Reef Chemistry - Test Results - Recommendations?

[Diving The World]

Now that I'm switching over from a FO tank to a reef tank, I thought I'd get some more specialized test kits and yesterday I did my first round of tests. The only one which was a little fishy the way the test went was Strontium, so I'm not 100% sure that one's accurate. Here's the results:

Specific Gravity (Refractometer) 1.024 (I'm working on raising this)
PH 8.2
Alkalinity 6
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Phosphate 3.0 (I'm pretty sure this is bad, but please confirm)
Iodide/Iodine 0.05
Silicate 0.0
Calcium 600 PPM
Strontium 0
Magnesium 1060 mq/L
Total Alkalinity 6 meq/L
Borate Alkalinity 1 meq/L

So how am I looking and what are some of your recommendations on changing these should I need to? Thanks!

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

those parameters are out of line on a few things. What test kits are you using? Can you get a second test to be sure.

Calcium is too high
Mag is too low
Phosphate is very bad
Alk is high as well

If those are your numbers I would stop dosing everything and start a series of small water chnaegs over the next couple of weeks to get the numbers back inline.

[Diving The World]

Hmmm, I haven't dosed anything yet. I'll recheck those tests and do some water changes.

[Wiskey]

That Phosphate is really, really high, that will cause algae when you switch over to the higher lighting for coral. Phosphate must be undetectabe IMHO.

Ca is too high, you want to shoot for 400-450 (Your not using Oceaniac or Coralife salt are you?)

Mag is too low, shoot for 3X Ca once you get your Ca in line,.. I keep mine at 1275

That Alk is high, shoot for 2.85-4 Meq/L (8-11 dKH)

Out of curiosoty, what does your make up water test out too? What are you using to test your SG? Have you varified it's accuricy?

Whiskey

[Diving The World]

I haven't tested my make up water yet, not a bad idea. I'll check it out. I'm using Instant Ocean Salt, but as soon as I finish it out, I have a new bag of Seachem Reefsalt. For SG, I'm using a refractometer.

Incidentally, someone in another thread recommended a SG of 1.025 - 1.026. When I look at different sites around the net for coral requirements, it lists SG at 1.023 - 1.025. Right now my SG is about 1.026. Is that too high? Where do you keep yours?

What recommendations do you have for keeping Phosphates down? One of my thoughts is to dump my bio-balls and fill my sump (small as it is) with macroalgae. Then maybe add a second protein skimmer on the back. Do you think these steps would make much of a difference or is it already locked in my liverock and there to stay?

Assuming Phosphates can't change, can I still keep softer corals such as Zoas, Polyps, Mushrooms, Clams, etc., or are the phosphates even too high for them? I can live without SPS is this tank if it's going to get to crazy trying to get rid of all the phosphates.

One of these days when we get a house, I'll get a bigger tank and start out right from the beginning, but with this one I have limited finances.

[skeety]

Originally Posted by Diving The World

Alkalinity 6
Calcium 600 PPM
Magnesium 1060 mq/L

I'm with the others. These values do NOT make sense. Your Alk and Ca can't BOTH be that high. Maybe if your Mg was off the charts, you could get a higher Ca value with Alk that high...but your Mg's low.

SO my advice? Don't do ANYTHING until you get better test kits. I spent LOTS of time/money/energy messing with this and that in my tank only to find out my levels were actually right to begin with and my tests were bad.

Get some Salifert brand test kits and get back to us with those results. Once we have valid values that we can trust, we can recommend the correct course(s) of action. Until then, we might be blindly making things worse.

Definitely need to work on lowering the phosphates.

Couple things to do this:

1. What kind of food are you feeding the tank with? Some brands/types are super high in phosphates. Picking the right brand/type can help the Phosphate fight.

2. Nutrient import vs export. What goes in must come out. The greater the difference in imports vs exports, the greater your P will be. Do you have a good skimmer? Do you vacum your substrate when you do your WC's(ignore if you have a DSB)? What is your feeding routine? Is it possible you're overfeeding a little?

3. Yes...get rid of the bio-balls. (slowly...over time). All you need is sufficient LR, and a good skimmer.

Others will chime in with more info.

But first and foremost...get some test results you can trust!

HTH's