AWT Results, Any suggestions?

[cd77]

I'm using half IO, half RC mixture right now while transitioning to RC.

Ammonia (NH3-4) 0.004 Good
Nitrite (NO2) 0.009 Good
Nitrate (NO3) 2.5 Good
Phosphate (PO4) 0.04 Good
Silica (SiO2-3) 3.6 High
Potassium (K) 355 Good
Calcium (Ca) 493 High
Boron (B) 3.7 Good
Molybdenum (Mo) 0.3 High
Strontium (Sr) 10.3 Good
Magnesium (Mg) 1239 Good
Iodine (I¯) 0.04 Good
Copper (Cu++) 0.03 Good
Alkalinity (meq/L) 3.12 Good

The two surprises for me were Nitrate (which usually shows much higher on my API test kit) and Calcium (tested around 400 on my API kit)

I am having a diatom bloom -- but my last silicate test showed 0.1.

Any suggestions for reducing Molybdenum and Silica? Are these levels commonly high in IO or RC? I'm thinking about purchasing a new RO/DI system with a silica buster, but don't want to jump the gun if my salt is more to blame than my water...

[reef_doug]

Just curious, was your past Silica reading from AWT and how long ago?

[USC-fan]

You can check out my test. I use RC and my Silica readings where high because my DI needed to be replace. I also plan to get a add on silica buster for my RODI.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1226849

[cd77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11060900#post11060900 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reef_doug
Just curious, was your past Silica reading from AWT and how long ago?

These are my first AWT results -- the original test I used was a Red Sea Silica test. The test was taken a few days before I sent the sample in. I'm inclined to believe AWT's results over the Red Sea's test given the diatoms are going into their 11th week.

[cd77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11061221#post11061221 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by USC-fan
You can check out my test. I use RC and my Silica readings where high because my DI needed to be replace. I also plan to get a add on silica buster for my RODI.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1226849

Very interesting! My Molybdenum is 3 times higher than yours, and my silica is also higher. What's odd is that my DI unit is brand new, but as I understand it the DI unit won't always remove Silicates. I'm still getting a TDS of zero after RO/DI.

Check out this post too:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=11042245#post11042245

I just want to be cautious about replacing my RO/DI unit (since the membrane is nearly due for a changing and is so expensive in comparison with buying a newer unit, I'm just going the route of brand-new through filter guys) before I've ruled out the salt mix as the problem.

I wish there was some word from DrBegalke regarding the AWT salt mix lab results as it would really help me make the decision.

[Boomer]

Any suggestions for reducing Molybdenum and Silica?

I have issue with these readings as far as AWT goes. Most salt have almost zero silica/silicate and Mo is usually about half that of NSW. It is not your RO/DI. More than likely it is additives added to the tank or they are giving bad numbers. Mo in NSW is 0.02 and you are 15 X that. If I assume it is really not Mo but MoO4, Molybdate, how it is measured by test usually, then you are 9 X. I just can not buy that tanks are 15 x or 9 x Mo or MoO4. Si is NSW is 3 ppm and if we are talking as Silicate and silicate.
particles then you are low.

No, form the other post question, I have not called them. I will this week :)

[Boomer]

I forgot, since when is Nitrate (NO3) 2.5 Good good :D. Reefs are around 0.1 ppm as NO3- or 0.02 as NO3-N. Deeper water can be for 0.5 - 2.5 ppm NO3- or .01 - 0.57 NO3-N.

[cd77]

Well, I guess for FO, 2.5 is acceptable :) I'm still working on getting those nitrates down. Unfortunately, the sump that my LFS sold me was designed well.. stupidly -- Pro Clear Aquatics sucks. I'm considering plumbing in a separate (additional) refugium. The tank is still new too so the DSB hasn't matured enough to help out.

Let me know what you find out from them, Boomer! As far as I know they're a fairly new operation (?) so input from experts like yourself may really help us out :)

At the time, I was dosing kalk and running phosban and occasionally carbon. Before that, the only thing I added (and stopped quickly after advice from fellow reefers) was PurpleUp and a SeaChem pH 8.3 reef buffer.

Around the 22nd of Nov., I'll send my next sample in -- the only thing I plan to do is keep carbon running regularly (800 micron bag in a baffle) and I'll run a phosban to see if it helps to get silicates down -- though I'm not sure how much it will help)

PS -- I'm PM'd DrBegalke to see if he is still alive -- no response yet!

[kysard1]

who is AWT ? Do you have a link ?

[cd77]

http://www.aquariumwatertesting.com/

[Ralph ATL]

actually, I think they are saying that a few values might not be as practical to match seawater, so they have come up with a few suggestions. Howeverm it really doesn't matter what THEY suggest, it matters if the results are accurate or not, then I can choose whether or not I should proceed from there.


Aquarium Water Testing - FAQ
Some of your values for natural seawater differ from what I understood them to be. Where did you get these values?
We took our values for natural seawater from several sources, including hobbyists’ textbooks, scientific papers, oceanography textbooks, and listings by various governmental monitoring agencies. In looking at these data sets, we found some fairly wide variability among some of the elements that we test for. Specifically we found that several elements differed not only by location, but also by depth. Given that natural, tropical reefs occur in rather shallow water, and are limited to the tropic latitudes, we felt that simply using the oceans’ average values did not effectively address those values that had the most pertinence to aquarium hobbyists. This was only true for a few parameters and in these cases; we decided to go with the recommendations made by prominent aquarium writers and researchers.

[Boomer]

That is all true what they said but we are looking at or should be looking at, levels on surface waters or near reefs, not in lagoons or the deep ocean. Most go by std seawater, known as Copenhagen water and as far as their given values on a few they are way off and scaring people.

This is a good guide

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

And this is a std seawater datas

http://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/seawater.htm

http://www.mbari.org/chemsensor/pteo.htm