What's up with my water?

[kcharm]

I finally bought a Ca test kit. I've been wanting to since Dec 1. I don't entirely trust my hydrometer and my borrowed conductivity meter from work is not being cooperative so take my salinity for what it's worth.

The current params before my weekly water change (I'll do it tomorrow) are:

temp 80
sal 1.025 (I hate using SG)
pH 8.07 (the pH meter from work is in great shape!)
Alk 7 dKH
Ca 530
NO3 <5 (I need a better NO3 test kit and I've never seen NH4 or NO2 since I started testing well after my cycle)

My Ca appears a tad high (sarcasim intended). I don't have a Mg kit but I'm sure that could be telling. I do tend to switch around on my salt. I switch between Kent when I'm lazy and don't feel like mixing my own and IO when I do. The tank is 29g that was setup in early Nov 2005.

What's next?

 

[CarlaW]

Are you dosing any Calcium? I would try to stay consistent with one salt for a while, that will give you a good start. Just let the Calcium come down on it's own. I think as soon as you get something in there, like coralline algae, you will actually be able to keep track of your Ca. usage, then adjust from there.

 

[matts125]

wow your calcium is very high. you should keep it closer to 380-420...
I think 380 is NSW..

Matt

 

[kcharm]

Thanks, I know it's high...really high. I am not dosing with anything. I'll have the LFS check my water tomorrow and see what numbers they come up with.

In the mean time, I'll try to stick with one type of salt and see how that goes.

 

[bclaveria]

I have the same issue with very high CA. I use Oceanic which I hear is high on CA and low on Alkalinity. So I dose on Alkalinity but not CA. Even not dosing my CA still is up at around 500. I have a DSB so would that contribute to my high CA?

Thanks

 

[kcharm]

I'm pretty sure my DSB isn't contributing since I don't have one. I run BB.

 

[mojoreef]

No your DSB is not going to contribute to the high level. What you need to do is to make sure your water change levels for alk and cal are in balance and around 400 for cal and 8 for dkh. From thier just keep doing water changes until your water resembles the water change parameters.


Mike