Question for Canadian_Man

[Delphinus]

Do you test for Ca and Alk? What are the levels of these? Just curious ... you seem to have great stoney growth..

[ 29 May 2002, 10:22: Message edited by: delphinus ]

[Delphinus]

thanks smile.gif

[Canadian Man]

Hey Tony, yes I do test every two weeks.
Last test and many before have come out as 400mg/l calcium and alk ~8 to 9.
I cant seem to raise the levels any more than this but on the other hand i have not ever used a 2 part buffer. Only single calc and alk, so it always throws the levels out of whack if i start dosing these independintaly.

I am now just dosing kalk and with my sump i go through about 5g in 2 days. I am seeing if in the long term my values will be raised by just dosing kalk. Slow and steady.

I find with IO salt the above values are what i get when i mix it with my ro/di water. Dont know what the salt mix would come out if i mixed with tap water.

Hope my rambling helps.
smile.gif

[Tau2301]

Jon, here are the results of mixing IO Salt with calgary tap water.

I measured the Alk with a Fastest kit and used an Hagen kit for the Cal. I have always had what I think are low reading with the Hagen - that why the pour result I am sure. You would think that with Calgary's famous hard water the the Cal reading would be higher.

The salt mix has been cooking for the last 24 hours.

Temp = 79 to 80 deg F
Salinity = 1.0245
Alk = 3.5 meq/l
Cal = 260 meq/l

[Canadian Man]

Kim, That's an odd reading. how many drops did it take to turn the sollution purple? Did you shake bottle #2 very well?
I found that if i didnt shake bottle 2 enought i would get odd reading.

If i mix my IO with RO/DI (so nothing water) i get 380 mg/l calcium and 2.0meq/l alk.

I would assume with tap water it should be higher than mine came out to be.

Would be a good thing to find out.

[Delphinus]

Uh ... I did a test of IO of both Ca and Alk and do you think I can remember what were the results? DUHH

But, no way is is 200-something. If memory serves, it will be more like 380-390.

Let me test the values again and I will post the numbers I get.

[Tau2301]

Hi Jon,

It took 13 drops, but now I am questioning the size of the drops. As I am by nature impatient, I think I squeesed the bottle a bit giving me bigger drops. Thus the lesser number to change the colour.

Your right about shaking the #2 bottle. I discovered that before when I used to get realy wonkie readings all the time.

I am thinking of changing my Cal test to a fastest also.

I will have to repeat the test again at my next water change. In the mean time I will check the Cal level in my tank - I don't tend to monitor it very closely.

My Alk in my tank varies between 2.5 and 3.5 meq/l and I test this at least once a week.

I dose with Baking Soda, Turbo Calcium, and aragaMIGHT (sounds like a pirate on steroids) twice a week. Then just regular top-up water daily.

Oh boy did I ramble on...

[Canadian Man]

Yea i have been wanting to get a better test kit but they are so damm expensive. At the moment all my test kits are hagen. :confused: