Is my alk too high?

[fish_who?]

I went into the LFS a couple days ago and had my water tested. I was too lazy to do it. He said my Ca was too high 550, and Nitrates at 10ppm. I did a 5 gal water change, and stopped adding Bionic for 3 days. Now my Ca is at 350 ( I will start adding again), but Alk is 15.0 dKH 5.37meq/L. I am not too sure how to write it. This is the first time I used this test. It is a SALIFERT.

 

[jmeader]

You should check your magnesium also. Is this a 10 gal tank?

 

[EmilyB]

You must get Ca and Alk in balance before messing around with it. This is best done with frequent water changes and a good salt mix. If you are familiar with Craig Bingman's graph, you will know what I mean. The Ca and the Alk should rise and decline together.

The Mg thing, is something I have not yet had to deal with.

 

[fish_who?]

I have never had a problem with my tank really. Well not with the Ca. I have been traveling for my company more and more, leaving my GF to do the tank work. I guess I can't be lazy. I will see if I can get it back in sync.


jmeader : Sorry about the page thing. My cable service has really screwed up my service lately. I should be up serving soon. This new virus messed them up.

 

[Nathan1]

Keep your alkalinity and calcium in the correct ratios.

Here's one of the most valuable sites available for calculating a balanced alk/calcium ratio:
http://www.andy-hipkiss.freeserve.co.uk/caalkcalc.htm

Also, read this for an explaination of why your additives should be balanced.
http://www.andy-hipkiss.freeserve.co.uk/caalkbal.htm

Also, check out the rest of his site here:
http://www.andy-hipkiss.freeserve.co.uk/

-Nathan

 

[fish_who?]

It is a 65 gallon reef. Check my webpage for pics and details. I don't have a test for that(magnesium). What would this tell me?

 

[cgbexec]

fish_who?,

I use natural sea water in my tanks. The most recent batch tested at 5.5meq/l Alk and Calcium was 440. If your calcium dropped that fast I'd say that it was not to high. Your tank has a very high consumption. I have a neihbor that has maintained a very succesful 300gal reef tank at a calcium level of 500. Hope this helps.

Chris

 

[jmeader]

Actually I tried to check out your link before my 1st post. Tried it again but I keep getting, Page not found.
If your mag gets low it makes it near impossible to get your alk and ca in line with each other. Also a ca drop of 200ppm in a few days is not heavy consumption, it's mind boggling consumption. I'd suspect that someones numbers were off or you had a snowstorm in the tank.

 

[andy-hipkiss]

Nathan,

Blush.... FWIW that was my old site, its all on http://www.andy-hipkiss.co.uk now, so to get to the calculator use:
http://www.andy-hipkiss.co.uk/caalkcalc.htm

If anyone has any URLs that detail calcium and alkalinity measurements for various oceans ... please tell me know ... thanks. I want to update the calculator so that you can choose which area you wish to base your tank upon. For example lagoonal waters can be low in Ca but pretty normal in alk.