alk probs and red sea coral pro salt

[chappy]

been having a devil of a time raising my alk for months
followed dave j advice and tested my new salt i made
and found my alk to be 6.5
im not saying its due to the salt
most likley it is my water source
was wondering if any of you cityfolk could test some for me so i can see
thanks in advance

 

[Reefmike]

What SG are you mixing it at?

 

[chappy]

ive done it at .21 .24 . 26 its low at all

cal is 400 mg is 1200

ive done some resaerch on rc and it is low

i am gonna switch salt asap

 

[chappy]

well on the rc chem forum they break down just about all the salts

and it is way low on the alk part
so my original idea of my rural water was off

on the mag i have been buffering it for a while now
the whole alk cal mag thing is wearing me out atm

 

[DaveJ]

Chappy...

Are you using two-part or bionic etc to supplement alk and cal??

 

[rckrzy1]

@Matt wrote:

I though MG was supposed to be a 3:1 to CA ? If so it's dead on.

 

[DaveJ]

@rckrzy1 wrote:

I though MG was supposed to be a 3:1 to CA ? If so it's dead on."]

That is a rough estimate/ratio not a hard and fast rule..... like any of these numbers. Hell, even the number tested is inaccurate since most kits are only accurate to 100ppm on MG anyway. He could actually be upwards of 1300 or as low as 1100.

The calcium number is fine... the MG is a little low, bump it till your test reads 1350.

No need to switch salts anyway, just add the supplement needed. Test your change water, use the reef calculator to determine what you need to up after the tests and do your change.

 

[chappy]

dave i am using 2 parts
but my alk goes no where
i figure cause the water changes i do using 6dkh salt
i am gonna go the baking soda route tonight
i have just seen a lot of diff salts with much higher alk

 

[robsrsm]

hey brian, let me know if you change salt and what the result turns out to be cuz im using the same salt and having the same problem.

 

[DaveJ]

@chappy wrote:

If you like the salt and the price point, keep using it. Just test each water change and add alk, ca or mg as needed based on the amount of water you are changing and the levels you wish to maintain. You should be doing this anyway... now is an opportunity to start doing it.

You should do this with ANY salt... with any water change.

Don't pay too much attention to the salt test results either... our own experiment with the kits and AWT testing found that AWT was missing the mark on Ca and Mg by a goodly margin due to what they test for and what probes they use. Rely on your kits to tell you what your numbers are and use those as your foundation.

 

[chappy]

hey dave thanks for the advice again
hope i am not comming off whinny its just frustrating
dosing for dkh for so long and still not seeing results

 

[DaveJ]

@chappy wrote:

Not at all... As Frank and others have pounded into my head and i've learned the hard way over the years, if you make changes do so for the right reasons and because you have to. If you are experiencing problems, identify the problem, then take the simplest approach to fix it. If your alkalinity is sitting at 6 dKH, you need to increase your dosing of alkalinity portion of two-part until it reaches the level you want. Once its there, each water change, test your change water and use this calculator to figure out how much alkalinity to put into based on the amount. That will insure your change water is the same as your tank. Doing that, you only have to be concerned with your daily usage and replenish it on a daily basis. That will insure constant stability which is our ultimate goal.

Also make sure you know the information you using to base your changes is correct and reliable, like that salt test. Its helpful as a comparison of salts, but not for using as a basis of identifying which salts can be used to obtain certain levels, its not helpful at all since it is automatically inaccurate due to the probes and methods they use to test. It only tests free ions, not bound. Our test kits test both.