question for you vets - I recently moved and with me came my 72G and 125G - currently both fish only, but I do intend to go reef after I settle some issues i'm having. Here is the problem:
Until I moved, everything was great, now, with the new water (which is tap water/city water) yes I know, RO would have been the way to go....I seem to be having issues with the alkalinity level - it's just way too hard in my opinion, but I could be wrong - which is why I need some advice.
The tank has been up for exactly 1 month now at the new place - kept all the live sand I had, live rock and the guys who moved it added new water and salt mix. Here are the water specs:
Sepcific Gravity - 1.025
dKH - 16 (with Tetra dKH test kit), 250mql (with Hagen KH test) and 19.2 (with fasTest kit) - so as you can see, it's up there
pH - low of 8.15, high of 8.20
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - under 5
Phospates - .25
Temperature - 79-80F (using chiller)
Calcium - another one with fluctuating test - using the Hagen test I'm at 380-400ppm, using the NatuReef test I'm at 600 - it's driving me nuts
Ammonia - 0
Can someone tell me how the values look for a reef setup in the near future and also suggest a good set of test kits to use - I would figure Hagen test would be the best bet, but as you can see, they fluctuate way too much between each other - I expect some fluctuation, maybe in the 20-40ppm, but not 200ppm......
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!
Until I moved, everything was great, now, with the new water (which is tap water/city water) yes I know, RO would have been the way to go....I seem to be having issues with the alkalinity level - it's just way too hard in my opinion, but I could be wrong - which is why I need some advice.
The tank has been up for exactly 1 month now at the new place - kept all the live sand I had, live rock and the guys who moved it added new water and salt mix. Here are the water specs:
Sepcific Gravity - 1.025
dKH - 16 (with Tetra dKH test kit), 250mql (with Hagen KH test) and 19.2 (with fasTest kit) - so as you can see, it's up there
pH - low of 8.15, high of 8.20
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - under 5
Phospates - .25
Temperature - 79-80F (using chiller)
Calcium - another one with fluctuating test - using the Hagen test I'm at 380-400ppm, using the NatuReef test I'm at 600 - it's driving me nuts
Ammonia - 0
Can someone tell me how the values look for a reef setup in the near future and also suggest a good set of test kits to use - I would figure Hagen test would be the best bet, but as you can see, they fluctuate way too much between each other - I expect some fluctuation, maybe in the 20-40ppm, but not 200ppm......
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!
