Is there something wrong?

[Jimboaf]

Ok so tonight was water test night and this is what I got:

Cal - 350ppm
Mag - 1520ppm
KH - 8.4 dKH
P04 - 0.08ppm
NO3 - 0 ppm
NO2 - 0ppm
pH - 8.0
Ammonia - less then 0.25 ppm
Temp - 78.1 F
Sal - 1.025

I was looking at my Mag and it seems high, also I will say that I have not been doing regular two week water changes it seems that I been doing it like every 18 days. I do test every week for all that I tested for today and it all seems to be the same every time give or take very minimal. Two questions, Is my mag too high? and is there any harm in not changing my water every week? I will say that I do about a 15% water change when I do.

Also I have one clown and about 6 corals

 

[emily120289]

How long has your tank been up and running.. ? By the look of things.. it seems as if the tank is still in the cycling process.. with your ammonia at 0.25 ppm and nitrite and nitrate at 0.

 

[Jimboaf]

The tanks been up and running for 5 months

 

[Civicdemon]

What do you have in the tank ???/ and what test are you using for ammonia ??? If its API its more than likely 0 it just hard to really tell on that test.

Any corals ???

Are you adding MG ??? If so stop !!!

Your MG should be at around 1350 to 1450
and Calcium should be 400 to 480 .

 

[poksal]

I have doubts that you ammonia test is accurate. One fish in a 55 gallon... is my clue. Is it an API test kit? If so it will be cloudy and have a yellowish tent with no green to the color tint... that is non-detectable ammonia... if it is some green then yes.. .25 or some less. So if it is an API, I'm asking if it has some green tinting to the results?

According to my notes Mg should be between about 1250 and 1350 ppm. Again... the test is suspect... unless you are dosing Mg.

 

[FishyReef]

+1 on the ammonia test - likely inaccurate.

The mag is on the high side, calc on the low end of within normal limits, and alk is fine. I'd roll your bucket of salt a few times before you make up your next batch and get back on a weekly schedule with your water changes. You should be able to bring your levels back in balance through weekly water changes. Do you have a lot of stony corals or SPS in your tank?

 

[Jimboaf]

I would first like to say that I am not dosing anything at all, there is no need. Yes and I was testing the ammonia with the API test. As for coral I have, three little frags of polups, an acan, and a blasto. which is not much at all. I am just baffled with the high mag readings. And every time I do mix salt I rool my bucket.

 

[FishyReef]

Have you tested your saltwater right out of the bucket (e.g. after mixing it up and before adding it to the tank)? It could just be the batch of salt you have. You don't have enough stony corals in your tank to really worry about it. As long as your salinity and pH are okay then you should be fine.

 

[Jimboaf]

Yea that is what I am thinking I made some saltwater two days ago I guess tonight I will be testing it. Also I waited a good 3 months before I added anything, so that I could gage the temp swings in that room and make sure I could keep all the paramiters balanced.

 

[Jimboaf]

Ok, so I did test my water and it is the same as when I tested the tank water, my mag is still reading 1520 and my calc is reading 400. I guess its my salt, which sucks because I have like more than half of the bucket still. Anyone recommend anything that I can do?

 

[poksal]

I think it was mentioned.. but always tumble your bucket of salt around before your first use of the bucket.. I even dump half of it into the past empty bucket and tumble each then "shuffle" the salt between the buckets and re tumble so there is room for the salt to move around. Then I put it all back into the fresh bucket and tumble it some more.

I tend to over do things, but you get the drift. So by all means tumble what you have left.

I'm not sure what to do about your current mag, except to wait it out. Maybe someone does.

 

[FishyReef]

I honestly don't think its something you need to worry about given the small number of corals you have.