drock59 Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 Ok, so doing a big water change today. Test the tank alk and it reads 8.3 dkh. Make up water reads 8.3 dkh....perfect. Its been churning for about 24hours out in the garage. Tested with two separate salifert kits. So i decided to test the tank Alk after the water change and it read 10dkh with both kits. What the heck is up with that? I dont like the swing in Alk. If someone could provide some insight into why this happened I would appreciate it so it doesnt happen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 (scratch) Not sure. I googled around to see what I could find, though... Found a site online that said difficulties in maintaining the proper calcium and alkalinity may be linked to inappropriate magnesium levels... Mg should be maintained at roughly 3x the Ca level. High magnesium levels are encountered by inappropriate supplementation and can be lethal to some reef invertebrates... Low magnesium levels, as in economy brand synthetic sea salts, have likewise been implicated in difficulties maintaining free calcium and alkalinity adequately. I also read that high alkalinity and high calcium levels are mutually exclusive. In other words, if you have high alkalinity, your water can hold less dissolved Calcium, so it precipitates and becomes depleted. With high Ca levels, the buffering capacity suffers... You might wanna check your sea salt to see how much Mg and Ca it contains. Does it have around 3x as much Mg as it has Ca? Did you put any additives in your top-off? ..Maybe your top-off water had too little Ca and/or Mg--substantially less than what was in your tank water--so when it mixed, the variance was enough that it lowered the tank's overall Ca/Mg levels enough to cause the alkalinity to fluctuate upwards. This is the only thing I could find thus far. Let us know what you find out.. I'd like to know what happened, too. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronjunior Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Here's a couple of good articles I've been using as reference for Ca, Mg, and Alk. Still trying to figure it all out. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drock59 Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 Thanks for the replies. This is not an alkalinity problem per say, its just weird that it jumped up. Magnesium has been an issue before and wouldnt you know my test kit just ran out. I was unaware that this would cause a change in Alk. Interesting..... Also, the salt I have been using is Oceanpure. Every batch that i have ever tested hit the number right on the mark as far as pH, Alk, Calc, Mag. I think i may have gotten a bad batch. I will be buying a mag test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drock59 Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 Forgot to mention....could it maybe be an issue with something in the salt mix like Boron? I know that Seachem had an issue throwing off Alk tests something like 20%. Never heard about that from Oceanpure but I am not drinking their cool-aid any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Boron also has a buffering affect, so I guess high levels of it could've contributed http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2002/chem.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringwurm Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 For what its worth I stopped using oceanpure after my boron levels went through the roof. I ended up losing about 1/2 my tank. The death stopped the same day I switched salt. There was a guy on RC that had the same problem I did. I'm guessing it was a bad batch of salt since alot of people use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 So does every salt company sooner or later have a bad batch of salt? It seems like it. Just a thought. Later Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drock59 Posted January 30, 2007 Author Share Posted January 30, 2007 Why cant some company have good quality control? I just want good salt, i pay whatever it takes. Ringworm, how do you know it was Boron? Do you have the thread on RC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringwurm Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 I picked up a boron test from waves which gave me the readings. All my other levels were perfect but my corals were getting fried by something. It was a sad sight. I switched back to IO and all is doing great. I do have to add magnesium since the IO levels are too low. Here is the thread on RC http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=927803&perpage=25&pagenumber=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 Ive never heard anything bad about Tropic Marin, Drock. I was thinking of trying it out. I think Patrick at Fantaseas might carry it. Do any other LFS'S? Last time I asked he was the only one. Later Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 So does every salt company sooner or later have a bad batch of salt? It seems like it. Just a thought. Later Ryan Almost certainly; after all, things that are under much tighter regulation than hobbyist sea salt often see 'bad batches.' Baby food, juice, seat belts, medicines, etc. I'm going to start testing the first mix from a new bucket for Ca, Alk, pH and Mg. Just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 Almost certainly; after all, things that are under much tighter regulation than hobbyist sea salt often see 'bad batches.' Baby food, juice, seat belts, medicines, etc. What I meant by all that is that I think its funny all the "bashing" that companies get from bad batches. Every single consumer product ever made or invented has had problems with it. Just like you said Andy. Later Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drock59 Posted January 31, 2007 Author Share Posted January 31, 2007 Of course every company will have a bad batch. I just dont want it! Literally all my caps and digitas died, two days.....bang! Ive been doing water changes and other corals look a lot better. Ringwurm, that thread is identical to what is happening to me. I wish I would have known of the issue so I could have diagnosed it earlier. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 No kidding. When someone else gets a bad batch, it's inevitable. When *I* get a bad batch, it's criminal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palani Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Nyles is having the same problem. Look at the emergency thread. It kinda describes the same thing, and he's using OP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael7979 Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Is there a batch # on any of your buckets of OPP? Curious to see if there is a connection in them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drock59 Posted February 4, 2007 Author Share Posted February 4, 2007 There are a bunch of numbers on the bag and box that it came in, none of which say batch number. Not real sure what to look for. If someone has a sample batch number I could try to match it up on mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael7979 Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 OK I have a brand new bucket of OPP. On the bottom right hand corner of the picture is a batch # A-16. Dan can you match that with anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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