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Looking for advice on parameters

C

Carlo

Matt couple of questions for you so we can all get a better handle on the system.

What size tank and how many gallons do you think you have of water?
How many pounds on LiveRock do you have?
How thick is your sand bed if you have one?
How long has the tank been running for?
What's your fish load like? IE light, medium/average, heavy?
Any refugium? If so how deep is the sand bed, how big is it and what's in it?

Carlo
 
C

Carlo

That's so weird, I thought I went back through the whole thread looking for that before I posted the questions. Maybe I only went back to the top of page 2 or something or maybe I'm just an idiot. :)

Going to go read it.

Carlo
 
C

Carlo

OK check it out but didn't see these two items.

How many pounds of LiveRock do you have?
How thick is your sand bed if you have one?

Carlo
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

I have about 100 to 110 pounds of rock in the display.
Sand bed is aesthetic only, about 2 inches total, but the sand was put in around the rock base, so like I said, 2 inches is probably being generous.

The refugium is in the sump, the sump is a 20 long that probably has about 10 to 12 gallons of water at any give time. The fuge has about 2" of sand in it (again, nothing functional) and about 10 to 15 pounds of rock rubble, along with an enormous amount of chaeto.
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

I figure if nothing else, it will give me an idea of just how accurate my test kits are (which I seem to be ammassing quite the collection of!)
 
M

mladencovic

mfisher2112 said:
Where did you get $50 a month from? Even the one time test is only 34.99. The price only goes down from there.
Click to expand...

My mistake - it is not 50$ it is 79$ per month.

However, if you are willing to test it only once a month, then it is only 22$ per month.
 
K

KathyC

I'd start with a couple of serious water changes, and thedn consistently do them every week and your numbers will eventually stabilize.
Testing is great if the numbers come out to where we want them to be, but if they don't the best you can do is alter your water in some way.
None better than a water change.

I also use Reef Crystals and plan on running all of my tests on a new batch of water just to see what I am in fact adding to my tank. Did you run the tests on that yet?
Might be half your battle. Once you know the numbers there and perhaps make adjustments (a possibly low alk or Mg level) before you add it to your tank..then you'd have a better handle on your parameters going forward IF you keep up with regular water changes.

A couple of other minor things that might make a difference..are you running an opposing light cycle on your fuge at night?(PH) Are you pruning your chaeto every now & then?(Nitrates)
 
MikeNapoli

MikeNapoli

That testing site is pretty cool.

Even if you do your own testing and still use them once a month to make sure your tests are at the same level of accuracy it would be worth $22 - $23. Think about it. If you're testing and all your test are fine but you're inaccurate you can lose well over $300 worth of corals/fish/inverts in a short period of time.

I think i'm going to get a test done now actually. I just tested today and everything was in order but my Trates were a little high. I'll do a water change tonight.
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

mladencovic said:
mfisher2112 said:
Where did you get $50 a month from? Even the one time test is only 34.99. The price only goes down from there.
Click to expand...

My mistake - it is not 50$ it is 79$ per month.

However, if you are willing to test it only once a month, then it is only 22$ per month.
Click to expand...

I still don't know where you are getting that dollar amount from. I'm talking about using them to set a baseline to see just what testing kits I have are accurate. If you go back a bit in this thread, you will see some really odd readings taken from different test kits (and yes, I am doing the test correctly :) ).

If I can get them to test the water, and use those results to see which of my kits come close, I will know where I am and where I need to go.

Besides, for the thousands of dollars we put into this hobby, $100 for 4 14 point tests seems a worthwhile peace of mind for me. That would allow me literally to test before I start, and give me 3 more tests as I begin to stabilize whatever issues I am having.

I by no means was suggesting you use them for daily testing, and that is the only way I can see you are getting that dollar amount.
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

jazzsam said:
How reliable do you think they are? If they are reliable I think I am going to start using them!
Click to expand...

I dunno. But, how reliable are our test kits and our testing at home? They can't be any more unreliable! :)

And at this point, I'm seeing such a wide range of results with different test kits, it certainly can't hurt to check them out.
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

KathyC said:
I'd start with a couple of serious water changes, and thedn consistently do them every week and your numbers will eventually stabilize.
Testing is great if the numbers come out to where we want them to be, but if they don't the best you can do is alter your water in some way.
None better than a water change.

I also use Reef Crystals and plan on running all of my tests on a new batch of water just to see what I am in fact adding to my tank. Did you run the tests on that yet?
Might be half your battle. Once you know the numbers there and perhaps make adjustments (a possibly low alk or Mg level) before you add it to your tank..then you'd have a better handle on your parameters going forward IF you keep up with regular water changes.

A couple of other minor things that might make a difference..are you running an opposing light cycle on your fuge at night?(PH) Are you pruning your chaeto every now & then?(Nitrates)
Click to expand...

Thanks Kathy. I have a 5 gallon batch of fresh reef crystals made with 3 TDS RO/DI water that is "percolating" as we speak. Bringing it up to temp and letting it stay that way for a bit so that I can run some tests on it. But, I'm still not sure my problem isn't my test kits. So we shall see, hopefully this evening, what the new batch of water yields.

I am pruning my chaeto (now, I hadn't before and it overran my refugium so that is probably part of the trate problem) but I leave my light on my refugium on 24/7. Didn't realize it should be on opposite cycles from my tank. I will have to start doing that.

Right now the biggest problem with nitrates and alkalinity is the differences in results between kits. I have one kit testing 10, one testing over 160, one testing around 50, and one testing at 100+. All are new kits (except the one API, which is about 2 months old) within the past couple of weeks.

With the money I'm spending on testing kits, and the time wasted, that is the main reason I am going to send some samples off to that testing company to get a baseline. Assuming of course they are reputable enough, and aren't just some genious little dude in his basement with a box full of salifert test kits! :D
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

Ok, tested my 5 gallon batch of water:

RO/DI water testing 2-3 TDS with handheld meter
Reef Crystals salt

Temp: 80.2
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Calcium: 440-450 (tested twice with a result of 440 once and 450 the second time, figured I was the margin of error)
Phosphate: undetectable with test kit
Alkalinity: 14.4dkH (5.14 meq/L) I did this test 3 times, with the same result
PH: 7.4 with pinpoint (calibrated) meter / 7.5 with ATC handheld (calibrated) meter. And I calibrated with the same sets of solution to be sure they were calibrated the same.

I also let the water sit with a heater and pump for about 48 hours. There was no trace of undissolved salt mix that I could find.

Why is the alk so high and the PH so low in brand new water?

And what in the bloody blue blazes is going to be the effect when and if I do a significant water change with this make up of parameters?

I just don't get it.
 
K

KathyC

Some of those numbers are scary. This was regular Reef Crystals right? Not the pro with the extra calcium??
What is the PH out of the tap where you live?


I doibt I'll get to test my batch tonight, hopefuly tomorrow night.
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

Yep. Straight Reef Crystals.

Not sure what the PH out of the tap is. I do have well water, and run a whole house water softener and dual stage particulant filter because of high iron content in the water.

I can drop the PH meters in the ro/di water tomorrow and see what I get.

I'm also not convinced the alkalinity test isn't bad. The indicator dropper leaks badly and is difficult to get 2 uniform drops from. I usually have to hold it upside down over a papertowl first to get the leakage to stop, wipe it off, and then get the drops out of it. That being said, it did test in the same range three times consecutively, so I doubt there is any error because of extra or not enough indicator solution unless it coincidentally ocurred 3 times in a row.

The test did pretty much confirm that the second salifert test kit is the accurate one, testing nitrates in the display at around 100. Which is WAAAAAY too high for my tastes.

This is getting more and more frustrating.

At this point, I have done nothing different to the tank. The corals look good, and nothing seems to be suffering at the moment. I want to get the accuracy of these numbers down before I do anything.
 
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