Ca/Alk/Mag Mess . . . How to fix?

[gregzz4]

This may not belong in Shelley's post, but ...
And, this is a hella long post

I currently use IO Sea Salt, and batch # 11257 is being tested here

OK, I thoroughly hate testing

I just finished 3-1/2 hours of water testing my NSW, DT and RO
I don't want to think about how much test kit money I have just thrown away .....
Plus, after dinner, I still have to store some of this water for J&L to test and do a DT WC

Here's my testing info;

Each time I fouled a test with a partial drop I started over
I lost about 2 Alk, 7 Ca and 3 Mg tests, give or take ...
Plus, each time I got a reading that was outside the norm, I tested again

With the Elos kits I went a step farther than they suggest and rinsed the syringes with test water before taking samples

When adding the powder in the Elos kits, they state it's OK if not all the powder dissolves
With this in mind, I tested once with only shaking the vial after adding the powder, and tested again with the cap on the vial and shook vigorously
There was no measured difference between using/not using the vial cap
To confirm this, I tested the Ca in my NSW 5 times and all readings came in within 10ppt of each other

For reference, I bought both the Seachem Marine pH/Alk and the Seachem Reef Status Ca kits
I will never buy these again and I'm going to return these 2 kits as they are tedious and, IMO, unreliable
I don't want to turn this into a review, but I will say that I use Seachem NH3, NO2 and NO3 and find them easy and reliable
For Alk, Ca and Mg I will stick with Elos

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Quick question for those with really high levels of Ca...what are you using to test salinity? Is it accurate?
My Ca was up around 500 in an old tank for a long time. I was using a swing arm hydrometer that went south and my salt was at 1.036 for months. Ca was way high....just a thought...

Brad, it's funny you brought this up when you did as I did some more reading last night and checked my refractometer before bedtime;
After 45 secs it gave me 35ppt with the solution

Today, after talking with Jeff @ J&L, I floated the solution in the DT for 1/2hr and again my refractometer is 35ppt with the cal solution

It's safe to assume my tests are @ 1.025, although I only use a BRS ATO refractometer. But, it has been checked against J&L's current one, so it has to be 'close enough'

On to the test results

19g of NSW @ 79F and 1.025 Sg
Elos;
- Alk 11
- Ca 490, 500, 500
- Mg 1300
Seachem;
- Alk 11
- Ca 475, 475

DT water @ 79F and 1.025 Sg
Elos;
- Alk 7
- Ca 430, 440, 430
- Mg 1550, 1550

RO water @ 72F
Elos; big 3 all test to Zero

You will note my DT water is hi in Mg. That is due to me dosing Mg to eradicate algae
I am still waiting for the Mg to drop
After the effects of my last round of dosing Mg I will not be doing it again anytime soon as it threw the other 2 out of whack

I am now only performing WCs to keep my tank in check and have dosed Alk ONCE ONLY to bring it back to above 7

I feel this info is enough to prove my Instant Ocean Sea Salt is OUT OF WHACK
Go ahead and call me crazy now, will ya

Getting back to Shelley's original post ....

Check your source water and NSW as well
Do a big WC ( as Brad suggested ), test, test again, and just watch what happens

It took me over a month for my params to come back in to check after I dosed Mg