Alk/Calcium -- confusing results. Please help!!

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't worry about anything. You alk is somewhat low, especially with that Calcium level but I don't see anything here that is all that critical. NSW alk hovers around 6.16 dKH anyway. Heading for a crash? One set of numbers doesn't tell anything no way to get anything close to a trend that way LOL.

Your animals are your best indicators. What are they saying? Sounds like everything is healthy. Don't stress and for god's sake do not start mucking with the water chem. May try a water change.

 

[richw]

Before I ask my question I must preface that I haven't done any water testing for a long time. I look at the tank regularly and everything (mostly soft corals and heavy fish load) is thriving. For some reason I decided to test the water tonight. Here are my results -- alkalinity is 6.1 KH, ph is 8.6 and my calcuim is at 500.

Even though my test kits are old (Salifert for alk, Seachem for Ca and Neptune probe for ph) I cannot understand these results.

I am using an undersized Knop calcium reactor and and am bringing a new K2R on-line. The tank has about 300 total gallons.

In the past when I had a 140 my alk and calcium where both very high. I moved everything (live stock and equipment) to the new tank in Sept. I was affraid that the Knop would have trouble so I bought the K2R. Since everything looks great and I am getting a modest amount of coraline algae I haven't been in a rush to get it going.

Do these results suggest any problems? Am I heading for a crash? Does my tank have an insufficent buffering capacity? I would appreciate any advice.