to retest. But I will do it tonight.
Does it turn deep blue and deep yellow? Or is it more of a light pastel color? I just wanted to know what I was looking for.

Thanks again
 
It turns a darker blue, but not midnight blue when your alk is going to test good. It may be a pastel blue when your low on alk. As it turns from blue to yellow it will turn a lime /yellow color, then yellow on the next drop. The colors are distinctive, and when its ready to change to yellow it goes from blue to the lime/yellow in one drop.

Use the testing reference to check and make sure you are doing it correctly. You will find this test to be very easy after you figure it out.
 
rarecoral21 said:
dude slow way down cal is way high should be 400-450 alk 8-12 that is the worst brand in saltwater keeping that like payless
What is the worst brand in saltwater keeping - the oceanic salt or the seachem test kit????
I know the calcium is high but is it dangerously high? All my corals look great and coraline in growing like crazy.
I do not dose any calcium - it is all coming from the oceanic salt. That's the only thing I put in the tank that has calcium in it. It has been this high since day 1. set the tank up approx 7 months ago
I am not adding too much salt beacuse my salinity is 1.024. I am gooing to try a diff. salt soon.
 
Rarecoral thanks for your help, but please post in complete sentences and do your best with grammer. It is very hard to understand what you are saying. ;)

Your Cal is not so high your tank is in danger IMO. Just test like planned tonight and we will go from there.
 
rarecoral21 said:
Good Luck Keep Us Posted God Bless
WHEN THE LAST TIME YOU GOT YOUR HYDROMETEOR CALIBRATED. ITS GOT TO BE OFF THE CALCIUM SHOULD NOT BE THAT HIGH IN THE OcEaNiC MiX . :grumble:
 
Last edited:
I have been testing it with a refractometer. I have tried 2 diff refractometers - borrowed from fellow reefers. It has me confused also. :frustrat:

I will retest alk tonight and then let ya'll know.

Thanks again for the help guys.
 
I used oceanic for over a year..

It is known to have an extremely high calc level... around 600 if you test with a high quality test kit in a fresh batch...(most test kits don't read over 500 acurately)

I however just switched salts for a couple of reasons, but mainly because with such a high calc level I was always struggling to keep my Alkalinity in check. 520 calc by itself wont hurt a thing. My other reasons was because it has a high level on many of the heavy metals...

I hope I don't make this to simplistic, but think of calcium and alkalinity on a seasaw when one goes up the other goes down.... the goal is to make both balance and that is usually around 400 calcium and 8-12dkh.

What is your alkalinity currently at? Caution don't raise it to fast if it is low as this may cause what some refer to as a snowstorm where the calcium carbonate will precipatate out (this happens when the calcium and alkalinity are both very hight).

There are some really good articles on this topic at reefcentral under the reef-chemistry forum.

Hope this helps some
Brandon
 
Thanks Brandon - I have heard the same about the oceanic salt. If you don't mind me asking what salt did you go with??
I will test my alk tonight and get back with you guys.
 
Here is the independant study that I used when trying to evaluate why I was having problems with my Salt.

This is about 3 months old, so the new seachem salts are missing.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/11/aafeature1
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/12/aafeature1/view

When I looked at this it basically concluded that
IO
Kent
Tropic Marine

Have the most elements that are closest to NSW. They didn't weight them though so depending on what you think is most important one salt might be better for you than another.

Anyways on with my choice... I bought a box of tropic marine pro and IO and played around with it to see what I liked most. IO i was spending lots of money on calcium additives, just didn't work for me, again my :twocents:.
Kent I had a bad bag of that early on in the hobby and people are still reporting getting bad bags of salt on RC, so i just didn't even go there.

The tropic marine pro wow that stuff is high, but I went ahead and ordered the little box just to see if I thought it was any better, because if ordered in a 200 gallon bucket online it was about the same as oceanic.

Anyways only been using this now for about 3 months... I can defenitly say my calc dropped a bit, but I didn't see the week long struggle to get my PH and alkalinity up after a waterchange that I had been expeirencing before.

FYI I do a 25% WC every other Wednesday, so if you do smaller WCs you might not have the same issues.

Just my experience.
Brandon
 
Thanks for the links Brandon - it will give me some reading tonight. I was thinking of changing to seachem reef salt. The guys in the e tn reef club just switched to that salt, I wasn't able to get in on the group buy but reading some of there research it sounded like a good salt. Bur I was thinking either the seachem or the tropic marine. I believe I can get the seachem cheaper - that may be the deciding factor.

Thanks again, and I'll let you know what the alk measures tonight.
 
Yea I visited Dave (EastTn club member) last week and he mentioned using SeaChem Reef Salt.

Cant argue that its bad by looking at his tank thats for sure.. The only thing I was concerned about was something about them using bromide buffers which is fine, unless you ever consider using Ozone..... they mix to make a nasty by product bromate. Honestly that starts getting a little to deep for me to explain effectively, but just keep that in mind and read up on ozone bromate etc. If you don't use ozone then just completely ignore that just thought I would throw it out there for you.

Brandon
 
Also when using RO water minerals and compounds get stripped from the water.
Those minerals will naturally help raise and blance your Alk.Others have recomended Kent RO prep to add back what is stripped out during the RO process.
 
Last edited:
I appreciate your :twocents: rarecoral but it is a little hard to get sea water here in TN. I am a little far from the ocean. And I am working on lowering it.
I tested again tonight - I still don't like this sea chem alk test kit. I first did the ref. test and there was barley a diff in color from plain water. But I left it in the test dish and tested my water next to it to compare. It looks like my alk is 3.5 meq/L. I also tested my cal again using aquarium pharm. kit ( I know it's not the best but it's what I got) cal shows 520.
Brandon what was your alk when you were using oceanic salt?

So what you guys think???
 
Patrick:

3.5meq/L and 520 calcium are within range. Get a fasttest kit for alkalinity they are the easiest to use in my opinion. As far as Calcium goes I use Aquarium Phar for daily tests and Labott for high quality tests.

I was having troubles keeping my alk above 2 - 2.5 meq/L. Most people and stores recommend keeping it between 3-4.5.

Ironically though I have pretty much switched to all SPS and am somewhat trying out the zeovit system without all the really expensive supplements.....Wait so is that the zeovit system then..... who knows...

*Anyways I'm currently keeping my alk between 7 and 8 dkh. you can divide that by 2.8 to get it in meq/L, but its around 2.5 meq/L
*My calcium is running around 380.
*My magnesium is 1220.
*I'm also running carbon & Phosban 24/7
*And I don't believe in overskimming, that is just nonsense HEHE

As far as the Natural Salt Water goes..... Are you collecting that from the gulf in Texas? Everyone knows you don't even think of swimming in gulf water once you get west of the mississippi.... Hehe my toilet water is closer to the parameters of indopacific saltwater HEHE. Ok I'm just joking it isn't that bad. :mrgreen:

Are you having problems with something Pat? I would think with both values high like that you are ok, but I wouldn't add anymore supplements as the calcium is on the high side.

Brandon
 
Thanks for the response brandon.
No I'm not having any problems I just want my cal and alk levels to be more normal. I just got this alk tester and I am dissapointed. It is very hard to read. Is fast test the name brand of the alk test kit you recommend? The next test kit on my list is for mag. The only thing I am adding is vitamin & amino acids by Reef plus and strontium & molybdenum by Kent. Both are added once a week. I am not adding calcium obviouly b/c it is high. I am just new to reefing and I want to make sure everything is ok. I have not been able to get a ro/di unit yet. I guess I need to start buying ro/di water for my water changes. Yes I am using the dreaded tap water!!! :shock: But my water params are good just phosphates are not completly zero. They are between 0 - .05 Does anyone in this club sell water to other members? I wouldn't need that much - just for top off and small water changes.
Everything in my tank looks healthy. I mostly have LPS and a few softies - and a GBTA. And a few small fish.
Look forward to meeting everyone at this months meeting. Will you be able to attend?
 
Yea fasttest is the name brand.

If you aren't dosing Calcium I would stop using the "strontium & molybdenum".

Calcium:Magnesium:Strontium are used in the following ratios 400:5:1. Or something close to that I would have to go back and look to be exact. The point is you shouldn't need to use a strontium supplement unless you have a very high calcium consumption and your using something like Kalk to top it off which doesn't replace the magnesium and strontium.

Just my thoughts.

How much R/O do you need.... I will gladly make some if you have the containers to move it.... My unit is rated 110GPD actually does about 75. Just let me know when you want it and i'll fill a 30 gallon trash can in the garage.

Brandon
 
Back
Top