Calcium Reading

[NMreefer]

OK. I bought a new test kit (Seachem) because the Lamotte were sold out. Tested my water and got a reading of about 200-210 ppm. I used my old Seatest kit and it measured the usual over 450 ppm. I also measured my dKh with a Lamotte kit and got a 15 reading. Question is. Do I beleive the Seachem test? If the readings are correct. How do I correct my imbalance? Thanks in advance.

Phillip

 

[hdtran]

High alkalinity usually correlates with lowered calcium.

There's an excellent article in "Advanced Aquarist Online" (I think November 2002, but I'm not sure) where the alkalinity and calcium balance are discussed. You're told exactly what to do to correct for bad (but correct) readings. For the case of high alk./low Ca, depending on how far off, some water changes, plus calcium chloride.

Cheers!