Alk Test ??????

[Nikkoli110]

Ok yesterday I went to my lfs (not really local but the best one near me) and while I was there, I was checking out the tests that they had. A girl who worked there came up to me and asked if she could help, and I told her I was looking for the alkalinity test for my sw tank. She says, dont you mean ph? and she went on and on saying all I needed to know was PH. I new I needed the alk test, so when she left I found it and checked out. I just did the test, adn it took forever. Its the nutrafin kh/gh test. It requires that you use a 5 ml water sample, and add drops one by one, and it tooks 22 drops, which equals 220 mg/l. That is way too high, right? I am so clueless about this. I did a calcium test and it came to over 500. My test doesnt go higher that that. I did a ph test and it is low at 8.0, last week it was at 8.2. I'm really confused, can someone help?? I don't know what to do next!

 

[Nikkoli110]

I think I might know what possibly could make my ph low, I just bought a ro/di unit last week and used it for my last waterchange, and have used it as top off water all week.

 

[this is me]

Get yourself some salifert test kit for easier and more accurate measurement.
I'm sure your alk test was wrong. 220meg/l is way way way too high.
Assuming you done the calcium test correctly, 500ppm is still too high.
What you use to test your PH? those testing strip are not very accurate but 8.0 is not low.
Here, have fun.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

 

[Nikkoli110]

Ok I did the calcium test and it came to 480. I did the alk test again, much more slowly, and it says that the amount of drops, multiplied by 10 = ppm. It came to 170. So that is in the acceptible range as in the article,

2.5 - 4 meq/L or 7 - 11 dKH or 125 - 200 ppm CaCO3 equivalents\

So I'm all set? I think I just did it wrong at first. The ph test is the dropper one, from Red sea. It says 8.0.

So I guess i'm ok?

 

[this is me]

yeah, you're unit is wrong in your first post.

 

[nunofs]

Actually, the units are correct, as mg/l (milligrams per liter) is the same as ppm (because a milligram of water is a millionth of a liter)... meq/l is a completely different unit, and the conversion above is correct.

Nuno

 

[this is me]

thanks for the correction Nuno.

 

[NateHanson]

Everything looks fine Nikkoli, but you'll probably want to let the calcium work it's way down to 425-450. 480 is ok, but a little high.