Randy, Ive read through several of your advanced aquarist articles regarding chemistry in the aquarium and I have the utmost respect for you and your wealth of knowledge.
I've been having trouble with my alkalinity test kits and I can't find anyone who can answer my questions - your my last hope.
I have a 75 gal reef tank and for the longest time I would use seachem marine buffer weekly to maintain the pH at 8.2-8.3 and alk at 4.0-4.5 meq. My tank was realtively stable therefore I stopped checking the pH and alk except for about every 2 weeks just to be certain things were OK. Everything was great until one day my seachem multitest kit gave me a low pH reading of 8.0 with an alk reading of 8.0 meq!!!! I was certain there was a mistake and ran a set of quality controls and even opened a completely new test kit. Much to my dismay the new kit gave the same high reading.
I do much of my business with Fosters and Smith therefore I called and asked for suggestions to increase my pH while lowering my alkalinity . Several water changes later with 3 air pumps aerating the sump water my pH was 8.2 with an alkalinity of 6.0 meq (still too high but better anyway).
To make a long story short, I wanted to be sure I was getting accurate alkalinity readings with my seachem test kit. I sent a water sample to liveaquaria and it came back with a pH of 8.05 and a alk of 2.0 meq. Now I'm completely confused and don't know whether to add buffer or do more water changes to dilute an elevated alkalinity. I'm not sure what test kit liveaquaria uses or even what brand, but I'm working on getting some answers yet.
I took this project into my own hands and purchased every alkalinity test that Foster and Smith sells, but that didn't get me anywhere. The following is a list of the test with the results it gave:
Seachem multitest alk 6.0meq
Seachem (magnesium with alkalinity) total alk 5.0 meq borate 1.75meq
Red sea alk 1.7 meq
Instant Ocean alk 5.5 meq
liveaquaria alk results 2.0 meq
Over the past 2 weeks I've continued to test with all the kits on a daily basis and the red sea test continues to read low and the others, with slight variation, read high or at the high end of normal. I'm thinking I've got an old batch of tests, but do you have any other suggestions as to why they would read so differently?
All I want is a reliable test!!!!
Fosters and Smith is being very gracious about the situation and offering to return the used tests, but that still doesn't help me with my alkalinity level in my tank.
At this point I'm relying on my weekly water changes to hopefully keep the levels within normal limits but I want to be sure my corals have enough carbonate to grow but not too much that it affects them negatively.
I've had this tank for over a year and have routinely used several test kits so I'm no newby to testing, and I know how to read directions so I'm sure thats not the problem.
Do you have any suggestions on the most reliable alkalinity test and what could be causing the difference between the tests themselves?
Please help! Pretty soon I'm going to have nightmares about alkalinity.
I've been having trouble with my alkalinity test kits and I can't find anyone who can answer my questions - your my last hope.
I have a 75 gal reef tank and for the longest time I would use seachem marine buffer weekly to maintain the pH at 8.2-8.3 and alk at 4.0-4.5 meq. My tank was realtively stable therefore I stopped checking the pH and alk except for about every 2 weeks just to be certain things were OK. Everything was great until one day my seachem multitest kit gave me a low pH reading of 8.0 with an alk reading of 8.0 meq!!!! I was certain there was a mistake and ran a set of quality controls and even opened a completely new test kit. Much to my dismay the new kit gave the same high reading.
I do much of my business with Fosters and Smith therefore I called and asked for suggestions to increase my pH while lowering my alkalinity . Several water changes later with 3 air pumps aerating the sump water my pH was 8.2 with an alkalinity of 6.0 meq (still too high but better anyway).
To make a long story short, I wanted to be sure I was getting accurate alkalinity readings with my seachem test kit. I sent a water sample to liveaquaria and it came back with a pH of 8.05 and a alk of 2.0 meq. Now I'm completely confused and don't know whether to add buffer or do more water changes to dilute an elevated alkalinity. I'm not sure what test kit liveaquaria uses or even what brand, but I'm working on getting some answers yet.
I took this project into my own hands and purchased every alkalinity test that Foster and Smith sells, but that didn't get me anywhere. The following is a list of the test with the results it gave:
Seachem multitest alk 6.0meq
Seachem (magnesium with alkalinity) total alk 5.0 meq borate 1.75meq
Red sea alk 1.7 meq
Instant Ocean alk 5.5 meq
liveaquaria alk results 2.0 meq
Over the past 2 weeks I've continued to test with all the kits on a daily basis and the red sea test continues to read low and the others, with slight variation, read high or at the high end of normal. I'm thinking I've got an old batch of tests, but do you have any other suggestions as to why they would read so differently?
All I want is a reliable test!!!!
Fosters and Smith is being very gracious about the situation and offering to return the used tests, but that still doesn't help me with my alkalinity level in my tank.
At this point I'm relying on my weekly water changes to hopefully keep the levels within normal limits but I want to be sure my corals have enough carbonate to grow but not too much that it affects them negatively.
I've had this tank for over a year and have routinely used several test kits so I'm no newby to testing, and I know how to read directions so I'm sure thats not the problem.
Do you have any suggestions on the most reliable alkalinity test and what could be causing the difference between the tests themselves?
Please help! Pretty soon I'm going to have nightmares about alkalinity.
