Another new tank

I should say that all my reading were fine except for Calcium. I have 570. I know that is high...should be 430-450. Not sure how to reduce that or if I should leave it?? I have not added any calcium in the tank or anything. Better to be high than low or is this too high?

Poppy

 

Tap Water will result in Phosphates and other nasties that are not commonly measured by Reefers, I would concentrate on Phosphates and silica test kits if using tap water.

As for the CA I would also check you PH and ALK. I don't really like recommending additive at the stage your tank is in. So first I would check the Following
Ammonia (I assume you have already)
nitrite (I assume you have already)
Nitrate (I assume you have already)
CA
Alk
PH
Phosphate
Silicate
magnesium ( not a must but good to know)
Iodine ( have never found a test kit I could even get a good reading from)
Strontium ( not a must but good to know)

These would be your basic water tests with a few extras.

J

 

Yes Jason I have tested the following:

Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 0
CA- 570
ALK- 8
PH- 8.3
Salinity- 1.025

Have not tested for phosphate, silicate or the others you listed. I will pick some test kits up for these this weekend just to be safe. I am also looking into the RO filters as we speak. I want this experience to be a fun and enjoyable one that my wife and I can both be proud of the results. Thank you for your help.

Poppy

 

Why is the CA so high? Natural Sea Water is in the 400 range.

 

Craig, back on Aug 7th, Todd posted this....

" Salinity- 1.023
PH-8.1 (I think I need to raise this a tad)
Ammonia-0.0

I have added about 5ml of calcium, iodine and strontium/molybdenum. I did add 4 teaspoons of PH & Alkalinity buffer to help the PH. Please let me know if these readings are close to where I should be. The water temp is right at 80 degrees currently."

Could it take this long for additives to impact his numbers?

 

I would think the CA would have been absorbed into the water column within 24 hours.

 

I had thought the same Craig. Not sure why the CA is so high. I am thinking the supplement has just taken a week to cycle as Birdlady mentioned. Not really sure as this is my first attempt at this. I will do another CA test this morning and see what I get. Maybe I did the test incorrectly yesterday. I'll post my findings shortly.

T

 

I now have a reading of 540. Has come down some but still high. Any suggestions on fixing this or just leave it and let the tank cycle on it's own????

 

Could the high CA be caused by tap water? I am not a water guy so I have no idea. I have to add water each day from the evap. Just trying to think of all avenues on what could cause this. Thank you all for your help.

T

 

Looks great!