Water Chemistry Issues

Hey guys,

I posted a few days back after my zenia died that I was having trouble with my paramaters.

My Ca, Mg and Alk testers arrived today here is my updated list of parameters:

Ammo: Nil - 0.1 Bit vague.
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 8.4-8.8
Phosphate: 0.2
Ca: 400-420
Alk: 8.7dKH or 3.1Meq/L
Mg: 1200

I also got dosing agents and added those to raise the Alk to ~10dkH and to 1250mg and to raise the Ca to about 440.

I currently have just a few LPS that are doing OK. Not the best in my opinion.

I am also using tap water but today purchased an RODI purifier which hopefully will solve some woes. I.e The MASSIVE amount of cyanobacteria that is currently sucking the life out of my tank.

Then it will be onto saving for a new LED light because my light is very poor.

Are these parameters getting back on track?

 

Everything looks good except your phosphate- 0.00 - 0.03 is your target. You may need a high-end test kit like Salifert or a Hanna checker to get an accurate reading at such low levels, though.

Congrats on the RO/DI unit. There's a good chance your phosphates are coming from the tap water. You want to move slowly, though. Just do your normal routine water changes with the RO/DI. You can vacuum out the cyano while removing old tank water. It may come back the first few times, but that's OK; it's helping remove the phosphates that are already in your tank.

 

Your Mag, pH and alk numbers do not make sense to me, I would recheck those values and bring your mag up to 1300 by increasing 100 ppm per day.

Your pH value is too high for a alk of 8.7 and a mag of 1200.
Ammonia should not even be detectable in your tank at this stage.

What test kit are you using?

 

Yeah and 8.8 pH with 8.7 dKh? Something's definitely off there. If you're using anything electronic etc. to check any of this I suggest re-calibrating it ASAP.

 

What are you using to test your pH? The liquid test kits are useless IMO. A probe is the way to go. Make sure it has been recently calibrated.

If you are already using a probe, I am not sure that you are aware how high your pH is...

You will continue to have problems until you lower your ammonia zero and phosphate to undetectable. Also, liquid phosphate test kits are useless. This is not only my opinion, but pretty much a fact..

Your alk, ca and mag seem reasonable. Your mag needs to be raised a little bit as coralline said. However, they don't really make sense with your pH value, which I can't imagine is accurate.

Can you please inform us which test kits you are using to measure each of these values? Can you also inform us on any chemicals (including brand/types of chemicals for dosing) you are putting into your tank? Also, what types of filtration are you using (skimmer, reactors, etc).