Elmorenicholas Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 Good evening. After about 5 years according to my activity on the site I'm trying to bring back my tank that has been let go to a poor condition. The tank is a red sea reefer 250. It has been set up with two tangs for about 5 years since the move. I've been running well water the entire time... I know, shame on me for sure... I recently spent quite a bit to get this tank back up and to it's prime. New filter mat, radions, apex modules etc. I cleaned out all the algae, set up the rodi filter. added all the new gadgets I've missed out on for years etc. Then.... I test my water, and oh boy. Alk is at 15, Magnesium at 1500, Calcium 290, PH 8.3-8.4 depending on time of the day. Well lets back up one step. I grabbed a rainbow acro, a zoa, and some snails and hermits to help finish off the algae as testers before doing a water test... I can feel the criticism already lol.... snails made it a few hours and dead. This is when I tested the water. I know I rushed but the itch is bad to get back into it. So back to the test. I can not for the life of me get the calcium up and alk down. Hermits are fine, surprisingly the corals look better than when I bought them. The fish have always been good. No issues at all. I'm just stressing over the alk and calcium. I did perform a 50% water change and about 5 10 gal water changes already with no movement. Been dosing calcium also. I also tried 2 different red sea test kits, one old and one new. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Glad to be back in the game. I can't wait to have the tank looking like it used to. ALK 1500 Magnesium 1500 Calcium 290 PH 8.3-8.4 Nitrates 4PPM Phosphate .01 Red sea blue bucket salt and rodi water Thank you to all in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krux Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 What is your salinity sitting at? Have you tested your salt water after mixing to check the alk on that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmorenicholas Posted July 28 Author Share Posted July 28 Salinity 1.025 I will get a test of new saltwater mix tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 Are you only dosing Ca or Alk and Mag too? I recommend the Salifert test kits over the Red Sea test kits. I find them easier to use and more consistent. If I were you, I would test my salt mix after I had mixed it up, and I would do massive water changes to bring the Alk down. I'm talking a 50% water change if it is feasible for you. If you have someone who can hold onto the acro for you while you stabilize the tank chemistry that wouldn't be a bad idea. After you have parameters back in range, consider dosing a balanced two part like ATI Essentials Pro or B Ionic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmorenicholas Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 I will be testing a fresh mix shortly. And that's what's confusing to me. I did a 50% water change plus a bunch of 10 gallon changes and nothing has moved over the course of a week. And the acro is looking better than when I got it. It was fresh cut in front of me and has basically healed where a couple tips broke off and looks amazing. Ive only been dosing calcium since the others are high just trying to level out the calc alk seesaw. hermits, fish etc are doing great also. the rest of the snails are now doing great too. I will be back shortly with fresh mix readings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmorenicholas Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 (edited) Ok so alk in rodi water is 1. Alk in fresh mix is 11.5. Calcium if my math is correct is 700, used 1.4 ml of solution. Mag was also maxed on the test. Im using red sea coral pro salt. Seems like maybe I have an RODI problem? Even then those seem exceptionally elevated for fresh mixed salt water. and the calcium level is way off to what's in the tank after water changes. Edited July 29 by Elmorenicholas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 10 hours ago, Elmorenicholas said: Ok so alk in rodi water is 1. Alk in fresh mix is 11.5. Calcium if my math is correct is 700, used 1.4 ml of solution. Mag was also maxed on the test. Im using red sea coral pro salt. Seems like maybe I have an RODI problem? Even then those seem exceptionally elevated for fresh mixed salt water. and the calcium level is way off to what's in the tank after water changes. It's possible you are not getting accurate readings from your test kits. I'd be surprised to see an acro doing well at an alk of 15. You could get a second set of test kits to validate your parameters. The Salifert test kits are affordable and easy to read. You could also bring your water to any of the pet stores in PDX area to have it tested. Regardless of your true parameters I would switch to Red Sea Blue bucket from coral pro, since nobody needs the alk as high as it comes in coral pro. If you need to lower your alk with water changes, Coral Pro is not a good salt to use for that. If the readings are correct for your RO water, the system may not be set up correctly. Are you accidentally using your waste water rather than your filtered water? The waste water would likely have a higher alk. Most RO systems produce more waste water than RO water, so check which output you are collecting water from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmorenicholas Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 Completely agree with you about the acro shouldn't be doing well that's what's so confusing. Ordered a new tds meter that should be here tomorrow. I'm going to try and swing by a local shop with some water today and probably pick up a salifert kit. I'll double check the rodi this evening and make sure everything is set up correct. It's been sitting for about 4 years without being used. I had changed out the media in the rodi shortly before I put it in storage also, so not sure if that could affect anything. I will update as soon as I know more. Attached is a horrible picture of the across. The white coralline is from years ago. Just put the rack back in the tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefcam Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 Just went through this. Using Hanna test it was reporting over 16.8 (max reading). My tank is a RS 850G2 and I did 2 50gal water changes to still have my alk over. My parameters were Alk 16.8+, CA 330 and Mg 1280. During the water changes, I tested my salt mix (use IO salt) and Alk was 8.9. So that wasn't my issue. Then I tested my calcium reactor and it was reading 16.8+. Stopped my CA reactor and Alk stated to come down. Last test was 13.4, 2 days ago. If you are dosing, stop it for a day or two. If that doesn't come down, test other sources. Your salt mix too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obrien.david.j Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 I had High Alk problems a few years ago, and traced it to the Salt. I believe you stated using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, which is designed to be a high Alk Salt. That was my problem. Switched from Coral Pro (originally in a black bucket), to Red Sea Salt/non-Pro (originally in a blue bucket). This solved my problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmorenicholas Posted August 1 Author Share Posted August 1 Im gonnna try switching the salt. Got the tds meter on the rodi and reading 0 on the out so thats not the issue. and ive changed the water enough to have 3 more tanks. alk is slowly dropping. and i mean slooooowly. fresh mixed water is reading 11.5on the alk so that almost has to be the issue. new salt is on the way. Also tried the salifert kit. It is way easier to use by the way so thank you for the suggestion. It is however still reading 14. Calcium has raised from 290 to 310 and magnesium has dropped from 1500 to 1350. so seems like things are moving in the right direction, I just need to fins the cause. Coral still looks fantastic amazingly, but i'm not sure how long its gonna stay that way If I dont get this fixed. It's a test piece so not gonna loose a whole tank, but still I like to keep things alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmorenicholas Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 Update... So went and got some tropic marin coral pro salt. I have been doing 5 gallon water changes every night over the last few days. Numbers are improving. Alk down to 13.4, Calcium up to 330. Magnesium has leveled out at 1350. Nitrates at 4 and phosphate .01. Corals are still looking very healthy, so I'm trying not to move things too fast. The salt was definitely the issue. I want to say thank you for all the help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LavenderTi Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 I’d recommend going a little slower. Maybe 5 gallon change every 2-3 days. If your corals are ok they’ll appreciate the slower adjustment. We're happy to help! There’s a lot of knowledge on this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obrien.david.j Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 9 hours ago, Elmorenicholas said: Update... So went and got some tropic marin coral pro salt. I have been doing 5 gallon water changes every night over the last few days. Numbers are improving. Alk down to 13.4, Calcium up to 330. Magnesium has leveled out at 1350. Nitrates at 4 and phosphate .01. Corals are still looking very healthy, so I'm trying not to move things too fast. The salt was definitely the issue. I want to say thank you for all the help. What's the Alk of your freshly mixed tropic marin salt? I see the words "coral pro" ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 2 hours ago, obrien.david.j said: What's the Alk of your freshly mixed tropic marin salt? I see the words "coral pro" ... Alk of 7, I believe for Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmorenicholas Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 Correct Alk is 7 on the coral pro. Its actually their lower alk salt mix. And copy on the slower change. I'm gonna skip tonight and probably do one 5 gallon tomorrow. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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